What Is All This About Grading Stamps?

Here is an article by Ken Lawrence
A Dissenting Expert Opinion on Graded Certificates

http://www.virtualstampclub.com/grading_kl.html

Ok, it's almost 7 years old but really does "grading" deserve
a better reputation now .

Ken Lawrence is in my opinion one of the top philatelic writers.

I always enjoy his Spotlight articles in Linn's Stamp News.


I don't collect US stamps except for the new issues I
accumulated from the times I would travel down the States in the
sixties and seventies.
But I have never read anything as interesting and informative as Ken Lawrence's articles
about the usages of the Prexis and the Champion of Liberty issues.

A good article lithograving. A sane voice amongst the admirers of the king's new clothes. I always thought that the point of obtaining expert opinion in the form of a certificate was to authenticate a valuable stamp, or to distinguish between a valuable variety and its cheaper common brother. A common 10 cent value stamp with original gum and perfect centering will still be a common 10 cent value stamp no matter how much plastic surrounds it, nor how many digits are appended to it. P.T. Barnum would have loved these guys.

Terry

Well, at least the contagion doesn't seem to have spread beyond North America. I'd be truly fascinated to see how PSE set about grading classic Jammu & Kashmir:

Agreed. "A cheap stamp will always be a cheap stamp". Herman Hearst Jr.

Certainly true for postage stamps, somewhat less true for some of the more esoteric areas of the back of the book.

This reminds me of the sports card market of the late 90's when grading became prevalent. People were selling a bunch of prospect cards (I was a hockey guy) that were graded highly. It seemed like a great idea at the time and the market was flooded with crappy cards at high grades. Now people are sitting on graded gem mnt ramzi abid cards that aren't even worth the plastic they are in. I mean what is the real value of some of the stamps listed in this thread even if they are pristine? Who cares, buy any packet and you will probably get one that is no noticeably different.

Tony, my guess is those Jammu & Kashmir beauties would
get at least a Superb 98 grade maybe even a 99,
depending of course what time of day it was.
Although I don't think they do Indian States yet.

lithograving....c'mon....you know they dont grade 99s any more.
98 or 100s...

Well, I'd be outraged if they graded less than 98 ...