PF Vs PSE Grading Experience

Yup. You must be the smart one. There is so much demand for a Zeps graded 85 that I find a whopping 7 C15's graded 85 in the Siegel Powersearch. There are 23 C15's graded 90. Finally, there are 69 examples that carried a grade of 95 or better.

This might take a minute to sink in so be patient. The low number of C15's graded 85 and 90 is not because they are more rare - it is because nobody fricking wants them! You don't need to blow a lot of money on graded stamps to know and understand the market. Sorry you thought so.

Your a funny guy Sinclair. "Nobody wants them" Priceless! Calm down my friend. I believe that your BP is elevated. Goodnight!

There is demand for everything. All I am saying is there is no great benefit to grading stamps that won't get high grades. I am clearly not the only that thinks that. Low(er)(ish) grades can even depress auction realizations.

I would like to ask that we move on please.
Thanks
Don

Hello,

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I know most of you don't like grading, but very often people ask if they should send something for grading. Why using the software as a first step? Is it just not good enough to get a realistic grading?

Grading is more then just the centering of the stamp.
Don

Yes, but PSE and other grading companies say that centering by far the most important factor. And if a used stamp has no damage, even more. So this not-allowed-to-name software would tell you already very much? So it would be helpful to know if it works or not.

"...by far the most important..."? I do not understand that; a great centered stamp supersedes having a fault?

Any software is on shaky ground for several reasons. There is no industry standard on grading a stamp, each organization/catalog sets their own criteria and/or definition, but centering is the one criteria where software can easily be quantified. Simply measure the margins, compare, and you are done. I guess this would be fine if the document that is then generated by the software states, 'This unidentified stamp is 99.5% vertically centered and 99.7% horizontally centered.'

It is 'unidentified' because the software has not looked for a watermark. The software has not evaluated the stamp for faults, it has not evaluated if the stamp is toned. The software has not evaluated if a stamp has been altered (reperf etc). The software has not evaluated the condition of any gum on mint stamps.
Don

Ok, thank you. No, of course I only meant stamps without visible faults, and mostly used stamps. And I don't think at all that a software should be used instead of the grading at PSE. I only wondered why nobody ever uses or mentions it, just as an additional tool. When it comes to exact comparing of the margins, many collectors often think that a stamp is perfectly centered, but measured objectively it's not. Here a software can help. But I agree and understand now that there have to made many steps before, and probably most stamp collectors then don't need the last step to use the software but then send it just in for grading as they know that it's worth.

Understood. Identifying a stamp before grading it is required unless the grading document avoids mentioning the stamp ID. And even used stamps required proper ID including checking for alterations (i.e. faked cancel).

Please also note that there are many imaging apps (Photoshop, PaintShopPro, etc.) that can be used to measure the centering of a stamp; simply apply a grid over the top of a scanned imaged. There are also a number of free or almost free onscreen digital calipers that can easily be used to measure and understand the margins of any scanned stamp image.
Don

Bill Crowe had an excellent thread on the subjective components of grading but I cannot locate it. Does anyone remember it?

You can find several examples of scans of C13-C15, in various grades, at http://gradedstamps.com. I would guess those shown above in the thread would be 80-90.

Matttodd1 - Thank you. Not sure what is up with this forum. A straightforward question is asked and I am dogged by people telling me I need to scan stamps, my stamps are not that good ( never said they were 95's), there is no market for the grade etc.. Strange days indeed. The question was PF vs PSE. How we got here is beyond me.

Grading always brings out a wide range of opinions; it tends to be either loved or hated. Since grading is usually done on stamps likely to be a 90 or better, and it only really increases the value when 95 or better, people usually assume that the money is not well spent if the grade is likely to be below that. Obviously that is a personal choice, but if I was thinking of grading these I would send them to PSE.

I thought the comment was do not waste money getting lower grade stamps graded. I am not saying I agree with this. There is a market for graded stamps but those who want graded stamps are after the best. There is a market for lower grades but grading does not create a premium.

I am not interested in grading but would accept it if included in expertizing service.