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What Is Happening With Grading At The PF?

 
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Posted 05/09/2025   10:19 am  Show Profile Bookmark this topic Add rlsny to your friends list Get a Link to this Message
I don't understand this stamp getting a 95 grade in April 2025 (not mine - saw it in an upcoming auction). Is there a problem at the PF? Am I crazy?



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Posted 05/09/2025   10:59 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add revcollector to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
I am sure that it got measured, so the numbers must have equaled a 95. I don't know that I would have said more than 90, but....
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Posted 05/09/2025   11:13 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rlsny to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
With such uneven perfs I'm surprised it isn't reperfed
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Posted 05/09/2025   11:29 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add revcollector to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
I suspect that those are just perf discs, perfs in that era can be funky looking and still be genuine.
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Posted 05/09/2025   11:41 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rlsny to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Hmm - ok - maybe it's just the usual "grading makes no sense" issue. Right side looks reperfed to me. Top is a mess, but no technical faults. I just think putting Xf-S on an ugly stamp degrades grading. It's especially bad on such a common stamp where finding really nice well-centered sound stamps isn't that hard. I'll shut- up now.
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Posted 05/09/2025   11:55 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add revcollector to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Personally, I hate grading, it has destroyed many scarce, rare, and unique multiples. As far as this specific stamp is concerned, I am sure that the perfs were checked at the time.
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Posted 05/09/2025   12:44 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Mainer to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
it has destroyed many scarce, rare, and unique multiples


Hi revcollector - Just wondering how that happens? Are you saying that these stamps got graded low and so people tossed them?
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Posted 05/09/2025   12:46 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rogdcam to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Those perfs should have dropped it dramatically. The problem is that the measuring is technical but the deducts are subjective. And I believe that it can all depend on who submits the stamp.
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Posted 05/09/2025   12:48 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add revcollector to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
No, I am saying that dealers and collectors deliberately cut gradable stamps out of those multiples (and many common ones as well). Since some collectors lose all sense of financial proportions when buying those stamps, it has happened a lot.
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Posted 05/09/2025   3:20 pm  Show Profile Check revenuecollector's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add revenuecollector to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
While the stamp shown may *technically* be a 95 by measurement, it is aesthetically an ugly stamp IMO, due to the horrid perfs.

The very nature of professional grading is "Centering Uber Alles" and frequently disregards negative detractors.
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Posted 05/09/2025   10:43 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Cjd to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
We can all point to stamps where short perfs or a generally unpleasing eye appeal still scored a nice number.

Who cares? Buy what you like. Your eye can judge centering above 90-point accuracy.

If you need to invest in a stamp fund that only holds 100J examples, that's a separate issue.

If PF says a stamp is a 95, but I don't think it's nicer than my example, I'm not troubled, at all.
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