While Trying To Complete The US Airmails

I stumble upon this "Gem", I wonder if it will sell. Catalog value, 90¢

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Malack-C36-...em2ebac37689

And apparently that seller isn't the only one that feels as if they are justified in asking that amount.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/C36a-Superb...em5ae8af3b37

Why on earth would anyone pay PSE to grade a 20¢ Stamp ?

I think it was P.T. Barnum who said "There's a sucker born every minute!" which is what this offering reminds me of.

Actually, if you want a slabbed stamp and you want something certified as "superb" in condition, there may be someone who would pay a premium for such a stamp, but seeing that the stamp is all too common and the demand is all too low for it, I'd say that you'd be lucky to get 90 cents for it!

Of course, the $89 is a "buy it now" price, and I suppose anyone could offer a much lower bid to start ... after all it's a mint stamp with a face value of 25c, so it should be worth at least a quarter.

I sent in an offer of $2. I figured good centering was worth double catalog value. I'll bet dollars to donuts my offer is countered with something silly like $65.00.

Well, that space is empty on my Mint Airmail page. But I'm sure I could fill plenty of other holes for that kind of money.

Stamp 1 - Blunted perfs and still a Super98 rating?

Stamp 2 - The bottom perfs are bent upwards.

and... it would look kinda out of place on your album page in that stupid plastic slab.

I thought grading had died? PSE seemed to be on a "good thing" until the investors drifted off and collectors woke up.

You need very big and strong hinges to stick that slab to your album page...

Well, the seller of the $90 Stamp would not even respond to my offer of $2, it must have insulted him / her. So I continued about my hunt to find the C36 and I came across one that I felt would fit nicely in the collection. This arrived the other day for a Dollar and some change delivered to my door.



Now it might not be as nice as the $90 Stamp, but I certainly do not see an $88 difference.

Stallzer, that stamp would look great in anybody's album!

Are you going to send it off to PSE to have it graded?

I would, but I'm out of Stamps......

Looking at the plane in the US Scott#C36 I was struck by its similarity with the Boeing Stratoliner in the US Scott#C44 stamp. Its not so much that they both appear to be Stratoliners but they seem to have the same orientation on each stamp.

Dont get it...the slabbed stamp looks a little rough on the bottom. I guess I dont really understand how grading works.

The PSE "grading" has to do ONLY with centering. Imperfections in the stamp, creases, rough perfs, fading, etc., don't count. And this is why, in part, the whole scheme is the province of m----s.

I might add, the catalog value of the stamp doesn't matter either; if you can find a common 3c commem cataloging 20 cents, that will grade 98, 99, or 100, an opportunist will send it in, and some sucker will buy it for big bucks. To such optimists, good luck ten years from now...

Actually, good luck now. That common graded market crashed and burned a few years ago. I have seen auction lots with 3 dozen slabbed and graded Overrun Countries used as throw in's, just to add some artificial cat value (the seller did this, not the auction house) and be rid of them.

Not exactly true.

Copied from the PSE grading service portion of their site.

"The grade of a stamp has two principal components:

Soundness (the presence or absence of faults) and Centering the balance among the four margins) "