World Junior Hockey Championship - Same Day Cover

Here's an interesting cover: ( ebay #181645450154)



The stamps, which are a Picture Post product, have the date and final score of a hockey game that took place on the date of cancellation.

How is that possible?

I know nothing about sports but - for discussion only:

1. The producer of these covers had a variety made up in advance with various scores
2. He / she got a hold of a post office cancellation device and rigged the cancellation date.

I'm going to go with No. 2: a mole at the Kelowna post office.
I wonder if that makes the envelope worthless?

Just how much time would be needed to create the cover? Kelowna is three hours behind Toronto. There could be enough time to capture a digital photo from some one and throw everything together. Of course there still needs to be someone at the post office too.......

No doubt the cover is back dated. That is quite common for those philatelic cancels, I saw it first hand at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

The turn around for buying Picture Postage stamps is less than two weeks or even 10 days from personal experience.

That leaves plenty of time to get the finished product on ebay by January 20, the date it was listed.

The value is whatever a hockey thematic collector is wiling to pay - it is no different than any official first day cover, they are never really cancelled on the day of issue or even in the "location" city.