In late 1979, the USPS issued several stamps and postal items in anticipation of the Olympics, mere months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After that invasion and President Jimmy Carter’s call to boycott the games, the stamps were removed from sale. That quickly drove up demand for the stamps. Dealers were paying up to seven times the face value of the stamps. The day after the games ended, the USPS suddenly made all the stamps available through the philatelic Bureau. They stated it was to honor “the fine men and women of the US Olympic team who [had] sacrificed months and years of training.”