Need Opinions From The Experts On 2 Columbians

If you know how to properly look for thins (and repairs/alterations), I'm pretty sure you're going to find something there. Can you take a picture of the $2 stamp while it's sitting in fluid and post it in this thread?

I disagree with you that the regumming looks professional in appearance. It's very crude, IMO. There are telltale signs in the (intentionally?) blurry photos posted by the seller (on both front and back.) It's very obvious to a trained eye.

Caper123, I might suggest that you post a few more of the "better" items you've acquired via ebay. It's better you learn the harsh truth now (assuming there's some harsh truth to be learned) than continue dropping $1,000's on stamps like these. Retail value for the 242-243 you posted is about 20% of what you paid, IMO.

srailkb, thank you for your opinion on the stamps. FYI I have only very rarely ever paid over $200 for a stamp. This was to be a gift from my 97 year old stamp collecting father to me - a collector for only 55 years. The photos posted by the seller in the listing were rather blurry and additional photos which I requested from them before the sale were not much better but since the refund policy appeared good I took a chance. It didn't pan out. If you recall I pointed out the deficiencies in my original post. The stamps are already in the return process so tempting fate with fluid on my copier is I'm afraid out of the question. Though fluid may not interact harmfully with normal gum there is no telling how it might react with whatever substance was applied to the stamp.

"Retail value for the 242-243 you posted is about 20% of what you paid, IMO."

If I could find those two stamps in what appeared to be VF MH condition for $180 total I'd have acquired them long ago.

Perhaps you should think of them as Unused, no gum. There is not much difference between no gum, and re-gummed.