This was an issue the Post Office chose not to release - just 3 days before issue date.  However the NZ Post Office had mailed out many orders of these stamps for instance.  A few lucky collectors got them, and mostly offered them for sale.  A good % of them have already been sold to collectors, nearly all as singles or pairs I understand in the case of the booklet and coil stamp 45c values, as that is the lowest cost option.

One lucky recipient ordered a booklet of 10 x 45c, 4 x $2 and a mint set of 5.  I bought them all from him, and some from other sources as I, as usual, offered 'top dollar'.

He used one of the $2's on a letter to Edinburgh, and half the booklet of 45¢ letter rate stamps to pay local bills.  Then he saw media reports the stamps were possibly scarce, and via a Google search, found my article.  (If you search for 'Maori Kapa Haka stamps' - my column is the No #1 Google match.)  Check your kiloware - a postally used copy would be worth easily $3,000 in my view.

It does prove 2 things - (1) that some of these stamps were most certainly postally used in good faith, and (2) NZ Post did NOT contact all eight lucky recipients - as they have claimed.  See my October article - another recipient assures me she received no request at any time, from any source, to return her purchase.

These eight customers ordered these stamps in the normal way as new issues, at face value.  They were mailed the stamps by NZ Post, their credit cards were charged in full, and at least one started using them on normal commercial mail.  Some never received any advice these were other than a normal new issue.  There is no question whatever these stamps are 100% legally in the market.  NZ Post does not dispute that.

These stamps have now been accorded full catalogue status in NZ and the UK.  See the market leading Len Jury catalogue excerpt below.  The existence of these postally used copies was reported to me, and me alone I understand, from someone who was shown my article early in the piece.

Sets of 5 have sold in the New Zealand leading Auction May 2022 for $21,185, on an estimate of $12,500.  A First Day Cover has sold for $24,000.  (And already 3 have been sold at that price.)  They are now catalogues for $25,000 each.  The 45c self-adhesive can be directly compared in price and scarcity to the 1996 40¢ letter rate 'Teddy Bear' self-adhesive stamps.

Scott Catalogue states there were about 500 of those known to have been sold in self-adhesive, and they still sell for $3,000-$4,000 each when offered in NZ.  Decades on, their price has remained rock solid.  There were a LOT more of them sold than this 45c stamp.  Yet look what their retail price has settled at.

Another VERY valid comparison is the 1906 1d Christchurch CLARET colour (SG #371a) - also un-issued generally.  MUH copies of those have sold for up to $22,500 at NZ auction, yet a couple of sheets of these were issued - 100% of them to collectors - an almost identical number to these 45¢ stamps I am offering.  That is TWENTY times my price figure on these new errors.  In fact MORE 1d clarets exist than the stamp I am offering!

DO act fast on this issue.  You will get just one shot at it, at these prices.  STARS OF THE FUTURE for certain.

Lay-By is fine as always - we can arrange a schedule of payments over several months to suit your budgeting.  These price figures are WAY lower than NZ retail which is getting higher each year as supply rapidly shrinks, and news of their existence slowly spreads overseas.  And the NZ dollar has strengthened a lot against $A in recent months.

If you buy them off me you avoid a certain 15% GST impost upon arrival as a highly insured item, and the nasty new 3-4% "currency surcharge" plus bad exchange rate your credit card bank will certainly levy.