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For over 20 years, collectors of poster stamps have asked “Is there a catalogue?” With perhaps 500,000 different issues up to 1939, it is surprising that so few catalogues have been produced. Many “text only” catalogues, mainly of French origin, appeared in the early years of the 20th century, but since then there have been very few new ones. World Poster Stamps (WPS) was created in order to remedy the situation.

A programme to produce some 25 different catalogues was undertaken and to date 12 have been published. Of course, if, say, each catalogue had 1,000 images, this represents only 5% of the possible total. A hope, gradually being fulfilled, is that the WPS catalogues will inspire other enthusiasts to compile their own catalogues.

Click here for a list of the published catalogues and the programme for the next few years.

The other often asked questions are “where can I buy poster stamps?” and “what are they worth” or “what should I pay?”. A fundamental approach to the catalogues is to give a rarity guide. Rarity is not price but it does enable the collector to see, clearly, the comparative worth of one to another. This approach is useful for collectors regardless of their country and whether the price offered by a dealer is in £s, $s, etc. Of course, such a system cannot cope with the fact that, say, an Australian poster stamp is worth more in Australia than in Hungary.

One problem is “what is this poster stamp worth?”. As there are few poster stamp Priced catalogues, few collectors and even fewer dealers know which ones are common and what is rare. (Stamp) dealers tend to have two approaches. Some indicate a very high price for everything in case they offer something cheaply. Others price poster stamps as cheaply as possible as they have no interest in them and they want them out of their stock. Both approaches cause confusion in the minds of collectors and potential collectors.

In respect of the question “where can I buy poster stamps?”, there is a small but increasing number of dealers in several countries offering poster stamps for sale. We all seek to add to our collections and WPS have had to begin to offer poster stamps. Our stock is in excess of 100,000 (up to 1939). Click here for our Approval Service.