Since investing in stocks looks grim these days, you might try adding postage stamps to your portfolio. No joke. They could be the world's most valuable commodity by weight.
More than 3,000 sets of rare Chinese and Asian stamps - with a combined worth of more than HK$25 million - will be put up for auction by Zurich Asia's from August 13-15 at the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay.
Those made during the Cultural Revolution should make any serious philatelists swoon, said auction house director Louis Mangin.
One mint 8 fen stamp titled 'The Whole Country is Red' and printed in 1968 - the third year of Mao Zedong's failed campaign to reaffirm Marxist ideals - will make its debut on the market. Zurich values the piece at between HK$600,000 and HK$700,000.
'Very few items were sent from inside China to outside during that period,' Mangin said. 'Those stamps are definitely very rare.'
Other offerings include a pristine sheet of 80 'Golden Monkey' stamps. While not especially rare - five million were printed in 1980 - they have grown in popularity and full sheets have been known to fetch more than HK$1 million.