Where To Expertly Repair Stamp?

oldguy..

Thank you for your excellent response. I couldn't have verbalized it better myself. Anyone who ventured to visit our web page, may have read how we started in this 'business' in the first place. It was for exactly the same reasons that you explained. My father used to collect stamps as a kid. Unfortunately Hitler had different plans for the youth of the time and stamp collecting wasn't high on the priorities. He lost it all. When we emigrated to Canada, he once again started a collection but back in 1967, working for $2/hr and borrowing money from a bank to be able to bring the rest of his small family to Canada didn't leave much money for hobbies. So he was happy when he could afford to buy some 'expensive' $20 stamps at a discount, which he ended up sending to Germany for repair.

Many, (not all), items he purchased were 'space fillers' - because that was what he could afford and he was happy to have them. As a collector he was much less interested in the value of the item and much more in the story that was told by what was printed on the face of the stamp; although I'm sure he felt some pride when he was able to acquire more expensive items. Most countries at least designed stamps that showed their pride in people that were famous for their accomplishments and as such brought recognition for such to these lands. It was and still is a valuable history lesson if one cares to take notice.

The point I'm trying to make is that there are many reasons people collect stamps. If you are an investor with too much money to spend, you probably should be able to afford an expertising service if you don't have the expertise yourself. Or, as in the case of my father, he was trying to complete his collections as best he could given his financial means at the time. As he became more established, he slowly began to replace the heavily restored or damaged items with items of higher quality.

So, it ain't all about the money.


HungaryForStamps - you are correct - it was the royal "Our", (Anne Marie's and my), not the 'our' of the stamp community at large - although 'royal' may be somewhat undeserved :)

As far as realizing different possibly higher prices for stamps that are repaired or restored, I'm not really able to comment. Not that I wouldn't want to as you can see by the lengths of my posts but because I am of the opinion that every case is different. I would submit that for the most part, whether or not a stamp is worth more or not depends much more on the quality of the restoration than the fact that it was restored in the first place.

If someone brought an antique table to a carpenter to restore and he replaced the missing leg by nailing on 2x4, I trust the value would be significantly different than if it was restored by an artisan who created a replacement leg in all detail. But then so would be the amount of effort that had to be expended to affect the two repairs.


Crouse27...

re: "they (FCI) can be located by word of mouth"...

Just a comment... at least we are out there in the open and are transparent, specializing in stamps and covers. I have only found one other on the net in recent years and they claim to do much more that restore stamps. Makes me wonder what the 'other' guys' that can only be located by word of mouth have to hide... a back room abortion clinic come to mind...


Hans

Some years ago now I experimented to find out how easy or not it was to forge my loved Australia KGV definitive issues 1914 to 1938.

I picked expensive flaw where the ink was missing. With using common kitchen products I found it was extremely easy to make my very own expensive stamps. It really scared me how easy it is.

I have never trusted expensive KGV's with flaws again unless the stamp carried a trusted certificate with it.

In no way do I think or believe or insinuate that Hans is anything other than extremely honest but I can not say the same for all people that alter stamps to make them look like something they are not.

It is just too easy.....sad but true!

Hans,

Sorry, I thought the royal "our" was used by Pagoda (sorry to Pagoda too). I see he merely repeated your sentence and then responded to it.

"Never mind"

HungaryForStamps...

No need for an apology - It is all in good fun. Even if someone was to go after me in earnest I'd like to think that I can handle myself - like an old rhino, my skin got tougher with age.

Hans

There is a difference between items in a museum which will never be sold and items that can be placed in the marketplace without mentioning the repairs or restorations,

Pagoda

I'm not sure but I think I'm beginning to understand you. Selling repaired stamps without proper disclosure is bad, bad, bad. But, at the risk of repeating myself, I suppose most people now have scanners. Mayhaps I could make a suggestion? Next time, before you spend your hard earned money on ANY stamp that is more than a space filler to you, ask the vendor to send you images of both the front and back of the item, scanned at 600DPI or greater. Then, in the comfort of your own home, you can do exactly what we do - study the image blown up to 100% on your monitor. If there was any work done, I would dare suggest that in greater than 90%, perhaps much closer to 100% of the time you'll be able to see everything you need to see, save and except whether or not the paper or print may have the proper UV light reflectance.

You will see, regumming, repaired perfs, filled thins, faint or removed cancellations, creases, filled holes, painted in images - whatever you would like to see (or not) - if there is anything of that nature. You will also see if a stamp is in sound original condition and whether or not its size has been altered etc. etc.

That is called due diligence on your part. If you'd like to get exact sizes of the stamp itself or spacing of the perfs, diameter of the perforation holes and the like, a copy of Photoshop or other image manipulating program with measuring tools can be invaluable. I'm certain that many collectors have spent money on items far less useful than this. You may want to give that a shot for a while and let me know if I'm full of BS on that too!


Hans

If you cant afford or don't have photoshop, consider GIMP..It is a Linux based program, but there are versions for Windows and Mac..Hey,it is the best price..FREE..If anyone wants a link..just let me know...I have used it for years.

And I can send along a gauge.gif to do your perforations identifications on your computer

Robert

Robert... that makes sense to me,

thanks

Hans,

I think I have enough experience to tell if a stamp has been repaired or regummed with a magnifying glass without resorting to any other method however there are many who make impulse buys without realising that there have been repairs to the stamps or covers. They are the ones who are going to be fooled,

Pagoda

Pagoda

For what it's worth, we have always advised people to do the right thing and disclose the repairs. Unfortunately we can't make them do it. And, although some of my comments were related to comments made by you, there are other people reading them as this is a public forum never-the-less I have no doubt you are quite capable of judging whether or not any work was done to an item. People new to philately however may not know some of the "tricks of the trade" as it were and there may be few who may actually benefit even from my posts. Had I wished to give you a private lesson on this topic, I would have emailed you personally.
Hans

Education is indeed critical in making intelligent purchases. But to assume that education will always occur in the market place is naïve. Humans can be greedy and/or too proud to admit that they are not as smart as they think they are. 'Bargain hunting' drives some to make buying decisions that they should not make.

Now I doubt many will place fault on sellers for this behavior. Many times before we have seen, and heard, the adage 'Buyer Beware'. Heck, some here feel like they had to 'learn the ropes' and feel that others should learn the lesson(s) the same way.

But expecting every buyer to interface with a seller and ask for high resolution images, while a good idea, is not realistic. First, many sellers block contact of any kind on ebay (frankly that should be a warning sign). Others insist on posting only a front image. Some count on low resolution images to sell their material. Many have simply dropped all descriptions and rely only upon an image; leaving undisclosed faults and alterations up to the buyer to figure out for himself.

So the question remains; can a restorer remain above the issue given the likelihood that the repaired material will eventually find its way into the marketplace and be resold to less educated buyers? I suspect those folks who take the 'buyer beware' approach will say 'yes'. Others might say 'no'. This issue can be avoided if there was a way for even a less experienced buyer to easily identify material that had been altered. But some folks bristle at the idea of marking a restored stamp or cover.

In my opinion, a restorer does have some responsibly in this issue. They simply cannot look the other way and wash their hands of it by saying that they cannot control what happens to the work they do. They have voluntarily entered a business and cash the checks. A database, or some kind of accessible reference, would go a long way to in educating those who wished to do their homework before buying. Of course there are other ways to meet this responsibility. They could screen potential customers and do their best to not sell restoration services to those who improperly resell repaired material. Hard to do, but possible. They can step up education to their customers, outlining the role restored material plays and driving home the point of making sure it is properly identified in any marketplace. Perhaps a small 'certificate' that could be sent with each restoration that outlines the alteration. (No guarantee that this wouldn't be thrown out by the buyer but at least some buyers might then use it for future documentation on the altered stamp/cover.) And of course restorers could do a better job at educating the hobby via authoring articles that explain how to identify restored material.
Don

Hi Hans,
I have been reading this thread with interest and can see both sides of the discussion. My skills in detecting alterations to stamps are not that well developed. Would you be able to post images of a stamp that you you have repaired (before and after)? I would really like to see the changes that a skilled restorer can do to a stamp.

Cheers,

Stephen

Hans,

Have you ever noticed an item for sale which you have repaired/restored which is being offered without reference to the repair/restoration,

Pagoda

Don, I hear what you are saying, loud and clear and you make some valid points. I must point out as we have said numerous times before, one way or another, that we do the following:
- 1 advise people to disclose the repairs when selling
- issue certificates showing repaired items, front and back, before and after - now however on request only, as many people didn't seem to use them or care one way or another - (it does take a fair bit of time to produce them).
- we don't make alterations to items into something it was not at the outset but will restore an item back to as close as possible to it's original form
- and, we do everything possible to make our processes reversible. If anyone finds themselves in a position where they purchased one of our repaired or restored items and you feel you want to do the stamp community a favour, just dip the item in water and chances are quite good that everything we did will wash away and you will restore the item to its original damaged condition.

In my view, the above is where our responsibility ends. You yourself have pointed out various caveats to watch out for and advised buyers that these be considered warning signs. I didn't know of anything else someone would buy with reckless abandon and then refuse to take any responsibility for the outcome. It would be like having unprotected sex and then being surprised at a negative outcome.

To establish databases, track purchases and sales one the item had left our possession etc. although it might seem a good idea to some, would be totally impossible for us to do and track. With the billions of postage stamps in circulation I can't ever see that happening - even doing our small part would be an astronomical task and I don't know who would be willing to pay for our time. The government can't do it with gun registries, where items have actual serial numbers let alone us, where every item in an issue look virtually the same, and the only way to tell one from another is visually.

Hans

Hans,

your comment,

" If anyone finds themselves in a position where they purchased one of our repaired or restored items and you feel you want to do the stamp community a favour ".

I rest my case,

Pagoda