The postage stamp “Russian warship” has become a bestseller of “Ukrposhta” (Ukrainian Post). A week later, less than 300,000 were left of the millionth edition, people stood in lines for several days to buy it. Now, stamps are hunted at flea markets, sold on the Internet and fakes are made. The price already reaches UAH 8,000 per brand. According to philatelists, such a stir around the domestic stamp is the first time in the history of Ukraine. And all past collections with military equipment were left practically without attention. Anton Drannik and Vesti.ua figured out how to distinguish a fake, which series is most valued and whether new editions will repeat the success of the “ship”.
Million on stamps
The excitement around the brands does not fall. Officially, Ukrposhta announced that it would not print additional editions of the “Russian warship”, which became the first stamp issued by Ukraine in wartime. The excitement was so great that at the end of the circulation in the central office of “Ukrposhta” in Kyiv, stamps with the “ship” were sold literally by the piece. It was possible to buy a block of six stamps only according to the “lists”, and no more than one in hand. How these lists were formed is still a mystery to many.
In general, from the first day, the campaign for the sale of stamps was overgrown with various scandals. Employees of “Ukrposhta” were accused of deliberately holding stamps for “their own”.
“We could have done everything differently. Because now we see that those close to us piled up these stamps in batches. And then it turned out that the stamps suddenly ran out. I don’t believe in it! Take even the banal throughput of post offices. Count: six stamps and at least five minutes per customer. They couldn’t just run out of stamps in three days. It’s not real! Therefore, I’m sure that they were held back, ”complains a philatelist from Kyiv Alexandra Movchun.
Nevertheless, all this plays into the hands of philatelists, as well as those lucky ones who managed to purchase a couple of stamps. According to Ukrposhta, by Friday, April 22, about 750,000 marks were sold. Another 100 thousand were put up in the online store, of which 60 thousand have already been sold. The remaining amount – 40 thousand marks – will be available for sale only after the end of the war. And according to Ukrposhta’s calculations, the company has already earned more than $1 million on stamps. And he doesn’t plan to stop there.
Ukrposhta announced the release of a new stamp “Russian Warship” in quantity of 5 million copies, as well as a stamp dedicated to the An-225 Mriya aircraft, which the state plans to rebuild after being destroyed by Russian invaders.
Flea market under fire
As Alexander Romanenko, a philatelist from Odessa, said, after Ukrposhta stopped selling stamps, a real hunt for them began at local flea markets. “I want to say right away: investing in these brands is something! During my time, one person lost a block for UAH 7,000, and in half an hour – for UAH 7,500. And then the shelling began, and literally under the explosions, when I I was about to leave, a man came up to me and bought a block from me for UAH 8,000,” Oleksandr says.
Note that the stamps with the Russian ship, although they look almost the same, have their own differences. For example, today the most expensive brand is the W series – for international shipments. On the Violity collectors platform, a block of such stamps costs an average of UAH 8,000. The stamps of the F series are priced a little cheaper today.
“I don’t know how it happened that people are willing to pay that kind of money for these stamps,” says the philatelist. However, according to him, when prices rise so rapidly, a collapse in prices will inevitably follow. “The release of new brands can serve as a trigger for this. But so far, the latest auctions show that brands are confidently holding prices and even going up,” he confirmed.
At the same time, according to Alexandra Movchun, the brand should still become cheaper. “The price of a stamp depends on the circulation. The smaller the circulation, the more expensive it is. It has always been like this and will always be like that. A million is a very large circulation. Insanely large! To be honest, I don’t remember such a circulation in Ukraine at all. USSR, when stamps were issued in millions. And now they are at zero price. They are sold for 1 hryvnia, and it is not always possible to sell them, despite the fact that 50-60 years have passed. Therefore, I think that the stamp with the ship will become cheaper. And significantly” , – says Alexandra Movchun.
Note that envelopes from the same series are also of interest and are traded at $20-25. On eBay, such stamps even offered several thousand dollars. Recall that the initial price of the stamps was UAH 23 for the F series and UAH 44 for the W series.
Beware: fakes!
However, these are not the only stamps that are valued by philatelists. But such a stir in the history of Ukraine is the first time. “If you take this stamp, this has never happened. During the war years, more than 20 military-themed stamps were issued, and it cannot be said that they were in great demand,” says Alexandra Movchun.
On one of тхе collectors’ sites, we found several offers at once, in which the owners of entire collections of stamps from the USSR offer to exchange them for one block of stamps with a ship. In general, as Alexandra Movchun says, there is no particular interest in other Ukrainian brands today. Only those that were released to support philatelists with a circulation of 400-500 pieces remain in the price.
Judging by the information on the websites of collectors, the most expensive vintage block is sold at a price of about UAH 23,000. The block of stamps “Gold of the Scythians” is estimated at 12 thousand UAH, and the sheet of postage stamps “Biathlon Team. Golden Relay Race” – 5.7 thousand UAH. Another valuable stamp is “Prince Volodymyr the Great” for 3.8 thousand hryvnias. The remaining brands are traded in the range from UAH 80 to UAH 1.5 thousand.
Philatelists hope that the boom with the “Russian Warship” stamp will revive interest in Ukrainian stamps. “But so far I hardly believe it. Future circulations have been announced in the amount of 5 million pieces. This is generally space! Be that as it may, the current hype is no longer caused by interest in brands, but by a banal desire to make money. Therefore, as soon as all those who stuffed his pockets with these stamps, they will be sold, the price will fall. And with it the hype,” summed up Alexandra Movchun.
In addition, as Alexander Romanenko says, these stamps have already been chosen by scammers. Therefore, in order not to fall for their bait, you need to shine through the ultraviolet before buying. “Real stamps should shimmer very beautifully,” said the philatelist.
