This 1981 issue of Laos, Scott #352-354, is very unusual in that it is extremely
scarce in mint condition and yet Scott’s has it valued at only $2.35 in the 2010
catalog. Purportedly Scott’s lists the “retail value” of the stamps, but such is
a meaningless value when the item cannot be found for sale. Apparently what has
happened is that the initial price was provided in 1982 at probably about $1.00/set
and has simply been increased in value according to inflation rather than actual
availability. Consequently, any dealer who does happen to come across a set will
believe that it has a value, today, of only $2.35 while not realizing that this set
is extremely scarce and other dealers simply do not have it. I have queried hundreds
of dealers in the U.S. and Europe and have not found any dealer who has had the set
with one exception at a major stamp show here in the U.S. in 2006 where there were
200 dealers. Out of 200 dealers, only one had the set (of course, many do not sell
Laos at any time! But, even those dealers who did did not have it). Upon checking
with a dealer in Vientiane, Laos, he said that this set was very strange and that
he had only seen 9 sets since they were issued. Now in fact used stamps of this
issue are readily available, so it is surprising that so few mint sets exist. For
this reason, I have valued this set currently at $360.00, and have sold 2 sets at
$240.00 each. While I do have 4 sets available, 3 of them were acquired through
collections rather than dealers. Remember that this price is ONLY for MINT SETS.
Canceled stamps of this issue are readily available and are priced correctly by
Scott’s at $2.35 per set; but!!!, the mint set is grossly undervalued and should
sell for something close to $360.00, which is my current price.
