8xu?? Certification Questions

I am wondering if I should submit this for certification? How do you determine if a stamp is worthy of a cert. and do I just submit it as a 8XU or do I have to determine it as a sub-category (i.e. 8XU1R)?
Since I do not know the value, should I let the Phil. Foundation set the value?

Jay

This appears to be a reprint. Is there anything on the back of the stamp?

I do not think it is the 1872 Seebeck reprint and it is not the 1932 reprint.

The dark blue (genuine) signature makes me think it is an 1874 Peets reprint. (Some where I read James Petrie had reprints made but these may be the Peets reprints and he was just selling then.)

As a reprint still worth a couple hundred.

I would not worry about a certification unless you are planning to sell it at auction or really want to know which reprint it is.

Very nice stamp.

Here is a scan of the back.



Jay

I can see that the top and bottom were replaced or repaired.

Paid Bill Weiss to look at this stamp.

His response


Now I realize that we all expect to get paid for our time but since he did not ID the stamp I feel that he should refund the money paid ($5.69 on ebay) NOT just a partial credit.

I know that it is only $5.69, and with the cert it could be worth a few hundred to a few thousand. BUT, I still feel slightly scamed!!

Nowhere on his ebay page or his web site does he mention that he may not make a determination and keep the money.

I ran a service business for 20 years and would look at the customers item and if there was nothing I could do, I would not charge them. Maybe I am just expecting too much when I expect the same treatment.

Jay

Did you buy it from him? If not why would he pay you for anything then? confused I suppose.

Jay,
That is your problem. You have a different business model.
Bill took the time to look at your stamp, his conclusion was that he could not ID it from a picture. You PAID for his time. He owes you nothing. Nowhere does he ever say any terms as to whether or not he will be successful in identifying it.
He told you to send it to him for positive ID, and to use his certificate service. $20.00 is cheap to find out what it is.

As for your 5.62, well that is what paypal charged you, he only got 5.00.

I have sent him things before and told him to ID it, and if it ID's properly then to issue a cert.
But you STILL have to pay for postage and insurance back and forth.

and btw.. no other service will refund you if they issue no opinion (which is what Bill did).

If you want to complain about Bill, you won't find any sympathizers here. Most of us use his service and are very happy with it.

Jay, PF was running a promo for a free first time cert. If you have never submitted to PF you might want to check it out and see if it is still running.