Top 10 Most Wanted: Stamps
7 confirmed so far
Mauritius 'Ball Cover' with 1847 1d red 'Post Office' stamp
Photo credit
This item, photographed before the sale.
Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1847_Mauritius_One_Penny_%22Post_Office%22_Ball_Cover.jpg)
Sold for
€8,100,000 (about $9.6 million), sold at Christoph Gärtner, June 2021 (as reported by Barnebys; USD is an approximate conversion)
SourceBritish Guiana 1c Magenta (1856)
Photo credit
This item, photographed before the sale.
Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Guiana_1856_1c_magenta_stamp.jpg)
- Printed by a local newspaper when the colony's postmaster ran out of stamps. Source
Japan 1871 500 mon inverted centre
Photo credit
This item, photographed before the sale.
How we rank
Ranked by the highest publicly reported sale of each item, in US dollars, as of October 9, 2026. We list only sales we could confirm in a published source, so some aisles show fewer than 10. Each aisle's scope is noted below its title. Our editors may leave out an item.
Editorial list. Prices are past sale results as reported by auction houses and news outlets, shown for information only. They are not appraisals, price guides, or offers to buy or sell, and they do not show what any other copy is worth. Private-sale prices are as reported and not verified by Showcase Rack. Photos marked "Representative example" show the same kind of item, not the piece sold. Brand, team, player, grading-company and auction-house names are used only to identify items; Showcase Rack is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll correct it.
