Maori cartoon stamp has owner laughing

Rotorua stamp collector Don Ion, who in May wanted New Zealand Post to withdraw this set of Maori stamps, saying they were in bad taste. It did, and they're worth around $2400 each today. Picture / Stephen Parker

Controversial stamps depicting cartoon Maori cultural performers, pulled by New Zealand Post earlier this year, have fetched record prices at a weekend auction.

The five cartoon-style stamps depicting Maori in a range of kapa haka stances were to be released in May. However, outrage by some Maori, who said the stamps were ugly and depicted the culture in a bad light, forced a rethink by NZ Post officials.

In June, New Zealand Post also earned the wrath of stamp collectors after it admitted around 500 were issued to a handful of collectors by mistake.

The oversight was expected to see prices for the stamps soar, a prediction confirmed at the country's largest annual stamp auction, held in Wellington at the weekend.

A set of five of the stamps, one of 40 sets accidentally posted out by NZ Post, sold for $12,000 at the John Mowbray Collectables stamp auction.

John Mowbray said the price tag was the highest paid for a modern stamp. The new benchmark set the average value for the stamps at $2400 each.

He said the stamps came from a collector who received 86 per cent, or around 430, of the stamps released. "I don't know who they are, but they are sitting on a million-dollar goldmine."

More than $1 million changed hands at the auction, with three stamps from 1855 - the first year stamps were issued in New Zealand - sold for $112,000.