Stamp Condition Considerations.

The back of the stamp is one area where I'm willing to make sacrifices, particularly with some of the more expensive classic material. I'll take a fresh, well-centered stamp with no gum over a poorly centered or otherwise less attractive stamp with gum, every time. I'm much less tolerant of other flaws like tears or creases. I can live with a small thin if it doesn't detract from the appearance, and of course assuming I can buy it at a discount.

I understand the appeal of NH and am willing to pay a small premium for it in many cases, but some of the premiums for NH are crazy. If you're paying 2x or more for NH, you should mount the stamp gum side up, because at that point you're paying more for the back of the stamp than you are for the front.

Here's my take on it-When people come over to your house, do they walk down the hallway and:
take every picture of the wall to see the back of the picture?
Or do they admire and say 'nice!'
A well centered stamp with no issues command a price. I collect stamps for their beauty and yes the front means more than the back. Thins are a waste of time and effort.spend wisely and whom gets your collection after your gone will thank you.

I disagree. You're not "paying just for gum" or "paying for the back side that is not displayed" when you pay a premium for some NH stamps with full original gum. For many classics, you are paying for rarity and therefore greater exclusivity, or for the satisfaction of knowing you acquired something in the same condition as issued, basically unchanged after a century or more. That's desirable to many.

So I'm with dudley and revcollector on this.

In the end, to me it is value. MNH will always carry a premium. Early Canadian stamps list MNH at 2x the MH values. If the same stamp has no gum, the it is worth less than the MH value. But that value is not listed or inferred. So if you are looking at a catalog to determine value of a collection, MNG stamps would be considered faulty because the book does not list values below MH other than used. A well centered stamp with no gum would value about a MH stamp in VG or less. But it would just be a guess. If MNG was the same value as MH then why not soak all hinges off?

How do you value a faulty stamp? What about a pristine MNH stamp with a pin hole? Does a small tear remove all value?

I agree with CJ. It is the rarity and desirability of getting the better quality.

So I've been collecting long enough to know that there are as many opinions/standards as there are new issues from the Grenadines. So I agree with everyone who's posted so far; I just agree with certain people more. :)

I'm a general worldwide collector who is looking to fill Steiner pages up to around 1975. I Iike to buy larger lots / full random stock books and fill those spaces.

I look at the front and back of the stamps I acquire, and include the "best copy". A used stamp with a legible cancel takes priority, but an unused stamp is fine too.

I judge from the front of the stamp, rejecting tears and cuts. I'll include a stamp with a thin on the back if the front is unaffected. But I'll prefer stamps with sound fronts and backs. And I'll upgrade my stamps as I find better copies.

My concern with condition starts when I start buying individual stamps. Then I'm only buying sound copies, front and back.

But with bulk lots or collections, I find many people didn't care about the back at all. I'm working through 3 stock pages of Netherlands and am surprised by the number of stamps that were ripped off envelopes. Thins on the back, bits of old envelope to soak off, but fine appearance from the front. Since most are semi-postals I haven't seen before, I'm soaking them and hinging without shame.

Mark

I am currently replacing my early used US commemorative stamps (Columbians, Trans Miss, Pan American, etc) with mint . As I systematically do this through auctions and ebay, I'm blown away by the differences in price between a VLH and NH - in many cases 3X or more. I'll take VLH or LH any day. I collect for the fun of it and don't intend to ever sell so there's not much motivation to "go for the gold". I, like many on this topic, like the look of a nicely centered stamp on the album page. I also think the grading craze has actually made decently centered, LH items more affordable - they aren't as many people driving the items with LH prices into the stratosphere. When I see mint stamps from the 40's getting upwards of $25 or more because it has a PSG certificate I shake my head.

Replacing stamps in my collection is one of the main reasons I posted the topic. I had bought MH stamps for my Canadian collection and now I find myself replacing them with MNH stamps. Now I have a lot of MH stamps that I need to resell.

I doubt that I will ever sell my collection either. But I do need to learn how to sell stamps. I have lots of Canadian used stamps. My stock book is bulging. I have a lot of extra Hungarian mint stamps that need to be sold.

I enjoy hearing other people's thoughts on the subject of grading, condition and value of the stamps they buy. I do believe the catalog values for Canadian stamps are way off. I doubt that anyone is receiving anything near what the catalog value is on the stamps. I think that is what has caused me to raise my conditions of the Canadian stamps. But I see so many nicely centered old stamps with no gum, I want to buy them but my head keeps saying "faulty" because there is no listed value for the condition. I am trying to inventory my Canadian collection and there is nowhere to list the no gum stamps since there is no value for them.

madbaker wrote: "Thins on the back, bits of old envelope to soak off, but fine appearance.........I'm soaking them and hinging without shame." May we assume that you make pencil notations either in your album for these stamps, or keep an inventory of damaged stamps? I was very similar to your thinking in my early days of collecting. But, after college, and as I begin to specialize in certain countries, I came to realize that I needed to track these damaged spacefillers. Now that I'm in my mid-60s and have no heirs to receive my collections; other than certain charities like the APS; I'm more cognizant about detailing the faults to make the clean up job easier after I'm gone.

I do not remember the last time I soaked a stamp that was not on the cover of an envelope addressed to me. I do not buy on-paper stamps. I make pencil notations in my album under the stamp. I mark NH, H, PG, NG, DG, or DM (damaged). But it is rare that I add faulty stamps to my albums. I have started inventorying my stamps. I may not live long enough to finish that huge project. I jump from country to country to keep up my interest. I am 54 and have collected stamps since I was 10. You are never too old to learn something new.

Hi Climber Steve,

To answer your question, I put a notation in my catalogue if I have a stamp that needs improving. And if I do make the improvement, I make sure the original spacefiller doesn't make it into trading material, club auction lots or the like.

Something for newbies like me:
A Guide to Grading and Expertising US Stamps
http://www.psestamp.com/pdf/2009_Gr...e_092009.pdf

Some stamp collectors view their hobby as a personal escapist entertainment only. They can tolerate stamps in poor condition, for them it makes no financial difference.

Other philatelists take into account financial considerations. They want their collection to serve not only as a source of personal enjoyment but also as an additional source of income for themselves and/or for their family on a rainy day. These collectors should pay a lot of attention to the quality of their stamps, and to the prices they pay for them.

I collect classic (19th-century) stamps only. My approach (at least during the last 25 years) is relatively simple:

Absolutely no thins, creases or tears.
For imperforated stamps, always 4 full margins.
For used stamps, clear and readable postmarks, if at all possible.
Ideal centering is not necessary if you take it into account while calculating the stamp value.
Many classic stamps (German States, Italian States, etc.) are valued in catalogs in "no gum" state; therefore, it is perfectly OK to collect them if you pay a fraction of the catalog value for no-gum examples.
Never pay more than you can sell for in a hurry (that is, in most cases, more than 15%-20% of catalog value, if stamps are in very good, sound condition).

As to the gum quality, if gum is present, I prefer lightly hinged stamps to never hinged, because an absolute majority of the "never hinged" classic stamps on sale are re-gummed forgeries. Identification of the authenticity of the gum can be excruciatingly difficult, even philatelic experts often are dumbfounded and make mistakes in this area.

My opinion may be controversial, but after collecting, buying and selling stamps for more than 40 years, I am convinced that so-called "catalog values" have no relation to reality, and are practically never realized (with the exception of sales of expertized rarities by major auction houses to millionaire customers). It is almost always possible to find, with some effort and patience, most of the stamps you want for 1/10 to 1/5 of its catalog value, especially if you buy larger lots and sell duplicates afterwards.

Unfortunately, catalog values serve as a convenient tool of fleecing novice stamp collectors all over the world. Never, but never believe in catalog value, even if your stamp is in ideal condition and shines in the dark without UV light. Only rich people fighting for a particular rarity pay catalog prices, and even they prefer, if they are self-made, not to pay more than a fraction of the catalog value — they have become wealthy exactly because they don't waste their wealth.

Finally, I recommend to keep in mind that the more valuable stamp is, the more probable it is that this stamp is a forgery or a cheap reprint. You must know your stamps very well to make sure that you are not paying for nothing. Buy specialized catalogs. Consult with informative web sites and with other collectors. In some collecting areas (such as Heligoland, Luebeck, Parma, early Persia, etc.) 90%+ of the stamps on the market are forgeries or reprints. In many cases, only comparison of hundreds of examples results in certainty.

Some stamp dealers are honest, or, at least, try to be honest. Others are crooks. As a rule, the more flamboyant is the dealer's description language ("LOOK $$$$!!" "GEM!!" "LUXUS!!" etc.), the higher is a probability that such a verbose seller is a swindler. However, evaluate every case on individual basis. There are some good exuberant dealers, and some dry bad apples.

Here, I've said it.
Hopefully, my experience would serve as a precaution to a novice collector who reads this.

tvorog is a wise man speaking wise words. There are many reasons to collect from a financial perspective; and the opposite is also true.

I solved this dilemma by doing both. I have a 'fun' world-wide collection which I jump into when I feel the need to 'fill spaces', learn about history and geography, and otherwise lose myself for an evening. But I also have a number of specialized collections which are more investment quality; these are ones in which I have worked towards obtaining the best quality stamps that I can find/afford.
Don
APS #094826

The Scott Specialized Catalogue list values of lots of US stamps up through about #313 in ungummed condition.

Michel (for old German stamps), Yvert/Maury (for old French stamps), Unificato (for old Italian stamps) all list values for mint no-gum examples, under the "asterisk in parentheses" = (*) column headers. Hinged stamps with gum are listed under single asterisk = *. Never hinged stamps are listed under double asterisk = **.

Scott also lists values for classic no-gum mint stamps of many countries but Scott doesn't use asterisk symbols, for some reason.