Do People Toss Bad Certifications?

I would like more info on this PSAG outfit. From link provided by Climber Steve above I noted that head of this outfit (shoemaker?) was founder of PSE. Any info on why the guy left and started his own business ??? I assume there was either a financial issue or ethical issue? But I have no insight, just an assumption from a hobbyist (me) who owns his own business unrelated to stamps and knows talent doesn't just walk away from something they started without a good reason!

I avoid PSE and PSAG certs like the plague. I once bought three separate items in a Harmer Schau auction with PSAG certs. Two of the three either harmed me or the original submitter.

How do you define "harmed me or the original submitter........" ?

Harmed in the financial sense. One stamp had a defect which was not on the cert. The other stamp was a valuable variety that was totally missed. One of the examiners should not have missed it. The person that paid for that certificate lost money.

Thanks sinclair2010.

The PF has always had a core group of very competent professionals on staff. They depend heavily on experts who regularly drop in and go over submissions in their field. With their location in Manhattan that works well. I rendered opinions on items in this fashion way back. Multiple expertisers including PF staff examine items. They will hold things sometimes until the right expert comes by.

Q/ Why are you certain that the defect preceded the certification?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I was waiting for that question. It was a new cert. Can I prove that the defect was there when the cert was issued? Of course not. Anybody is free to ignore those odds but I am not going to.

Then why not preempt it?

There's no reason to not let us know that you thought about the time-since-cert factor ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I guess it is not my nature to try to qualify every statement or enumerate every exception, nor do I want to. I don't view this as a debate that I need to win on points either. For the most part, I was responding to an individual post. I stated that I avoid PSE and PSAG certs and said why. There is a reason why I see more bad certs from certain expertizing organizations than others. With that said, I do not promote any of them. As an alternative, I strongly encourage people to learn more and rely less on others.

Back to my original question. Does anyone have inside scoop why the founder of PSE left PSE and started PSAG? Someone must have some gossip on this?

As I understand it, Collector's Universe sold PSE off and new ownership did not include Randy Shoemaker.