More Philatelic Butchery

Here is another example of butchery for the sake for a grade.
There were 8 stamps totally and intentionally destroyed to make this one stamp. I understand that the stamp is only valued at $3, but does that make it worth $110 that is bid on it? Can't anyone that has a block of nine make one just like it? How many stamps like this can be make if I cut up a sheet? How many sheets will get destroyed because of this one auction? If I buy this stamp for $2000, would there be any sheets left by the end of the week? What to do with all the stamp confetti left over? PSE should have refused to grade it because of the damage done to the other stamps just to stop this sort of destruction. What if it was Stamp #1 or #2 block of 9 that was destroyed to make a stamp like this?



https://www.ebay.com/itm/CKStamps-U....m1431.l2649

jaxom100: I agree 100% with what you wrote. Rather than a perfectly centered stamp, I would classify this as a damaged mutilated block of 9 stamps given that there are cut remnants of 8 stamps around this stamp. Damaging 8 stamps on purpose to make one so called perfect stamp is a shameful philatelic travesty of gigantic proportions. It is too bad that the relevant philatelic organizations aren't weighing in on this important weighty philatelic matter.

Alas, it's not their job to tell people what to do with the stamps a collector owns. In any case, this type of thing is far from new, it has been going on for many decades. The stamps around it were probably used for postage. Much as I hate this kind of item, the only thing any of us can really do is not buy one.

jaxom100, I agree completely.



Well said!

I am thinking this kind of nonsense-butchery is accelerated by all the collectors that are craving for 'grading' - in which centering seems to be the alpha and the omega. Had the grading-concept not been that largely affected by centering, this kind of butchery would probably be less 'profitable'.

PSE are totally to blame for this butchery as they have defined the criteria for a 100J. Personally I believe a perfect stamp should have a border that is half the distance between adjacent stamps as that is what it has been designed to be.

However it is you, the American stamp collectors that have encouraged this by supporting PSE, and continuing to send them your stamps for grading. It's simple really, stop using PSE until they change their policy.

Thank goodness this centering grading madness hasn't spread beyond your shores.

Does that mean all uncut press sheets are all graded 100?

I wonder what idiot cut this block of 6 from its cover (the seller, in response to my direct inquiry, claims to have received it in this state)?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NobleSpiri....m1431.l2649

I can see why it was cut from the cover. The cover had no address so I see no value in the envelope. It cannot even be a real usage without an address. I would have removed the stamps from cover and the paper. So I can see why someone did that. It changes it from improper usage to proper usage by removing the envelope, IMO.

I can see a faint address. The cover is perfectly legitimate IMO. It is a heavy double letter rate cover... a very common occurrence on these large envelopes. What isn't common is to see it paid with six 1c stamps. Too bad to ruin the cover.

Those large covers are a PIA. It would have been much better to soak the block off the cover and save the cover. I have always wanted to start a thread complaining about having to preserve these monstrosities as-is to protect that thin layer of gum between the stamps and the cover. It is one of those things that is really not completely rational.

For the record, I rarely take stamps off of covers. If I do, I almost always save the cover. Here are a couple stamps that I would love to remove from the cover but I have slavishly protected that thin layer of gum. The stamps are a tremendous vertical centerline pair of Scott #25.

Another great usage desecrated.
That's a shame.

It was probably a double 3c rate item - this being a scarce franking. Its not real easy finding Six 1c stamps on a cover.

That said, if it happened to be a wrapper or printed matter item, then we'd be looking at an even scarcer multiple rate.

It looks like your cover has 3 stamps, with one pasted over the right stamp of the centerline pair. If true, there are plenty of precedents for soaking stamps in this case, then hinging (or re-attaching) the pair back in place, and hinging the top stamp somewhere else on the cover, with some notation on the back, of the original configuration.

Plenty of covers exist as such, and I think its perfectly fine.

It's just two massively wide stamps. The way the stamps line up creates an optical illusion. I have shown the cover before and nobody sees it correctly.

Ok, so two wide single stamps - got it.
Its a pretty item.

I took these four stamps from a very ugly quadruple rate cover. I still have the cover, just not that thin layer of gum :) It is items like this that should make everybody study hard and then flock to ebay. I knew what it was when I bid and man, didn't I get a good deal!