Nauru - Emergency Overprint Issue Of 1978

This set of stamps seemed to have caused a bit of a stir in 1978. They were issued without prior notification as stocks of definitives were running very low. Reportedly, 17,000 sets were produced.

I managed to find a dealer who had three sets and I bought them all. Other dealers I talked to at the time were very reluctant to talk price for them: One suggested a $100 and prices in this range appeared in ads for a while. The prices came down and now a set lists at under $20 for the set.

Does anyone know whether regular standing orders for this set were distributed. I presume they were, at least partially, as otherwise the delear I got them from would be unlikely to have had them. And given that Nauru has a total population of about 10,000, 17,000 sets seems a lot for an emergency purpose.

First lets clear the air about all the fun and games played on collectors for over 50 years by a group that includes Printers ,Governments , Stamp Agencies and stamp dealers who handle BRITISH COMMONWEALTH .

There is no reason for a country with 10,000 people who maybe ,yes maybe 200 people send mail overseas,{try finding real mail from those islands} do they need 17,000 overprinted for emergency purposes , it's a stamp dealers game being played on foolish investors .

Buy it Now on ebay are under $5. But try finding used examples.

I've just looked through about 40 ebay pages of Nauru and the sets of singles run anywhere from about $1.50 to $20.00. Why would anyone even think of listing at 6 times the price of another vendor. Block of 4 are going for close to $50. There was one set of used singles at about $12.

Regarding the philatelic bureaux, they would not be spending the money to sell to collectors if the collectors didn't want to buy. And it's not just British commonwealth postal admins that flood the market with too many issues. I also have to say that that since I joined SCF, I have been surprised that many mainstream collectors of, dare I say it, good stamps also seem to be interested in small island stamps.