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India 1948 Gandhi Specimen Set

shudsonshudson Posts: 108
in Stamps Forum
Hello folks,

This auction started on eBay for around $2000.00 and ended today for around $22,000.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270285813074&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=017

Very little information was given in the descrption, so I was wondering if one of the experts around these parts could explain to me why this set is so valuable?

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    StampAlarmStampAlarm Posts: 1,668 ✭
    Can you cut and paste the link so we can get to it easily?
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    shudsonshudson Posts: 108
    Auction can be found here...
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    StampAlarmStampAlarm Posts: 1,668 ✭
    Wish I had an answer but don't. Doesn't appear to be any hanky panky with the bidding. I'd definitely like the story behind this.
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    eduekuedueku Posts: 985
    A super rare presentation book maybe?
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    eduekuedueku Posts: 985
    I emailed the high bidder to ask him why the price was so high, just have to wait for a response. He does seem to know much about his country and philately with his dad being a collector too, you should check out his "about me" page.
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    shudsonshudson Posts: 108
    Interesting... I never thought to do that!

    Clearly someone is in the know over there. That turned into a pretty pricey bidding war!
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    eduekuedueku Posts: 985
    Maybe the pages are actually gold? !
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    eduekuedueku Posts: 985
    HERE IS THE ANSWER FROM THE WINNING BIDDER AS TO WHY THE GANDHI STAMPS SOLD FOR SUCH A LARGE AMOUNT:

    "Sir,
    Gandhi Stamps (the 1st 1948 series) were not printed in India, and were printed by Courvoiser S.A. a then printing firm in Switzerland. Only 50 folders were made available by the Goverment of India for distribution to dignitaries and celebrities, present at a function organised by Courvoiser at Geneva, Switzerland. Out of those 50 many of them have either the stamps removed or destroyed. At present only 23 such folders (with stamps overprinted 'Specimen') exists. For a die hard Gandhi collector its a prized possession. For your information the same set overprinted 'Service' is valued at more than US$ 40,000/- that is twice the cost of the Specimen folder.
    Any thing more need to be known as for Gandhi stamps please email me at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    Regards,
    Yogi Mehta"

    Guess I was right on the "super rare presentation book" statement I made on an earlier post.
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    shudsonshudson Posts: 108

    Thanks for passing along the info, edueku.

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    eduekuedueku Posts: 985
    Glad to have been able to help, I was curious too after reading of the price realized. It does make me wonder how many collectors of India there are to support such a high price when there are (23?) in existence. Must be a lot more well off India collectors then I would think that could or would be able to afford such a price.
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    KentuckyJKentuckyJ Posts: 1,871 ✭✭✭

    image

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