Simmy's Grading Upcoming Harmers International Auction

I noticed the upcoming Harmers International Auction mentions Simmy's along with PF certs. Are the Simmy's certs and what is their story?

You are referring to the section of stamps on auction house pages. "Simmy's" was the name of an auction house run by the late Simmy Jacobs. Harmer's mentions the grading assigned to certain stamps in the sale by Simmy's, and "updates" them to present standards. No big story in this.

Simmy is the "J" in Jumbo in modern certs. as mentioned by PSAG.

http://www.stampauthentication.com/Grading.html

I'd almost forgotten Simmy's. As a young collector I bought material from them back in the mid 60's, I wasn't doing auctions then, just from their retail catalog. I dropped them, even as a neophyte I could tell their material was sub par.

I almost never post in threads like this one but can not resist. I was hired as a buyer by Simmy in 1974 and spent a couple years buying highest quality US stamps and trying to get him into postal history (failed in that regard and I went to work for Molesworth). Simmy's auctions, composed almost entirely of house-owned material, were very well received because he was selling a product that was in high demand and he did a great job.

Stamps1962 - If you were buying from Simmy in the mid 60's, it must have been plate blocks. He was a major promoter of plate block collecting, rare numbers, etc. However, any material you bought from Simmy was NOT sub-par. It would have been far too modern to exist in sub-par condition ...

More Simmy's

http://www.pursers.com/aboutowners.htm

https://opencorporates.com/companie...ma/042202751

http://www.floridastampsh

No it wasn't plate blocks I was ordering from him. Just run of the mill stuff to fill spaces in my US album, more common early airs, Farleys that sort of thing. And, yes.. I returned some of them for being defective. I recall one of the National parks souvenir sheets had a pencil mark on it, ditto for some early air mails. I returned them and got replacements, some of which had the same issues. I just wrote him off after that.

It was not my intention to sully him in any way. I suspect he had staff at that time filling small order, perhaps someone not knowledgeable or inexperienced. So far as I know he was in business for many years and lots of collectors were happy dealing with him. I stopped dealing with H.E. Harris Company about that time after realizing I'd been taken advantage of by them selling me second rate items st inflated prices. That doesn't change my opinion that Harris did a lot to promote the hobby.

He was offering printed price lists of US material via classified ads in Mekeels, among other publications. Not long after I only saw ads for auction catalogs so assume that end of the business was discontinued.