​A Minute With Brian Austin

1.  How did you get into the hobby?   
My first job after college was working shifts in Dover Docks. Being a lazy teenager all I did until it was time to go and work was lie in bed! I needed a change and Richard Kennedy, now owner of Folkestone Stamps said there was a job going at Benham. I was interviewed by Tony Buckingham and a lady called Sherry but by the time I started, a month later, she had told Tony where to stick his job; I was thrown in at the deep end and here I am nearly 40 years later.

2. What do you like about it ?  
It is a corny answer, but I think every day you discover something new, and not just a cover you have not seen before, it might be a signer for one of our covers or, more recently, learning about the ins and outs of our new website and how to get the best out of it.

3. Tell us your best stamp related memory / story ?   
I think I will split my answer in two. With new issue covers, and because it is local, I would say carrying lots of the Channel Tunnel covers on the first journeys. On one day I delivered covers to the Royal Train at Waterloo via dropping covers off to Major John Howard who took Pegasus Bridge during the raids on D-Day. On the older covers, we were offered our best ever collection just coming out of lock down. We did not make our fortune, but nearly every cover in it was the best one for that particular issue.

4. What is your favourite thing about Stampex?   
I always look forward to meeting our customers, some of them I have known since my first Stampex at the Horticultural Halls in the mid-1980s. I am always interested to see what they have been buying around the hall, I think it gives you a good feel of current trends.

5. Do you collect? If so, what do you collect & what is your favourite piece ?  
I have been in trouble for this answer before, but no not stamps, I don’t think you can be a dealer and collector, or at least I can’t, I need to keep things black and white. Personally, music is my passion and I have a wall filled with CDs and am never happier than cuddling a warm pint at the back of a strange gig. In stamps, I am very interested in the life of postmark collector George King from South London. It is not about listing all the postmarks he did, as there would lie madness, I am more interested in him. For example, I have been given access to the letters he wrote to his parents during World War I. I can only work on it as time allows, but I would love for it to become a book or website at some point.   

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