Expertising Stamps

Here is an example of a stamp that should be expertized:



Clark

Yes... although it was sent to the wrong expertizing company.

Same individuals see it. The PF is the only expertizing committee with in-house US revenue experts. Ideally, PF should have the fastest turn around in revenues, but I am not sure if that is happening.

Clark

Submitting to PSE, PSAG, and APEX will likely have the same eyes looking at revenues, but I trust the PF more than any of those when it comes to revenues, at least right now. In my experience when it comes to revenues, the PF is MUCH faster than APEX.

Here is a typical cancel from Hamburg, some of which are worth several times as much in used condition.

Folks in this thread as well as some others have expressed reservations about PSE's expertizing service. Since I have a fair number of stamps carrying their certs (ungraded and not submitted by me; came with the stamps when purchased), I am just curious as to the source of the reservations. Is it their expertise (or perceived lack thereof)in certain areas such as revenues, their obsession with grading, or are there more basic misgivings about the quality and reliability of their expertizing in general vis-a-vis APEX or PF.

Any comments or observations would be appreciated since I am contemplating sending a number of my stamps for certificates. I have only submitted one stamp to an expertizing service up to now - the most valuable stamp in my collection which went to PF.

Ok let's go with this R49b, what is the difference between a R49a, b and c ? We know they are a small price difference but what else

Oracle: you may find some of the information you seek in the other current thread: "How to remove a stamp from stupid PSE slab?" I made my comments about PSE and the grading "craze" there. Not going to repeat them here. Be well.

"Same individuals see it"

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE. OCCASIONALLY on specific items some extra eyes might do work for more than one expertising group.

PSE does everything in house, and they are not revenue specialists. As far as I have been told, the two revenue specialists listed as "other experts" have not done work for them in years, although they did at one time.
The people who look at revenues at the PF are different people entirely who are revenue specialists, myself among them.

As for that R49b, I would like to know how they arrived at their conclusion that it is genuine. To me, it's a 50/50 tossup because the margins are too small. It might be genuine, or it might be trimmed, and there is absolutely no way to prove either. It also can be made by adding perfs to an imperf, but that at least can be proven (and I would like to compare these perfs to a couple of really inexpensive stamps, say R44c and R46c, a much more accurate method then any perf gauge).

I collect U.S. I buy a lot of my new material from ebay sellers, and if the stamp I'm buying doesn't have a cert from either PF or PSE I will only purchase it if the seller will extend the time for returns to allow for expertization. If they say no I walk away assuming there is a a good chance the seller is, at the least, unsure about the stamp. Despite having collected for almost 60 years, I seriously doubt my ability to discern regums, reperfs, thins, fakes, etc..so a cert adds to piece of mind.
Also, another important reason for the cert is to ease resale. When the time comes to sell my collection I feel the 200+ certs I have will make the sale of my collection easier. I know there are people out there like myself who want to add to their collection yet feel unsure about grading/expertizing a stamp. This eliminates that problem

howell1018: thanks for your thoughts. I will offer that grading & expertizing are not the same. Getting something expertized is a query to make sure the item is genuine; the cancel is genuine; the stamp is or is not damaged in some way, etc. Expertizing appears to be your concern; it's also mine for questionable items, although I don't actively collect US. Grading is, to me, just a subjective opinion.

Expertizing and grading go hand in hand. The same person who feels unsure about their expertizing prowess is probably going to appreciate an expert grading the stamp. While I feel more confident about my grading skills I can see someone who is not a philatelist wanting to invest in stamps and not knowing a thing being able to do so with the aid of a graded cert.

I will agree that if you are submitting an XF+ stamp for EXPERTIZATION, it may behoove you financially down the line to ALSO get it graded at the same time.

However, I think most people's beef with graded stamps are the stamps submitted SOLELY for the purpose of grading, e.g., 1930s-1950s issues in the hopes of getting 95+ or J designations. These are stamps that do not require expertization. They're postage in any other grade.

If I send something for expertization, it is an item where I need to be sure either (1) it is what it is claimed to be, or (2) it doesn't have unseen faults.

The vast majority of stamps that people send in for expertization aren't worthy of getting graded, or the numerical grade would actually be a negative at time of sale (i.e., you're better off having an UNGRADED cert than having one where the numerical grade is below 75).

At the end of the day, numerical grades are simply not as embraced in stamp collecting as they are in coin collecting. The exact value of a stamp doesn't hinge on whether it is a 65 vs. 70 vs. 75, as it does with coins. In fact, the majority of the stamp marketplace has not embraced numerical grading at all, except at the very highest echelons.