More Philatelic Butchery

So sometime between February and September 2014 someone took a beautiful large-margined fault-free certified #9 pair and cut it into two singles, one with a tight right margin and the other graded at 85. I personally find this practice despicable. Has the advent of numerical grading driven an increase in this practice, one wonders?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/37184868324...RK:MEBIDX:IT

And in the case of this one, the bottom margin is too close for the stamp to have had any chance at being graded in the upper echelon anyway. An even weirder scenario almost, than where one winds up with a grade 95 or better stamp after the whacking.

When I sold my 1c collection a long time ago, I held back a rare strip of three stamps, one of which has a crease. Since it was one of two known vertical centerline strips from plate 3 (I did sell the other), I figured it would get chopped if I sold it. So I've just kept it, and have no plans to part with it. Its not really a grading issue with it, but a related issue where, in a multiple, some stamps may get cut off since they are damaged. I figure that whenever I decide to part with that item, its days are numbered. Its not going anywhere for now.

Would love to see a photo of your centerline strip.

alub - sure, I'll try to post it at some point. It takes me awhile to scan stuff and my time is limited, but I'd be happy to post it. It is a very neat item.

I think your Plate 3 item would survive for quite a long time. You just need to sell it to the right person. No self-respecting 1c collector would ever cut it up.

I look forward to seing the strip too. What are the positions?

A HUGE increase in such events since grading started. And on far scarcer items then this one.

Positions are 70-80-90L3.

I don't want to hijack dudley's thread anymore, so when I get to scanning this, I'll start a new thread.

on topic - I do feel that grading accelerated chopping up multiples, but it has been going on forever with or without grading.

FAR fewer multiples were broken up in the decades before grading. Certainly there were some, the idea itself is not new.

Check out Downeast's latest auction for several examples of this, starting with Lot 9.

http://www.destamps.com/main.htm

They have often had revenues that were the leftovers as well.

If a seller (typically a dealer) can make more money selling a pair as two separate stamps, they often do it. It's a business, right? That's too bad since this destroys the pair forever. I wonder if dealers give it much thought? Or do they just get out the scissors and snip away? I'd be a little reluctant. On the other hand, this dealer (who I've dealt with but can say little positive about) has just done what many other dealers have.

As to whether grading has increased the practice of cutting up pairs (as well as blocks and sheets), who knows? Remember C3, the famous "upside down 24c airplane stamp," originated as a sheet which then got cut into singles (and a block or two). As a business decision, that was the smart thing to do. This has been going on for years.

I don't have anything "graded" in my collections. In the situation here, do we know if NobleSpirit was the culprit? If so, there should be a place on the web where such vendors are listed. Much like Swedish Tiger's listing of vendors who sell fakes.

Jack Kelley

The thing I don't understand about breaking up multiples / strips.






As far as I can see in this strip the grade can't really be improved for the center stamp, whatever the mythical grade would be.

Jack, we do not know if the deed was done by NobleSpirit or prior to their acquisition of the item. But it gives one pause...

Not my favorite dealer, I'll say.