but even an optimist like me had to give up hope when the stream of labels selling for 10 bucks a pop were appearing in ads.   Tuvan stamps honoring Mike Tyson and Laurel and Hardy go Golfing?  Come on!  I admit I held onto hope for some time, but when the flood refused to stop and the topics got sillier and sillier it became clear to even me. Did the Grateful Dead start singing khomeii?  Maybe the Terminator and Madonna converted to shamanism, but Rocky and the devil from "Witches of Eastwick"? 

If these were a quarter a pop, I'd probably get 'em all for the heck of it, but they are expensive, aren't stamps and have the quality of Staffa and Dune labels (i.e. terrible).  Check out what they call a First Day Cover!

That said, some of these labels *are* Tuva-related and well done.  I believe there are at least two different "groups" manufacturing these labels.  For example dali lama, Khomeii festival, and Tuvan relationship with soviets/Chinese

Y2K Correction those other stamps are now known to be the semiofficial ones produced under contract to the Tuvan government by state printing houses in Austria and China.