Jakarta 2024
In Pos Bloc Jakarta, the oldest post office in Jakarta, Indonesia, which was known as Kantor Filatelie Jakarta, the Asian International Stamp Show and Competition was held from July 3 to 7, 2024. This international expo was the most important event of the year for the region. Many postal administrations and traders were present here, including some from the Netherlands. A large hall was filled with many collections in a large number of frames.
Not so interesting for us, far too far away for a day trip after all, were it not for the fact that there was a nice collector's item for us to score. In cooperation with other postal administrations, a large number of fair-related issues were on offer. One such item was a block, or actually two blocks, depicting one postal motorbike on the two together.
The special thing about these issues was that you first had to purchase a "Philatelic Passport" to be allowed to buy them. With this passport you could then go and buy your fair souvenir at the various (country) sales points.
Now the event lasted five days, and Pos Indonesia had a very special plan for their commemorative issue. A continuous block series that could not be purchased all at once, but for which you had to come to the exhibition every day the event was held. On each day one block was sold.
The edition was relatively small, 1000 blocks per day, and therefore the stock was quickly sold out every day. Consequently it was useless to go only on the last day, because then the four blocks from the previous days were no longer available. Only one block could be purchased per passport per day, and therefore traders en masse bought multiple passports to be able to serve their customers with this issue. Result: the series has already become a popular item, and for the sets of nominal Rp 150,000 (just under € 9.00) prices of around € 150.00 are asked and also paid. A nice margin.
The images on the blocks are in colour foil print, giving them a luxurious look. In the background, the roof edge of the building where Jakarta 2024 was held can be seen as a run-through image across the blocks.
The blocks also have the day of availability printed on them, in the case of the motorcycle day 3 and day 4, and an almost invisible serial number. Because the blocks were sold separately, there is almost no set to be found with matching numbers, and I have seen such sets offered on internet for almost $ 1000.00.
Now, a number of 1000 series of blocks does not seem much, but for this kind of philatelic souvenir it is still a fairly large number. There are commemorative issues known in editions less than 500, which are high on many a philatelist's wish list.
With the small edition, this series too will nestle in many philatelists list of missing items.
Hans de Kloet
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