Blue Chip Stamps is a disaster under Buffett and Munger
AUDIENCE MEMBER: This one is real easy. My wife was a collector of Blue Chip stamps for many, many years. And she brought some stamps with her. What should she do with them?
观众:这个问题真的很简单。我妻子多年来一直是蓝筹邮票的收藏家,她还带了一些邮票来了。她应该怎么处理它们?
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, that — we can give you a definitive answer to that. Charlie and I entered the trading stamp business to apply our wizardry to it in what, 1969 or so, Charlie?
沃伦·巴菲特:嗯,这个问题——我们可以给你一个明确的答案。查理,我和你一起进入交易邮票行业,用我们的魔法来操作它,大概是在1969年,是吗?
CHARLIE MUNGER: Yes.
查理·芒格:是的。
WARREN BUFFETT: We were doing what then, about 110 million?
沃伦·巴菲特:当时我们的收入是多少,大约1.1亿吧?
CHARLIE MUNGER: No, it went up to 120.
芒格:不,上升到1.2亿。
WARREN BUFFETT: OK. And then we arrived on the scene and we’re going to do what, about 400,000 this year?
沃伦·巴菲特:好吧。然后我们登场了,今年我们会做多少,大约40万?
CHARLIE MUNGER: Yes.
查理·芒格:是的。
WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. (Laughter)
沃伦·巴菲特:对啊。(笑声)
That shows you what can be done when your management gets active. (Laughter)
这让你知道当你的管理层积极主动时,事情会做成什么样的。(笑声)
CHARLIE MUNGER: We have presided over a decline of 99 1/2 percent. (Laughter)
芒格:我们见证了99.5%的下降。(笑声)
WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. Yeah. But, we’re waiting for a bounce — (Laughter)
沃伦·巴菲特:对啊,对啊。但是,我们正在等待反弹——(笑声)
I would say this. The trading stamp business, as those of you who have followed all know, it only works because of the float.
我想说的是,交易邮票业务,正如你们所有关注过它的人都知道,它的运作完全依赖于浮存金。
I mean, there — a very, very high percentage of the stamps in the ’60s were cashed in. We have some years that we’ve gone up to 99 percent, I believe — we sampled the returns — because they were given out in such quantity.
我是说,在60年代,非常高比例的邮票被兑换了。我们有一些年份,我们的兑换率上升到了99%,我相信 — 我们对回报进行了抽样 — 因为它们数量非常庞大。
But, our advice to anyone who has stamps is to save them because they’re going to be collector’s items, and besides if you bring them to us we have to give you merchandise for them.
但是,我们对任何有邮票的人的建议是保存它们,因为它们将成为收藏品,而且如果你把它们带给我们,我们必须用商品来兑换它们。
Tell her to keep them. They’ll do nothing but gain in value over years. (Laughter)
告诉她保留它们。它们只会随着时间增值。(笑声)
释义:
Blue Chip Stamps(蓝筹邮票):
在1969年,巴菲特和芒格以1.1亿美元的价格收购了蓝筹邮票公司。当时,蓝筹邮票是美国最大的交易邮票公司,年收入约为1.2亿美元。然而,在巴菲特和芒格的管理下,蓝筹邮票的业务迅速衰退。到1983年,公司收入已经缩水到40万美元。
巴菲特和芒格对蓝筹邮票的衰退负有一定的责任。他们在收购后没有对公司进行有效的改革,而是继续沿用之前的经营模式。这种模式过于依赖邮票兑换,而邮票的兑换率在60年代后期已经大幅下降。
蓝筹邮票的衰退也反映了交易邮票行业的整体趋势。随着信用卡的普及,交易邮票逐渐失去了吸引力。