One Last Time On Quality

Just got an order from the USPS Catalog. Would like an opinion/s. I sent a few things back last order letting them know I was not happy with centering. What does the family think of centering on this order? Thanks all.

Sorry. Did not know how to add multiple photos. Here are the others.











I am leaning on sending everything back just based on centering. Why would the Philatelic send me this? Are they just rerular postal workers without a clue? I would figure one would order the best from here? Thoughts are welcome.

Doug

The centering on the $19.95 Express Mail plate block is subpar. I know I would not be happy. VERY picky about my centering.

I don't order from them regularly, but I heard somewhere along the way (probably on one of these boards) that you need to place the order by phone and let them know you are a stamp collector. Apparently they ship more carefully and may have the best material set aside for collectors. Otherwise, I think they assume you're going to use them for postage.

Don't quote me on any of this, but it'd be worth a call to ask about this.

-- Dave

dkucyk - thank you SO much for starting this One Last Time thread.

I've been wishing for ages that we could stop wiffling on about the philatelically irrelevant question of quality and get back to the real business of purpose, rate, subject matter, usage, date, colour etc etc.

Would all members please respect this decision and make it the last.

I do believe you are free not to read any thread you do not want to read

Dave....I will certainly ask the next time. Never thought to.

Doug

Quality is totally relevant in my view and I congratulate you on bringing this up. Well done for being quality conscious enough to think about rejecting items that do not measure up.
Regarding quality... how often have we seen (here and elsewhere) some sad lump of a stamp that is only fit for the bin with the excited seller/owner stating quite seriously that it has a "catalog value of XXX pounds/dollars etc"?
NO IT DOESN'T ! That catalog value exists only in your dreams! The catalog value refers to a stamp that a company such as Stanley Gibbons will supply to you at that price and bears no relation to your sad specimen. Their stamp will probably have all the perfs intact, be decently centered, be Very Fine Used. See a pattern developing?

I propose that anyone quoting "Cat Val" in their postings should have their stamp/s "judged" by a panel of forum members (basically composed of anyone around at the time).
If the person's stamps is found NOT to be worthy of their "Cat Val" quote then the panel should be allowed to go to that person's house... AND BURN IT DOWN !... or, at the very least, take items of roughly the same value as the quoted "Cat Val".

Please, when thinking of quoting "cat val", that it is O.K. to have dreams. It is only the air in your head that allows you to rise to the clouds and fly off on your wonderful philatelic dreams.

I'll concede that the Grand Central Terminal plate block is vertically off-center and at the price, a consumer is certainly justified in returning the item for replacement.

However, I don't see where the rest of the posted examples would be considered off-center enough to justify returning the item(s) for better examples.

It seems to me where the horizontal centering is "off" may be due to whether you look at the image of the stamp itself, or include the date "2013" in the upper left corner. If you consider the date as part of the image, the stamp looks much more well centered than if you exclude it.

wt1....You bring up a point that I was going to but did not. Should we be considering that the date is part of the design then or not? Especially if the design has a defined border. Maybe that is a whole new subject for debate.

Doug

I normally do not consider anything written outside the main stamp frame (e.g., date, printer inscriptions...) when looking at centering. There will be a few exceptions, but in general no.

It's a minor issue with singles, but when you have plate blocks, the design frame lines will make the stamp appear off-center if you include the date/inscriptions as part of your centering criteria. My opinion.

Another example, usually plate number coil collectors do not consider the plate number at the bottom of the stamp when determining the centering.

I would not reject an otherwise worthy stamp simply because the borders are not quite mathematically equal. I would sooner have the stamp than not. Clearly there are limits, but even in some cases where the design runs off one or two edges they are nice to mount as an example of human imperfection in the process of stamp printing. Then there are the Egypt stamps deliberately mis-perforated for King Farouk. These are not cheap. It is also worth keeping in mind that many of the world's rarities are somewhat less than perfect. If I ever stumble across any of them they certainly won't be going in the bin, or back to the unwitting seller.

I realise that others have different criteria, and perhaps it is just me, but I like my album pages to have variety, mint and used together on the page, and stamps on piece to add interest. Maybe the odd postal cover or other item of philatelic interest. What I do not seek is page after page of perfect MNH regimented precision. However, I wouldn't have bought any of the stamps shown as I do not collect modern issues. Well, apart from the odd one or two that draw me because of their good design and intrinsic beauty. These sadly do not.

Terry

Here's another thought that I don't have a definitive answer to.

Stamps of yesteryear were often off-center because of human error in either the printing or perforation equipment; today's stamps are all done with computers and the computers (theoretically) center either the stamp printing or the perforation die cuts between each example. I wonder if that has something to do with the problem.

If the computers used to print the stamps are "looking" at the stamp, maybe they are simply recording all of the printed images to come up with appropriate centering and not "looking" at just the framed portion of the stamp, but the printed date as well. While I'm sure that human intervention could allow for an adjustment to such an anomaly, could it be that the printing contractors didn't bother with that detail? Could it be the USPS did not insist upon such precision printing as it could add to the printing costs of an already stressed USPS budget? I'm not sure how much this would matter in the overall scheme of things, but could it be a possible answer?

Any other opinions?

Hi wt1,

I think you may have it right.

Terry