1969 was 100th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and lot of countries honored him for his Human Rights, Non-Violence and Peace achievements by issuing stamp of him.
India issued large quantity of 4 different Gandhi Stamps of 20 paisa, 75 paisa, 1 Rupee and 5 Rupees. All 4 stamps are with different theme, size and pictures on it.
Now if you see following screenshot from ebay, you will be surprised about pricing of this FDC with 4 stamps. It was sold for 0.25 UK pounds (39 US cents or 20 Rupees).
Now you can see that after 42+ years, FDC with 4 stamps whose face value was Rs. 7 in 1969 was sold only for 20 Rs. This means that it did not appreciated if you count compound interest from 1969 - 2011.!!
It's very sad to see this kind of valuation of this FDC with very nice Gandhi Stamps on it.
I think such a low appreciation is due to large number of Gandhi Stamps and FDC issued in 1969.
But main reason I think is because stamps collections world wide is declining as there are other interesting hobbies for kids such as video games, computer board games, internet games (zynga, world of warcraft, internet chess, monopoly etc) and Internet communications such as email, social networking (facebook, linkedin) etc which will give them advance communications and skills required to 21st century then old hobby like collection of just stamps and fdc. I am seeing this trend also in collection of cards baseball, basketball, soccer etc. Also pen pals which was a great source of stamp collection is also obsolete because of internet social networking.
Also because of all Forgery, SCAM, FAKE stamps and philatelic materials I think less and less people are not interested in stamp collections and experienced philatelist is also growing up in age and there kids are less interested in stamps because of the all above reason.
So I think stamp collection hobby is declining including Gandhi Stamps.!!!
So before you buy any stamps or philatelic materials think twice what are going in to. Make sure you not accumulating someone junk as a treasure.!!
After reading above link, don't you think pricing of stamps are going down.
Again thanks for reading and Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Ketan,
ReplyDeleteAgain I refute what you are saying. Here is why.
It's a supply and demand. Specifically with India Gandhi 1969 FDCs were issued in such large quantities that probably collectors have multiples of such.
The collecting community if niche and finite. You cannot expect a FDC to keep fetching exorbitant prices.
Currently the Gandhi collectibles is very much alive and thriving. If you look outside of ebay auctions where the core of the auctions in the philatelic world happen you would see the difference. If you would like to see those auctions, visit http://www.stampcircuit.com/
Ebay is auction/store front for small time dealers and sellers which I said does not represent the entire community.
Hope this helps for the readers.
Regards,
Maulik
Hello Maulik,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
I agree with your Ebay comment that is is auction/store front for small time dealer, but that it the driving force behind new upcoming collectors. If internet auction sites was not there then I don't think there will such as huge popularity of Gandhi collection.
My most collection is from ebay/delcampe only and if this sites were not around then I don't think I was in this hobby at all. So according to me this is driving force for new upcoming collectors.
Also because of internet auction sites some times pricing is going up because of Shill bidding on some particular item and some FAKE or Forgery item is selling on ebay/declampe site as there is no body guarantee after 45 days.!! and no one know real identity know to ebay.
Ofcourse Gandhi Collectibles is very much alive and thriving, but on some genuine rare item which some renowned collectors like to have in their collection. All other commonly available item value is not going up at all if you see recent transaction of Togo stamps, Ireland stamps and 70-80% Gandhi related item is not even selling on ebay/decalmpe which indicates me that new collectors are not coming in to this hobby even in Gandhi Collection.
Thanks again for your comment.
Thanks
Ketankumar