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 11 booklets of 10 of these stamps.  A few lucky collectors got them, and mostly offered them for sale.   A large % of them have already been sold to collectors, nearly all as singles I understand.  

A maximum 110 mint stamps can exist, but the real number is less than that.  One lucky recipient of one booklet was NEVER notified by NZ Post there was anything amiss with these stamps.  He ordered a booklet of 10 x 45¢,  4 x $2, and a mint set of 5.  I am offering about 10% of the world supply via this ad.

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.  

I feel it can be strongly argued these stamps should be accorded full catalogue status.  See the Len Jury catalogue front cover below - that is already occurring.  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.  I was emailed by the owner August 31 2006 when in Libya. It changed the picture on these stamps and their status entirely in my view.

Sets of 5 have sold in New Zealand for $16,000.  A First Day Cover has sold for $24,000.  (And already 3 have been sold at that price.)  This 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.  A decade on, their price has remained rock solid.  There were a LOT more of them sold than this 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 $NZ22,500 at 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 TEN times my price figure on these new errors.  In fact MORE 1d clarets exist than the stamp I am offering!  

Several dealers had examples of these "Kapa Haka" stamps for sale at "Kiwipex 2006" on November 2-5 2006 held in the Christchurch Convention Centre.  This was exactly 100 years to the day of the opening of the famous 1906 Christchurch Exhibition. 

I had just ten (10) copies of this 45¢ letter rate self-adhesive booklet stamp.  I understand there is one booklet to be broken up now and they are all off the market.  DO act fast on this. You will get just one shot at it, at this price.  I had not bought or sold or owned any stamps in this series until these ten, purchased October 12.

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.