Sierra Leone Gandhi Stamps sheets : How stamp printers and stamp dealers make money!!

Hello Gandhi Collectors,

In 1998, Sierra Leone honored Mahatma Gandhi by issuing 2 stamp sheet of him.

Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest.

After researching more about Sierra Leone I was surprised that even though Civil war was going on they came out with Mahatma Gandhi Stamp and Miniature sheet.!!

Between 1991 and 2002 the Sierra Leone Civil War devastated the country leaving more than 50,000 people dead, much of the country's infrastructure destroyed, and over two million people displaced in neighbouring countries; mainly to Guinea, which was home to more than six hundred thousand Sierra Leonean refugees.

The war was resolved in 2002 and restored the civilian government elected in 1996. On January 18, 2002 President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared the civil war officially over. Since then the country has re-established a functioning democracy.

So not sure who printed this stamp sheet. As there was no official goverment between 1996 - 2002 who gave permission to print this stamp.!!!!

I am also surprised after looking FDC of this sheet.!! To me this FDC looks like nothing but DIY (Do It Yourself).

Seller of this FDC is "Phillindia01" and selling for $14.!!

Now after all this stuff you can find OVPT stamp sheet of this.!!! Same way like Cameroun and  Togo stamps.!!

According to me this stamp sheets never made it through Sierra Leone.!! It is printed outside Sierra Leone and started selling on ebay and delcampe.!!!

Buyer beware of this kind of activity and before you  buy think that this stamps and sheets have any value in Philately.?  I don't think so. It only looks good in your album.!!  (BTW : I have in my album!!)

To me it looks like printers/dealers/reseller are making money on this.!!!  because printer and dealer knows Who from Sierra Leone is going to complain about this and if they want to then where they will complain.!!

Sierra Leone is the poorest country in the world, now you think do they need this stamp sheet ?

Do you think how many people can afford this stamp sheet?

Do you think this is specially printed for collectors like me and you.!!!?

Now do you think this will be value in philatelic collection.?

Again thanks for reading and  Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Thanks

Ketankumar Patel.
Shill Bidding on Gandhi Stamps

My First year experience in Gandhi Philately.

My 100th blog post.

Gandhi Stamp Collecting is SCAM. My 3 year experience tell me Yes!!

Why Cameroun Commerically Used Covers is costly?

Hello Gandhi collectors,

Recently (Feb 1st 2010) on ebay 2 commercially used covers were sold at very high price. This cover has Gandhi Overprint stamp from Cameroun which was issued in 1969 to celebrate landing on moon.

Following cover was sold for $250+ (US dollars).

Seller :- gorfa (Canada)
Buyer :-  bipin8 ( now speedbird1*) (UK)


I am not sure why they did this overprinting instead of making a new stamp?

Following cover also surpassed price paid for any Gandhi commercially used cover which was sold for $300+ (US dollars) also from Cameroun 1968 Gandhi(without overprint) stamp. Look at Maulik's blog post for more info. In my 16 months in this field this is most expensive commercially used Gandhi cover I had seen except 1948 India Gandhi commerically used covers with 10 Rupees stamp.

Following cover was sold for $450+ (US dollars).

Seller : gorfa (canada)
Buyer : nil101 (Germany)


Both covers has postmark cancel from sending and receiving countries. Also receiving country is USA where there are more stricter laws against postal fraud.

According to seller this registered mail cover was send from Yaounde to New York City. This first day covers were sent to J. & H. Stolow in New York City, perhaps the most important wholesale, new issue stamp dealers of their time. Either they arranged for a quantity of these to be produced, or the official in the post office sent these as samples to introduce an obviously multi-faceted topical philatelic production!

You can read my previous blog post about Overprint Gandhi stamps where I mentioned about J & H Stolow and overprint stamp which is itself a topic of further study.

Compare above cancellation on cover with following stamps and do more research.!!

Now my questions why this much money is paid for this kind of cover as they are made just to make profit at later dates (after 40 years!!)

Any comments are welcome.


Thanks
Ketankumar Patel.
My First year experience in Gandhi Philately.
My 100th blog post.
Gandhi Stamp Collecting is SCAM. My 3 year experience tell me Yes!!

Overprint GANDHI stamps

I was thinking that this overprint Gandhi stamps were error (knowing or unknowing) but I was not sure at all. Recently I came to know about J & H Stolow Inc. ( Julius and Henry Stolow).

This company was world largest stamp wholesaler until 1970. You can read more about them at wikipedia link which is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stolow

Following are some of the Overprint stamps of Gandhi.

There are 2-3 more of this kind of stamp from this 2 countries.

After reading about J & H Stolow Inc and doing more research I found out that
1) They were preparing stamp for Africa and other smaller countries.
2) They did overprinting of stamps
3) And lot more.................

One of their overprinting link is following http://www.stampnotes.com/Today_in_Postal_History/033156.html

Now after reading this link and also about the J & H Stolow I am curious about Gandhi overprint stamps from Cameroun & Nigragua which are currently selling from some european countries where this J & H Stolow has some roots.

Until now I was thinking it is good item to collect after reading from different sources but now I am confused after my own research.

Also I am not sure what is the real value?

If someone has any more info than please add in comments or let me know so I can update this and provide more information to current as well as future new Gandhi collectors.

Thanks

Note:-

I think this is anothe example of making money using Gandhi. This stamps are selling currently on ebay.com for 30-50 dollars and on ebay.in (India) it is selling for enormous amount which is some where from 2000-10000 rupees which is ($40 -$200)