Golden Oak January Auction

I've been reviewing the Golden Oak Auction on SAN that dropped today for January 28-29. I see there is a plethora of USA 1920's-1930's imperf issues cut so that they get 100J certs. The majority of the certs are 2022 certs and where the submitter's name is shown, it is Golden Oak. You know the trick - take a block of 9 and cut away 75% of the 8 outer stamps, or a marginal block of 6 (think plate block in most of the cases, making a Pl# single) and cutting away 75% of 5 stamps, or a corner margin block of 4 and cutting away 75% of 3 stamps, thus destroying a bunch of stamps to get a 100J cert for one stamp. We have argued the merits of this practice numerous times, so there is no need to go into that this time (at least for me).

My criticism is that many of these aren't cut square to the stamp design! A bunch of these 100J's appear to be slightly rotated when cut. The cuts themselves appear to have opposite sides parallel. making the resulting jumbo a true rectangle, but the design inside the cuts isn't square to the cuts. I find it to be visually very jarring. The rotation is slight - perhaps 1/2 to 1 mm difference from one side of the stamp to the other, but visible nonetheless. If I were a collector of such 'created' jumbos, I'd be tempted to buy them, recut all the margins to 'square up' the stamp design relative to the margins, and resubmit for another 100J. In their defense, which I am loathe to do, they did make the margins sooooo absurdly large, that a recut to square up the design would easily still result in a 100J upon resubmitting. PLUS the process would add another 'unique' 100J to the population, making all the 100J's worth less, in theory.

If you are going to go to the trouble of destroying various imperf blocks to gain a single 100J stamp, PLEASE be sure you make your cuts parallel to the sides of the stamp design!!! Better yet, don't destroy the army to save the squad.

Also, I noticed a very large section of the auction is post-1940 stamps with high grade certs. You know - a (pick any 3c commem from the 1950's) with a 95/98/100 cert. In my mind, they are basically 25c retail stamps (I am willing to cede that they are worth the premium from face minus 10%) that have a $30 cert. I suppose there is a market for this type of stuff, but don't people know they can get stamps that are every bit as well centered for 99% less than they will pay for these?

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent.

I see what you mean Mooter. It looks as if they were just trying to fill a catalog but have a hard time sourcing it. Besides the PF graded stamp that I saw with a cv of $30 or so there are things like the stamp below that, since submission in 2008 has BADLY oxidized (no mention in the hyperbolic description).

The problem with cutting up blocks to make these 100J imperforate items is that there are collectors paying premiums for them. Maybe it's a convenience factor of not having to source their own block to cut up and send a single off for grading. Seems a bit ridiculous to create something that isn't really period correct.

... or perhaps, the valuation for non-scarce imperforate gems should be closer to the value of a block of 9... just sayin'.