A What Point Do Hopelessly Off-Center Stamps Become Errors?

I know that centering on some first issue revenues was problematic, but these are pretty bad...

In my opinion, an off-center stamp will never reach error status, no matter how off center it is. It will always remain a freak. Caveat: If the printed image is completely outside the perforations, then you will have an error.

Robert

With apologies to Trainwreck:

It is not that the design is completely outside of the perfs, it is that the perfs are wholly inside of the design. ;)

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Maybe at the point of having half of one stamp and half of another stamp together with the margin between them imperforate.

There might be an exception I'm not thinking of, but I don't know of any first issue revenues that are considered freaks because of extremely poor centering. For me, I don't want a badly centered revenue unless it has a super duper cancellation or a partial margin imprint.

It's not a question of whether freak perfs, centering, etc. are errors per se, but rather at what point are they viewed as being desirable rather than shunned. That threshold is different for everyone.

I like a good dramatic freak item... but I won't pay a premium for it. I may pick up an item that has sufficiently bad centering if the price is right. The ones above don't meet my standards for dramatic misperfing. They are simply poorly centered, in my opinion.

I tend to lean towards examples that show parts of two separate stamps.

Some examples that I have retained as being "bad enough":










P.S. Margin imprint captures are a hole different animal. Love 'em!

The standard is clearly subjective, and also subject to puffery by dealers, auctions or other sellers who hope to attract a higher price for a freak that therefore must be scarce. One possible objective standard is that the status of freak is achieved when the amount of misperforation is 100% or more of the number of perforation rows that define the gutter. For example, southpaw's 1c example (far right image) could be said to have gutters that are 2 perforation rows wide, and the offset in perforation is 1 row; therefore it is off center and not a freak. In revenuecollector's Playing Cards example the gutter also is 2 rows wide and the offset appears to be about 2 rows or 100% which would make it a freak.

Others may disagree but this could be one attempt to objectify what occurs in the market or in expertization. Objective standards are good for philately.

I don't consider any of these to be "freaks" except perhaps the ten cent certificate and even that is a close thing. There was so much trouble perforating First Issue revenues that a stamp has to be off by about 20% before I will even seriously think about it. Imprint captures are always nice, but I never think of them as freaks either, just as captures.