Opinions Wanted - To Trim Or Not Very Wide Arrow Margins

I find myself in possession of a few wide margin arrow blocks and I am wondering how to mount these. I would like to mount them in their 'natural' positions, top, right, bottom, left, clockwise on a page but the very wide margins on some of them prevent that arrangement, even with the page set up landscape (sideways) instead of portrait (normal).

Here are two of some of what I just acquired.....



I thought about trimming the margins down, preserving the arrow, in order to display them the way I want but I don't think I could bring myself to do it.

I don't think wide margins are any more desirable nor valuable than narrow margins but I thought I would see what other folks think .

Well, I think you are correct in that you are going to get opinions from this board. I'll start ...

If your intention is to make a nice display through careful mounting, then I vote for careful, accurate trimming. However, once done, you cannot go back. So if a secondary intention was to preserve the most value for your collection, then you just made a mistake.

I'll be easy ... I can go either way on this particular set of stamps. If it had significantly higher value, I say leave it alone at all costs.

The one thing I love about this series is the many ways these stamps were cut. Each is unique and different. I collect as many as I can just because they are different. I would not cut them but they are yours and the choice is yours.

In my opinion, the previous responses are both correct. Most importantly, if you trim the stamps, you can't go back and wish you hadn't. If it were my blocks I think I would create custom album pages to display them and simply leave them alone. It seems to me the different margins are an interesting study within themselves.

As I mentioned already, not only can you not go back if you trim the margins, but some future buyer may object to the idea that the blocks "look trimmed" and may not desire them for that very reason.

This all just goes to support the idea to just leave them alone. But since the stamps are yours to do with as you prefer, the choice is yours.

Personally, I think large margins have a more dramatic look to them. However, if they were already poorly trimmed by someone else, leaving a ratty looking or crooked edge, then I probably would trim it to clean it up. Otherwise I'd just leave them alone.

They both look like they've already been cut. Are they Farley reprints by chance?


-IBFS

in my opinion, if the margin is required to match the Scott listing, that is it being an arrow block, I would leave the margin as it came off the sheet. Trimming would be undesirable and depending on how much is trimmed would reduce the value.

I would not trim off the arrows as they would no longer be arrow blocks. I was considering trimming the extra selvedge only.

However, the opinions offered so far confirm my initial feeling, that being to leave them as is. In fact, I found that if I turn the album pages over so that the page border is on the back side I should have enough room to mount them as I want to.

Anything that makes your stamps 'more' than normal should probably be saved, I would think. Of course, it's your decision and yours alone. I would simply err on the side of caution - as previously mentioned, you can always change your later if left intact; once trimmed, that option is lost.

Large margins are more desirable than short margins on the Farleys....
Much easier to sell LARGE than small.....
DO NOT CUT!