Don't Think I'll Be Buying Anything "Expertised" By This Co.

so you don't think it unethical for a PSE employee to expertise his or her own submission?

rgstamp, I too hope I am right, not to prove any point but for the good of the hobby. I agree that there is a chance of unethical conduct anywhere, no matter the safeguards.

SPQR, in the case of employee submissions, I am assuming that APEX, PSE, PF, and PSAG would not allow an employee to expertize their own submissions. I am assuming that would be taken care of administratively in their "blind" process. If an employee expertized their own item it would of course not be ethical.

I see dealer CK Stamps has popped up a couple of times in this thread, I have bought from CK with confidence, am I to be Leary of this dealer or can I trust him, I have never personally had a issue that I'm aware of, but like I said in my introduction, I consider myself a novice, in no way am I a expert, just enjoy the hobby. Thank you in advance.

I know that when it comes to APEX, if an expertiser receives an item to expertize of which they were the seller, they are supposed to indicate such on the paperwork and recuse themselves from expertizing that item.

Of course that is on the honor system, so it's only as good as the ethics of the expertizers in question.

Additionally, it's only as good as the administrative oversight. I had a case where I purchased an item from Eric Jackson, sent it into APEX for a cert, informing APEX that Eric was whom I had purchased it from. When the item came back and I inquired who the expertizer(s) were, they said "Eric Jackson"... at which point I blew a gasket.

It turns out that Eric *HAD* dutifully recorded the item as having been sold by him, but APEX either missed it on the paperwork or they didn't want to send it out to another expertizer. I demanded a refund and subsequently sent the item to the PF.

Both PSE and the PF go to great lengths to avoid having an item expertized by the submitter, this I know for a fact and assume that APEX does the same. The problem with the honor system is that it is not always possible to tell if an expertizer is involved.

It's not just the submitter, but as in my case the dealer who sold the item to the submitter. In other words, no party who has any vested interest in the outcome should be an expertizer for that item.

tsquare,

I have purchased a few stamps from CK STAMPS as well. No problems. I consider them a decent seller but I do not expect them to guarantee the quality/identification of their stamps perfectly. I expect honesty from them--no overt attempts at deceit--and if they did sell a misidentified stamp or one with major faults not identified, I would expect quick, professional communication and a refund (I've had to return one misidentified stamp to them, and it occurred smoothly).

So to answer your question: I would say with 99% of sellers online (especially ebay) you should be leary. But I also think it's okay to continue making purchases if you like the stamp. Just my 2cents.

sorry all -
my comment above was questioning the logic in Rhett's earlier post. I was NOT suggesting that there was any self-dealing going on at PSE (or PF or APEX for that matter).