What Can Be Done: From a philatelic standpoint, Paraguay is as little regarded as it is as a nation. Landlocked, poor, and with a small population, Paraguay flies under the radar. When was the last time you saw a news story on the country? Until twenty years ago, Paraguay was really two countries—a wealthy, largely ex-European corps of immigrants who owned the country and the vast majority—descended from the original Indian inhabitants—who lived as virtual serfs. Land ownership was highly concentrated, and the country was run, usually as a dictatorship, for the benefit of the few. Recently, Paraguay has become a rapidly growing economy, it’s growth largely based on growing the boutique crop stevia (a natural, low calorie sugar used in health foods) and what the Paraguayans call the “re-export of consumer goods” which is what most people would call smuggling electronics into high tariff Brazil.
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Paraguay has thousands of different stamps, and almost all of them are inexpensive. There are some crude forgeries of the first issues, but they present little trouble. Generally speaking, a country’s stamps have to be rare and expensive for forgers to bother with them. There are no Paraguayan stamps that fit these criteria. Specialists enjoy the many printing varieties on Paraguayan stamps, and collecting the airmails can be fun. Paraguay was one of the first countries to sell its soul to the philatelic agencies that buy control of a post office’s issues. They then produce hundreds of stamps, usually at high face values and never on sale for use in the home country.
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Specialty Catalogs: Paraguay has had few serious specialists of its stamps throughout its philatelic history. Accordingly, research on Paraguayan stamps is scanty, and the catalog listings reflect this. It is c
ommon to come across many more varieties of Paraguay that are not listed in Scott than one would find in most other countries.
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Specialty albums: The Scott specialty series is good for Paraguay, as it is for most Latin American countries.
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Availability of Material: Modern Paraguay is common and can be obtained easily. Most of the stamps were never closer to Paraguay than the offices of their New York printer. Classic Paraguay is hard to find. Few people collect the country, and few dealers stock it. If you like a challenge, putting together a highly complete Paraguay collection would be quite a challenge.
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Expense: The early stamps are hard to find and really quite scarce, even though there are few Paraguayan stamps that sell above $50, and all but a handful are under $10. For lots of search for your buck, no country beats Paraguay.
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Overall Grade: C