At What Value Do You Cert? And Why?

In a recent thread, a poster mentioned sending a stamp for certification for which they paid U$D 80. Not long ago, another poster mentioned that they send everything for certification that they value at over U$D 100.

Q/ Do you certify more than you once did?

Q/ Do you certify more often because you are more often buying from sellers you do not know?

Q/ Do you also certify items you've bought from 'reputable' dealers & auctioneers?

Q/ Do you have a fixed price point, above which you certify every stamp?

Q/ Do you certify for yourself? For you heirs? Surely, your insurance policy would only require a valid receipt for what you actually paid?

One wag has suggested that the growth of the certification industry has made for less-knowledgable collectors. Put another way:

Q/ Do certifications allow you to buy many more stamps, or buy stamps more often, than you would if you had to so more homework on your own?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

"One wag has suggested that the growth of the certification industry has made for less-knowledgable collectors".

Whoever said that should do some research into the history of the hobby. Unscrupulous people have been altering and faking stamps (or using other people's fakes)practically from the beginning of the hobby, and plenty of collectors were fooled then too. Since presumably all the old literature out there was written by knowledgeable people, there is a tendency to forget that the vast majority of collectors did not write articles, or even automatically belong to clubs back then, any more than they do now. And some areas take years of study to learn properly; no one can know everything.

As has been discussed in previous threads on this subject, everyone certs (or doesn't cert) for different reasons.

Personally, I cert for several reasons:

1. Given the rampant fakery in the area of revenue imperfs, part perfs, and proprietary roulettes, if the stamp is above a certain value threshold, I insist upon a cert or extension.

2. On Scott unlisted or possible "discovery" pieces, a cert is key in possibly getting the item listed.

3. If paying a premium for certain items, especially at auction, a clean cert provides confirmation that the item is sound/as described while you still able to return the item.

Great posts! I am learning so much from you guys. Way back when, I had one of those humongously thick Citation Stamp Albums from H.E. Harris & Co. Thought I'd fill it up. Hah. Later on, I started specializing in Canal Zone, BOB's, Revenues and early US. I was a stamp collector. Now, I want to become a philatelist. Thanks to all of you knowledgeable and sharing, caring people of this community, along with all the reference material presented herein, which I am filing off line, I just might become a philatelist.

Again, Thanks

I do like the questions from ikeypikey. They are some of my same. If we leave out fraud issues or lack of knowledge, how would you answer

If we leave out fraud issues or lack of knowledge than there is no real reason to certify a stamp except possibly condition if both the buyer and the seller are not capable of determining it.

I agree. There are just too many occasions when two certifying firms provide contradictory opinions on a stamp, that render the value of the certification worthless. I can't see much reason to certify any stamp unless you're ready to sell the item and lack of certification would negatively affect its resale value.

Well, okay, to be fair, it was the editor of a coin magazine, but I think that, in these respects, the hobbies track the same.

Here's the thought: Disposable income has risen faster than reading/study time in the G20 countries. People can build bigger collections, faster. Necessarily, many people are buying more & more things that they know less & less about. It would be difficult, I would think, to identify some area of The Collectibles world where this is not true, let alone ours.

Everything just got worse, because it has never been easier to jump into a new area of collecting less than 30 minutes after you first heard of it. Witness the snowy/bare mountain and open/closer horns in another thread; by now (a few hours later) we could all have bought ten of each, though we would know nothing about similar variations in these or other stamps, or how far apart the horns have to be to qualify as 'open'.

And, yes, everything is getting better, because we also have better access to more resources, including peer opinion in forums like this one, which is why nobody uses the certification services anymore. Oops.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

It isn't really the value, it's when I can't confirm for myself what I have. The only other time I would get a certification would be if I were to sell a rare stamp.


-IBFS