This brief article is dedicated to a series of very interesting stamps, that was purchased by me within the big collection of revenues in the 90-th. It is the series of entertainment duty stamps. Their history started at the Tsar time when the first series of VUIM stamps... >>>
Philatelists have the following hobby - collection of postcards, envelopes and other postal papers. Collectors of revenues have the same one, but subject of collecting is a set of documents: account sheets, tickets, cards, and others... >>>
It's a well-known fact that stamps are the brand of engraving art. It should be mention that many of stamps collectors collect prints of postage stamps on the envelopes and post cards. There are a lot of articles and researches in this area in the magazines and journals. But prints of postage stamps never to be compared with the prints of revenue stamps from the point of view of beauty and variety
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It seems that this is the best article of author. It has been pablished in one of the most authoritative journal for collectors - "Antiquariat" and dedicated to the most colourful revenues - stamps of WWI >>>
Last 2017 year become the year of new growth in prices for Russian revenues stamps. To tell the truth, “growth in prices” is a bold statement of course…
Just remember that 2016 year was the one with significant decrease in prices due to market oversupply – I mean sale of “One man collection” (owned by departed Victor Gofman from Moscow), sale of some Moscow charities collection, etc. Point is that all Russian non-postal stamps (coops, charitable ones, member fees) influence on the market of revenues.
Situation drastically changed in 2017. There were no good collections or sets of Russian revenues on market except sale of the rest of ex-Faberge revenues collection. This sale took place on some London’s auction (not too well known for revenues collectors). Anyway, 27 sets of revenues gave result of 17600 pounds + 20% commission. At that time, we saw the usual medium-level collection material on regular auction sites like eBay, etc. On the other hand, this medium-level collection material is the base for my statistics that I’m using for analysis.
As the result, we observed the high prices on revenues exposed on market in 2017. For instance, Simferopol’s judicial fee stamp (Barefoot, p.83, #2) has been sold for $135 in 2017, but for $109 in 2016. The same, 3 rub. savings stamp with “18..” (Barefoot, p.11, #7) grow from $20,5 to $56 and Archangelsk’s registration fee stamp (Barefoot, p.82, #1) grow from $16,5 to $45,1 for a period of 1 year. It’s interesting that there were no offers of good revenues in 2017 inside Russia. To the contrast, we observed huge number of rare charitable, and agitation stamps of WWI and Civil war time. For the first time some unique stamps appeared on the market, for example, high values of 1st set of St.Petersburg WWI stamps and Ladies' Club stamps, vignettes of aviation society IVAK, etc.
It’s a pity, but revenues price index developed by me based on information from outside international auctions. Revenues vary over a wide range of prices, but index accumulates the median prices for paired sales only. This allows us to avoid so called “white noise”.
The key picture is shown below. You see the change of nominal sale prices (in $) for revenues stamps reduced to 2010 year level. Really, market grew up on 30% for 7 years. Rarities do not affect that index (it’s hard to find pair sales for it). Mostly, medium-level stamps determine the result (typical average price for one stamp in 2017 is $38 only).
Besides that, you see the failure of prices of 2016 year. 2016 was the abnormal year falling out of the general trend for 2013-2017 years. By the way, the statistics of 2017 is representative statistics. 170 sales have been included in pair analysis. Before that, the most representative year was 2010 with 148 recorded pair sales.
Finally, the market of Russian revenues stamps is well-balanced and perspective in terms of long-term investments. 2017 year revealed that we have a good sales for reasonable in price revenues. This is the basement for the future grow in prices.
On the other hand, charitable and agitation stamps are the speculative material for investors at this moment. 2017 was the “BUY” year. It seems that in 2018-2019 situation here will changed and we will see the same market behavior like for revenues in 2016-2017.
