SHANGHAI: Stamp collecting has flourished in China in recent years, and the annual commemorative stamps based on the Chinese zodiac signs are now hot-ticket items.

China Post has released the latest addition to its zodiac stamp series and it was sold out in just 48 hours.

Said Wu Cai Hong, General Manager of the Shanghai Post Company: “The ox symbolises charging ahead - bullish, and I hope the stock market will be good, everything will be good, (and) the nation will be prosperous."

China Post began issuing stamps based on the Chinese zodiac signs in 1980, the year of the Monkey. And since then, the price of the monkey stamps has inflated more than 60,000 times its original value.

Said Zhao Shi Liang, a stamp investor: "The monkey stamps issued in 1980 was sold at 1 cent, but today, it sells for US$620. These Chinese zodiac stamps are received with long lines of queue every year."

It is believed that the Ox stamps will definitely increase in face value as there is limited supply.

"China Post wants to improve the stamp market and the profits of stamp collectors,” Wu explained. “That is why the retail scale of the year of the Ox stamps was cut down by 50 per cent."

According to the All-China Philatelic Federation, there are about 20 million collectors in the mainland to date.

If past experience is anything to go by, these stamps are worthy investments. Stamps from the 1950s have been sold for about US$88,000 in recent years, and stamps from the 1870s have changed hands for about US$700,000.

- CNA/yb