Viet Minh Commem Covers on eBay

Covers from the First Meeting of the Vietnam General Assembly in 1946 are being offered on eBay by a French seller (click here). The interesting thing to me is that he has a stack of these things.

Also offered are unaddressed covers with the Viet Minh cathedral stamps affixed and canceled, as well covers with the 1953 Telecommunications Festival stamps with red cachet (Richard Aspnes lists the cachet in both red and blue on his Commemorative Markings CD). Again, small stacks of these covers are shown, but only a single set seems to be offered.

I'm not planning on bidding, but I contacted the seller out of curiosity to see whether he accepts PayPal and ships to the United States. His reply, "Hello, bonjour. I don't accept paypal, but you can pay me with dollars and shit off paper in envelope - merci. BRUNO."

If you've been looking to pick up examples of these covers, the opening bid price is right (9 euros) although dealing with the seller might be interesting. Let me know how it goes.

Fake LKV Cover on eBay

Spanish eBay seller "annflo" listed a Lien Khu V cover with what are surely bogus Ho Chi Minh and Family Left Behind stamps, surcharged with new values. The cover is meant to be an artifact of the Viet Minh in central Vietnam during the early 1950s. Starting bid price is a steep $180. View the auction here.

Update: The cover did not sell when it was initially listed. On Dec 22nd this cover was re-listed with a starting price of $150.

Another similar cover was posted on Dec 15. It has what appear to be five bogus Family Left Behind stamps a cachet depicting Ho Chi Minh and a a North Vietnamese flag. View auction here. Update: the cover was relisted Dec. 25 at $99 after not selling. After not selling again, the cover was listed for $90 on January 5th.

More Bogus NVN Material on eBay

EBay seller 'archiguy' continues to list bogus North Vietnamese "local" stamps. Here's one from a current auction listed as a "Vietnam ANNAM Local stamp 1954 LKV 5 Ho Chi Minh".

Previous contacts to this seller to acknowledge these items as fake only resulted in him making his bidders' IDs private - presumably to prevent anyone from warning them to use caution. The seller has positive feedback so winners are either unaware of the item status or they are happy paying decent sums for bogus items.

Caveat emptor.