Stamp Repair Fraud

Some of the fun and games you find when you purchase large lots at auction . I can usually catch most of this while viewing the lot before bidding on the lot . But the sad part ,and what drives me nuts is when you got a ebay seller bidding against me for the lot ,they are bidding based on catalog value or you got someone bidding without seeing the lot ,but I already discounted out all the questionable stuff but they have no clue of the junk that was included in the estimate value .......more to follow .

More repairs ,love this stuff ,especially when the seller adds catalog values under each repair stamp ,so the casual viewer can see the value .Notice how much bigger the perforations are inside the cancel .

As everybody knows two halfs makes a whole .

MORE REPAIRS----

Those are some of the most inept repairs I have ever seen. I hope the seller didn't fail to mention that the lot included damaged material.

And German stamps! What an insult to German craftsmanship!

Repaired stamps will sooner than later turn into fraud sale situations.

Very much full on against repairs, of any description.

It is just simply wrong.

It's wrong if an attempt is made to hide the repair on both sides, which is an invitation to fraud. If it is obvious from the back it can be ok. There are many scarce to rare stamps that are all but unknown without at least some repairs. This is particularly true of certain kinds of revenues such as some match and medicine stamps and taxpaids. Because of the way they were used some are are extremely scarce or even impossible to exist without repairs of some sort.

Repairs are great when they are priced right. Generally between 2-5% of catalog value depending on severity and rarity of stamp.

I don't really see fraud here - just bad repair jobs. And it hardly seems worth the effort as these stamps in good condition can be picked up for a small % of catalog value.

I GIVE UP -----somebody just shoot me !------------------------------Do some of you ever read what I write ? I clearly said these stamps were put in a large lot that was up in a stamp auction and they where figured into the total catalog of the lot . THAT IS FRAUD ,by someone trying to get a higher price for their consignment --------shees !! why do I post anything ?

Jenny, perhaps the explanation is that some people just like to fix things up, get some satisfaction at repairing something to make it look better (not good, but better)??

Or these are practice repairs to help the repairer get up to speed in the craft.

Agree totally that it is total fraud. But the fraud took place in the marketing of the lot, not in the repairing of the stamps.

Repairing of stamps is neutral. What the owner of the repaired stamp does is where the moral specificity lies. A gun can be used morally or immorally. So can a toothbrush. Or a garden rake. Or a toasted cheese sandwich.

Color me confused. How can a few badly repaired relatively low catalog items affect the value of a large lot? The value of most large lots is inflated anyway, with owners claiming full catalog value for stamps which are torn, thinned, faded or otherwise damaged. Would you also call this fraud?

"The Case of the Toasted Cheese Sandwich."

There are many different types of people and even stamp collectors. Also, not everything is profit motivated. Many times its simply completeness or making things look nice or filling spaces. Where you or I may be concerned with price and quality, others may be rule by different factors, such as obsession.

I can imagine a likely scenario in which this occurred "innocently". Some relatively casual collector, maybe obsessed with filling spaces, had some damaged stamps. This person wants them to look nice for whatever reason (Felix Unger type, OCD, just can't stand damaged stamps, or a lot of time on his hands), decides to repair these stamps. He writes the cat value under each stamp (again obsessively) and does not make a habit of reducing the value for damage/quality (most casual collectors don't because its a benchmark still applicable when the faulty stamp is replaced). The collector keeps a current total of rough cat value for when he kicks the bucket. This collector dies and leaves it to his wife. The collection gets consigned and auctioned.

Sure, there are lots of ways to frame this story different, such as the auction house pencil's in the values, but again, who did the work? Maybe its someone's niece employed for the summer.