Is This US #2 Altered/Modified?

While I understand John's point, I do learn a lot from these threads. I like how the discussion is allowed to blossom with each "discovery" rather than having one expert point out every detail in the first post.

It can be frustrating when a thread lingers and dies with just a "this is fake", but they are the exception. As Sinclair pointed out, it's the price for getting others involved in actually looking at and analyzing all aspects of the stamp in question.

I completely agree with John that ebay is what it is. I remember Bill trying to help them, but as a publicly held company they are all about the bottom line.

Don, please keep doing the great things you are doing for our hobby.

The opinions expressed here are my strictly my own and are not necessarily the opinions of my family, Stamp Community Forum and it's associates, members, or guests.

Don, I agree you are doing a great job. Keep it up.
My hope was that those who initially link unusual ebay lots of any sort to this Forum would explain them more fully from the beginning.
Sorry this all got sidetracked, but I hope it leads to more educational posts.

I'd just like to point out that the 12c Washington posted by 'sinclair2010' was obviously from the period when the U.S. Post Office's engravers had misplaced their one straight edge. Perhaps if this were true, it would explain the messy margin lines. Or maybe it's a re-cut version by an engraver with a very shaky hand? [Is there an emoticon for 'I'm being ironic'?]

I think these threads are very useful, but I also agree that posting about a possibly altered or faked stamp with no indication what the poster thinks is wrong with it is a little odd. Why not just post it as a question: "Does anyone else think this has a fake cancel," etc? That way it's a discussion, not a denunciation of a seller which ought to grow out of the consensus of the discussion.

John,
Our community has an incredibly wide diversity of hobbyists. On one end are folks who are not even hobbyists yet, on the other end of the spectrum are philatelic scholars.

We also have folks who cannot afford to invest in the materials needed to become highly knowledge. In fact, sometimes there are other reasons that some people do not invest in growing their knowledge (like myself who did not want to burden my family with the cost and disposition of educational materials due to my situation).

Point is, it is perfectly fine to start a thread with 'I saw this listing and in my opinion this item looks fake...' even if the poster has very limited experience.

If the original poster is incorrect, then other folks should weight in and offer their opinions on how to ID a fake. Our objective is to support the largest number of community members regardless of experience level, income level, etc.

Great content can pop-up in almost any thread. The original poster in this thread simply posted a listing link and the thread ended up with some excellent educational content.

If I over-reacted to the suggestion for increasing monitoring, I apologize. Please understand that we already pour a lot of time and effort in trying to support everyone and make this a good community. Often things go on behind the scenes. For example we send personal 'welcome' message to every new person who joins. On the other hand, we also handle some of the uglier things under the radar. Just a week or two ago I sent a personal message to a member and suggested he revisit his post which was snarky and ridiculed another member. In return I got a threat and cursed.

It is also very common to get both compliments and flames from members when we censors posts; there is no way to satisfy the entire community on this topic. Heck it is fairly common to get hate mail when we just move a post to another category. Other times we get flamed for not moving a topic.

But we try to err on the side of leniency and hope everyone understands that their browser does not require them to read nor respond to every thread. We keep the rules simple and try to encourage the sharing of information regardless of experience level.
Don

I almost never get any questions from my buyers.

I didn't mean to start such a tangent..... I have enormous respect for this forum and it's members, especially the Mods.... it's great to have this invaluable resource, especially considering the declining state of our glorious hobby.

The unfortunate side of moderating a forum. Most don't realize that not all stamp collectors are the calm level headed individuals you think they are.

All,

Just want to point out something I noticed when I read review this thread. The original post had a link to a Noble Spirit offer and had many subsequent comments. That stamp contained a red CDS type cancel. That auction is now ended.

Now the bad part of recent ebay updates. If you go back to the original post #1 now and click on the link it brings up another similar item. This is a #17 with a red grid cancel from CRKstamps not noble spirit. If you are not careful you will think this is the original listing as I did when I read the comments and I had a hard time trying to match the comments in the discussion to the visual of the listing I was presented.

Now the real irony is that later in this same posting, another person added anew listing from CRKStamps (with a link) with a red grid cancel and mentions this one also appears faked.

Bottom line anyone reading this posting and not catching that ebay showed a similar "but not same listing" could really be confused and then (on top of that) to have the new listing also tied into this posting makes it all the more difficult.

And now the real fun - the second listing ends in 2 hours so once this happens the links above will move on to a potential third item for display.

Not sure I am making any specific point here but I was puzzled as I tried to review this post and wondered if others experienced the same issue.

Hobsun. BTW I second the comments above related to the good work that Don does and appreciate his efforts to the betterment of the hobby.

This is the problem with posting a link to an ebay auction without capturing and posting an image of the item up for bid. When the auction or sale is over the link becomes useless unless the image is captured and posted in the thread.

One of the images. Better late than never?

Here's the other image





You can still pull the images after the auction as I just did with this one.

If you go to this auction, you'll see that it is closed. You can click on "See original listing" and it will take you to the listing as it appeared before the sale.

Do you have any particular examples in mind that have stuck in your craw or is it a general statement about the way you think items should be debated?

Hobsun et al, Most threads here are best taken in in the moment. Very few threads have long-lasting value because the topics/stamps discussed tend to wander about.

Note: Important educational information contained in this post.

Genuine frame lines will have the right "look".

It took Toppan Carpenter some four years to find a straightedge for re-cutting frame lines on stamps. Frame lines that are not straight is quite normal.