Where To Expertly Repair Stamp?

I have to keep this short , (if I know how), as I have to get to my 'day job'...

KGV Collector... haha, you are funny! Tell you what, should you ever decide to make use of our services, I'd be happy to mark your items with the nicest "R" you have ever seen. - NO charge of course!

Yao, (valjean) - no problem, you can send us whatever you are comfortable with - if anything. For the most part, we find we have the best success when given the liberty by our customer to do what we feel needs to be done.

Don (51studebaker) - believe it or not, we actually DO understand your concern and that of the philatelic community at large. In my young and foolish days I paid over $400 for a fake (a stamp with a fake overprint) from what I believed to be a reputable stamp dealer. ( I believe this company may still be in business but am not certain). Although it had some value due to the rarity of the original and quality of the fake overprint, I probably paid 10x its value. (I still have it somewhere). It was my inexperience coupled with my stupidity that allowed me to be sucked in and admittedly perhaps mixed with a little greed, thinking I was getting a "deal". That was well over 20 years ago and I'd like to think I've learned from my mistake.

However, the difference is clear in my mind as to the circumstance surrounding the above mentioned purchase. What I purchased was an outright 'forgery'. This is something we just would never even think of doing! - I thought I was buying a Ferrari, albeit at a price that was probably too good to be true, when it turned out to be less than a LADA. Comparing what we do to reselling stolen goods would apply to anyone who resells anything of value, especially old collectibles. Be it antique furniture, works of art, old documents or manuscripts, - whatever. Everyone, both as merchant or customer no doubt faces similar concerns.

I there is limit to what I as a restorer can do to prevent fraud. We have occasionally been asked to perform services that are blatantly suspect, i.e. removing cancellations. I don't know if it was a set-up by someone trying to trick is into getting this type of work done or if the person actually wanted it for their own purposes, which we're sure would not have been for honourable reasons - these types of requests are always turned down.

Also, there is a problem with enforcement. When you say about illegal activities on a rental property I might own - no matter what happens there, the best I can hope is that the police will deal with the problem once I call them. Speaking from personal experience, as I used to have rental properties, my hands were tied. I can't enter their private residence, I can't arrest them, I can't personally remove them from the property etc. Yes, I could have them evicted after a long arduous process if I have proof of illegal activities, which is another issue altogether.

I must correct you on how you quoted me - I NEVER said "yes our service will be, sooner or later, be used to deceive and hurt others" that is quite different from what I did say, which is "all of this material will, at one time or another, find its way back into circulation." There is a substantial difference. Besides, just because material will undoubtedly find its way back doesn't mean it is in a less than proper way. As you and most people on here know, much of this material gets left through inheritances to next generations. Most often, the people inheriting these collections know nothing of the value and more often than not offer it to stamp dealers who will pay them pennies on the dollar and yet people think they have gotten a deal - when, in fact, the value was much greater. Everyone must take responsibility - not just the restorer. At some point, I or Anne Marie also will no longer be around. As you well know, someone much smarter than I once said - You Can't Rule From The Grave.

I would suggest that for the most part we are talking about higher value stamps. This makes it unlikely items in this price range are picked up by some unsuspecting boy scout trying to get his stamp badge. When buying these types of items you either have the expertise yourself or use one of the expertising services. That's what they are for. In the end it does come down to the old truisms - If it is too good to be true, it probably is and Caveat Emptor.

Thank you for you offer with regards to the stamp data base. It's an idea we had kicked around in the past - it came down to a lack of time and perhaps mores a lcm of knowledge as to how to implement such a system. I will discuss this with Anne Marie. Perhaps we will take you up on your offer.


To ALL - as new members of this site we are not supposed to advertise and I've tried to abide by these rules. I will offer however that for experimental purposes only, we'd be more than happy for anyone to send us a space filler that we would repair/restore free of charge so you can see what the item looks like after. All hype aside, as with anything, there are limitations as to what can be done. We are restorers, not magicians. I trust however that your items will be returned in a much improved condition to how we receive them.

Back in the evening - off too my day job
Hans

This is a wonderful thread! I've learned a lot! And as a relative newcomer to collecting, I appreciate reading the various ethical concerns, in large part because my lack of experience makes it very difficult to know if a stamp has been repaired, generally speaking. I have, however, encountered quite a number of stamps for sale that openly disclose restoration or repair. Ususally, the stamp still looked very defective to me.

While I'm thinking about it, though: I see discussion about thins and gum. What does one do about a (fairly significant) tear?

Valjean, will the stamp have to be wetted in water to be thin repaired? Be careful FCI is aware that red color could be fugitive in water. This means the red color might easily soak out of the paper when wet. I am not familiar with the stamp to know for sure, but you want to be sure it stays looking fresh and vibrant too, otherwise keeping the thin unrepaired might be right way to go for best appearance.
Good luck!

Hans,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Please note; I used single quote marks to indicate that I was paraphrasing you, I did not mean to make it sound like a direct quote. I apologize for that. It is good the hear that you turn down obvious deceptive situations. As admin of Stamp Smarter, I am inundated with fraudulent listings on a daily basis, and this could be coloring my perspective on the scope of the issue.

An online database of your work, based upon catalog number, would not only be an excellent marketing tool for your business, but would go a long way to demonstrate your commitment to philately. I would envision a SQL database with a web page front end. Users would be able to search the database for a specific stamp that they might have a question about. Search results would include an image of the stamp.
Don

For what its worth, I for one fully support the effort to restore and repair valuable rarities, whether it be paintings, manuscripts or stamps. Its been going on for a very long time and no one seems to mind it in cases where there are only a handful of originals in existence.

1,If,only if there I has Creat a data base for save these repaired stamps on website,, I would suggest Restore center ask the owner first if he/she willing to present the stamp on the online database.
2,the restore center like FCI,they have to spend lots of time to do so,and they probably have hundreds of stamps to repair weekly,who is going to pay for their time?

You can ask anyone who send stamps for repair if they want to show their stamps online? If this policy being agreed,then I am afraid of the business of the restore center,not only FCI,but also others.. AND you ask FCI to do that,then what about other restore place? Are you going to let them doing so one by one?

Anyway,I don't support the database for presenting repaired stamps online.

A database of repaired/restored stamps might be useful for high value items. But I'm with Valjean that it must have the agreement of the stamp owner.

I saw a half of a stamp sell in an auction for I think $23,000

Coke is never going to take the sugar out of their recipe.

The very large part of Hans work unfortunately will be sold sometime in the future as the real thing and that is the sad truth of it.

Making registers for the stamp dealers and of Hans work on stamps will only help the very, very few people and miss the people that really need to know.

I am not much for words...But the way I see it..If I have a Scott #1 Canadian beaver stamp that has a tear in it..And FCI can do their magic and repair it..It is STILL a Scott #1 Canadian beaver stamp.

It is up to the owner to do the ethical thing.

Robert

I believe that some of these services offer a repair certificate that outlines the repairs that have been made by them on a stamp. If a seller is honest, then this repair certificate should be included with the sale/resale of the stamp just like an expertization certificate is used for other stamps. Also, as time goes on and old stamps start to age in different ways, they may require some type of enhancement/repair that may be necessary to preserve/conserve them in better shape.

It's been another long day... It's after 9PM our time but here I am.

I must say, I appreciate everyone's comments and thoughts on this subject. You all have valid points and believe me, these are all thoughts that Anne Marie and I have mulled over discussed at length. Now, I'd like to share our thoughts with you and give you an idea where our heads are at. The following thoughts, once again, are in no particular order:

- One of the reasons we didn't put up an on-line data base is that we we didn't feel comfortable publishing images of customers' possessions without their approval for privacy reasons, we certainly wouldn't have done so without their approval

- In the interest of transparency, we used to issue certificates showing the restoration work that we had done. We are not aware of anyone appreciating or making use of these certificates, so now we only do so on request for a $10 fee. All these tasks, as valjean so rightly pointed out, can be tremendously time consuming and frankly, we do not have the time. Not only because of the volume of work but because we also want to have a life!

- In fact, I was asked to attend a meeting of the board of directors of the American Philatelic Society in San Francisco back in 1997 for the sole purpose of discussing our restoration work. I did attend. The fine people running this Society told me outright that the certificates issued by us, FCI Stamps, are "worthless". I suppose an expert a thousand miles from us knows better than we, the restorers, who did the actual work. Perhaps they were right. I just think that showing bit of appreciation for being open and honest and not hiding in the back rooms of some major auction house, as has been suggested by some in the past, may have gone a long way in ensuring our trade was practiced openly, - as we do.

- We are (very) small potatoes in the overall scheme of things. Judging by the stories told about the number of stamps in circulation, which have had repair work done, ours represent but a small fraction of these. We have had the pleasure of working on previously repaired items and admittedly some had been handled in a less than professional manner. I can't speak for what these items looked like before but for the most part they were much closer to the original when they left our possession than when we received them.

- It seems to us that dealers and collectors alike are all over the map in their opinions when it comes to displaying images of restored or repaired stamps on an online data base. So, the thought occurred to us that since there are many philatelists who would support such a data base, why then should it only be up to us to list items we restored. I would suggest that, someone or better yet some accredited association, like the American Philatelic Society who are so righteous when it comes to this subject, could put up such a data base and everyone, amateurs, professional, collectors and dealers could all put any items that they found to have been repaired, restored, altered or whatever on line for all to see. That way, everyone who has an interest in keeping philately pure can do their part to make that happen. It would be the Angie's List or Yelp of stamp collectors...

-------------------------
To Polimom, tears can be repaired quite successfully, although one must remember that we are dealing with paper made of individual fibers, not metal that could potentially be welded back together. In spite of what I just pointed out, you might be pleasantly surprised as to what is possible.

Hans work has been talked about at the controversial end of his workplace.

It must be said that Hans would be a great person to get that piece of envelop off that easily destroyed ink on the printed stamp.

Or that piece of sticky tape, come hing, stamp stuck with glue to album or an accident with food etc.

And I am sure there are heaps other less controversial types of work that can be done by Hans to stamps that do not come to mind as write this as well I am sure.

We all partake in some sort of stamp salvaging practices in one form or another. It comes by the very nature of stamping.

How do the folks who are against a database feel about 'Car Fax'? Car Fax protects user car buyer from buying a used car which has hidden or undisclosed accident damage, rolled back odometers, and repairs. It collects this information from insurance data and police accident reports. (This is not data that can easily be accessed by the general public but I assume is somehow considered in the public domain.) What about the PF database? Are you against this database? Folks submit their property and the cert lists an image of their stamp for public consumption.

Obviously the owners name should not be published but assigning a 'number' to a repair, a short description of the work done, and an image would all that would be needed. As long as the customer understood that this would happen up front, I see no issues with privacy. If thi deterred a few of customers from submitting then questioning their motives might be appropriate. If nothing else it might be good if repair folks maintained this database privately, to be made public after they finally close their business. This would then at least give philately a knowledgebase of information that could be used to identify repaired material in the marketplace.

I acknowledge that is a very 'grey' area. I tend to err on the side of privacy issues and generally do not support a lot of 'oversight' from either the government of other types of regulations. But philately does not seem to be gaining ground and we all know what a great hobby it can be. I concur with Hans that a national effort to track repaired material might be a better approach then expecting each professional repaired to put this in place.

This 'grey' area has long lived in the antique auto hobby. I will always support the right for an owner to do what he/she wants with their property. But the sad truth is that as time goes by, fewer and fewer 'original' cars exist. Historians and students have a more difficult time finding original cars to study. Exactly how was that wiring harness routed when the car actually came from the factory? Well, good luck on trying to find a non-frame off restoration for many classic cars in this day and age. The car in my avatar was purchased from the original owner who had parked in a garage for decades while he was overseas. As such and when I purchased it from him, it was in factory condition other than paint. When I took this car to the Studebaker National Meet, I had 40-50 people standing around it while 'frame-off' restoration cars went ignored. Most folks wanted to study a factory original car.

Is this what we can expect for our hobby? We understand that repairing/restoring a stamp can greatly enhance the value of it in the marketplace. Will sometime in the future find us seeking 'post office original' stamps to study but have trouble finding them? Self adhesive stamps epitomizes this issue. We all know the difficulty in finding a post office fresh copy of the earliest self adhesive stamps can be.

The repair/restoration area of our hobby is one in which we should openly discuss and explore. It has some substantial topics which can greatly affect the hobby.
Don

Don, I hope you are feeling better and that your health is improving

I don't think you can compare Car Fax in any way to what you are proposing. If you buy a car with undisclosed faults you can lose your life. Needless to say, buying a bad stamp is only a sour financial transaction.

I believe we previously had this conversation, but I expect 100% confidentiality in any restoration project I consign, including not publishing details of what was done (even anonymously) on the internet.

I also think it's unfair to place any burden on restorers. Their job is to restore, not to report. In addition, I have a feeling that if restorers told their clients that all repairs would be published on the net, these restorers would soon be out of business.

Jenny,
Thank you for your thoughts, unfortunately they have started me on dialysis and my first session threw me back into the hospital for another week and in bad shape. Apparently the process of cleaning my blood chemistry left me unable to walk, hallucinating, and with double vision while also taking 6 orderlies and security guards to keep me in my bed. I also found out how deep my love is for my wife; who stayed by my side even though I was cursing her and saying unbelievable things to her during my delusions. I wouldn't wish this experience on my worst enemy. Thankfully I am back at home now and feeling a bit better. But I feel terrible for my wife; it is very scary to love something that death can touch.

I know the Car Fax analogy is not the best, but I could not think of another one in which data was gathered without the owner's consent. The comparison to the PF database is probably more applicable.

I completely understand your position and find it reasonable. This is a sticky privacy issue but the scope of it is revealed in your comment regarding restorers going out of business if a national registry were enforced. I see this as an opportunity to deter a potential problem, a possible chance to educate, and a way to improve philately in the long run. Realistically, it is probably a pipe dream. I know this but at this point I am a bit desperate to offer ways to make philately better. I love this hobby and want to see it thrive.
Don