Identify Stamp And Value

I don't know any professional expertizer that belongs to a professional stamp organization that charges 20% of estimated net value as a standard fee for expertizing. Whoever provided that information to you is probably referring to someone or some group that is actually outsourcing the certification and taking his/her cut.

The US stamps you can get a reputable certification for under $25 (Bill Weiss, highly recommended by me -- my opinion; DISCLAIMER -- I have no vested interest in this recommendation, I have never had anything certified by him, I have no business dealings with him; I have seen his work, it is very good and very thorough).

Likewise, you should be able to get a reputable certification for the mint Penny Black for under $50. On something as basic as the Penny Black, Bill can also do certification. Certification of mint Penny Black is not really necessary, as the auction houses can pretty easily verify the stamp as genuine mint before they accept consignment.

Expertizers will provide an "online" opinion for a smaller fee, but to get a written opinion (the only one that counts), you will have to submit it.

If you have your doubts about whether the expertizer will "switch" stamps on you, then you will not be satisfied with any expertizer's certification.

Looking forward to seeing the scans.

k

[EDIT: Bill's actual fee is $15 with certificate. My estimate of $25 covers shipping and associated overhead costs...]

Hi,

Again, I am planning to buy some stamp and wanted to through you guys? what should be value of these stamps? and Is this worth and genuine?

Let me know please.

Regards
Sachin

Hi Khj,

Can you tell me anybody who can provide online expert opinion for Mauritius Post Office Stamp for little fee?

Regards
Sachin

You caught me on the way out...

Use this link for a list of current recognized experts and their areas. These are heavy hitters.



Bill Weiss is primarily US stamps. He will consider providing opinion on some foreign stamps, depending on what it is. Not sure what Forum rules regarding links for this type of referral. So just google "William Weiss stamp" and you will find the link. If he is willing, then use his services primarily to weed out obvious counterfeits. You will need to go to someone else, like Sismondo (for example) to get the certificate that will bring in the bucks. Again, Bill primarily does US, so he may or may not accept your submission. Ask him first.

Your GB stamps all appear genuine. Typical mixed condition and/or heavy cancel. Can't make final ID with the resolution you have, and certainly not while in the mounts. Since you have access to Scott catalog, you should practice IDing them. I can help verify if I have time. Catalog values, were they in VF sound condition, looks like very roughly $5-$150 range. Actual resale value (because of condition, will be less).

Don't have time right now for the other stamps. But, the other stamps, especially the Heligoland and Roman states are dominated by counterfeits. Cannot determine based on bulk scans, and authentic ones have to be examined physically. I'm willing to help you weed out forgeries (I like to practice) if I have time, but in general, I do not do free appraisals because of the time involved.

Next time, upright pictures, please. Thank you.

You cannot buy/sell/trade until you get 50 quality posts. Also, I would advise you that if the main reason you came to this site was to try to sell those stamps, you probably will not get too many sales here (strictly my opinion, I do not speak on behalf of the others).

A final suggestion. You should probably consider submitting the album to a reputable auction house or ASDA-member stamp dealer. It would save you a lot of time. The auction house will either offer to accept your lot if they believe the stamps are genuine, or they will chuckle and send it back with a polite "no thank you".

Got to go for now...

Sachin.....

I never like posting bad news.......


The Saint Louis, both Hawaiians and Italians are fakes and have extremely little value. Pelure paper has a much different look.....the Hawaiians' paper is much too white....the Italian green is definately the wrong color green......the broken frameline of the 80c makes it a definate fake.

The British all look genuine but are not the best quality.

The 50 cent lamp is an interesting color shift freak but not worth a lot.....possibly $5.00 - $10.00
The #65 in the same photo has a value of under $1.00

The Austrian Newspaper stamps should not be blue.....can't see the other 2 well enough.

All of this makes everything else suspect......consider what you paid compared to possible values......would anyone really basicly give away the Hawaiians...or, any of the others that would have high value if real ?


You mentioned having US #1+2.....please post photos......and I'd also like to see your Penny Black.

I'm back. This time, I ate dinner first, so I see Tom has evaluated some of the other stamps. Well done, Tom!

I've taken time for a better look at each stamp instead of just glancing through them. I concur with Tom. The Hawaiian, Italian states, St. Louis Bear, and Heligoland are all fake/reproduction/reprint. All the cancels on the Heligoland are fake. After seeing these, I'm convinced the cancels on your Mauritius are also all fake.

Notice how your genuine stamps are in mixed condition, but almost all your high-ticket items are in near-perfect condition, and in many cases, look a lot newer than the GB stamps. Doesn't make sense, does it?

The other stamps, I cannot tell due to the picture quality/resolution. Examining stamps still inside mounts is difficult. Please remove them from the mounts when you take your pic. If you want us to spend time looking at the pics, you need to spend time displaying them clearly and properly.

I was expecting to see US #1/2 and the Penny black instead of this batch.

well done guys. lesson in this for all the members here is before you throw down big money on stamps do your homework and buy from reputed dealers who will stand behind their products :)

What's the asking price on this lot?

Hi Balf,

I have not bought yet, I am still trying to find the answers, I talked the guy who is selling this and told all your major stamps are fake or reprint, so he told me this...
------------------------------------
Hi,
for the Hawaiian stamp 90 % sure that is gen. and for Austrian and the Germany(Danzig)(hellgolang) stamps im 100 % sure that they are genuine..a asked a expert about theme and for that i'm sure,only the st. louis stamps i'm not sure..that is my proof for me.
------------------------------------

So, this stamp world is very confusing... You tell me what to do now...and how much I should pay for this lot?

Regards
Sachin Gupta

Sachin, why does your story keep changing?

k

Sachin....


The Hawaiians are absolutely fakes........which makes everything else questionable if he thinks they are real.

OK, I am agree with you guys and will not spend money on those fakes. But finally I am posting my Penny back and Scott 1,2 .I request you guys to finally take a look....





US Scott 1,2 Image

http://djhandbags.com/images/us.jpg
http://djhandbags.com/images/us12_back.jpg


Regards
Sachin Gupta

Sachin....


The Penny Black is quite muddy.

The background of your #1+2 show only vertical lines.........this is not right.....and I've never seen that color cancel....to have two almost identical makes me think something is amiss.

All three, from the back do not really look like 150 year old paper.

Sachin, what is your purpose for collecting? Are you trying to invest in stamps or are you just collecting for fun? I'm not sure what you're looking for.

Let me make some observations without going into specifics on the stamps you've shown. While it's true that there are bargains to be had, this is more true at the lower end of the scale, and becomes less true with rare stamps of high value. The vast majority of stamp collectors don't expect to pay full catalogue value when they buy a stamp, and this is true most of the time. The rarer the stamp and the higher the value however, the price a stamp will realise becomes closer to the actual CV and often exceeds it. In many cases the Scott CV of a rarity will be based on a single recent auction of that stamp, because it's the only recent price. You're going to pay full value for a stamp like that.

You aren't going to get a stamp like that Hawaiian Scott #2, worth around US$30,000 - $35,000 for a few hundred dollars, or $10,000 or even $20,000 most likely (depending on condition of course.) And it wouldn't be sold in a collection of other rare stamps housed in a crappy old stock book. To believe so is extremely naive (no offence.) I'm not going to bother adding up what that collection would be worth if genuine and sold at auction, but probably more than you can afford. Unless you were planning on offering $50,000 or so for it, and that would be cheap if it were genuine. You cannot claim that the person doesn't know the value of the stamps as several of them have it written beside them. As you've indicated that you couldn't afford to have stamps certified, I'm not thinking you were planning on spending 10's of thousands of dollars on this collection.

I can't help but wonder what sort of person it is who has this collection for sale? It's foolish selling rare stamps like these as a single collection and not breaking it up and selling at auction (if they were genuine.) You'd get far more for it. It's an odd assortment of stamps - although I guess not if it's a collection of fakes

You're going to end up blowing a lot of money on fake stamps if you continue to look for cheap bargains that appear to be rare stamps worth thousands. Sure there are finds to be made, and we all love looking for that find, but don't expect to find albums full of them everywhere you look. As the saying goes, if it looks too good to be true...

As for your recent scans, there are better experts here than me on the US issues. I concur with Tom though that the shading lines on the Franklin don't look right, although perhaps it's just the scan. And having a Scott #1 & 2 with the identical colour ink cancellations? Hmmm, I wonder what the chances of that are?? (Other than black of course.) And both with almost perfect huge margins. Makes me wonder. I would get them both certified as khj has suggested.

I hope this helps you with your collection efforts. P.S. Steer clear of Heligoland unless they're certified. You won't be getting genuines without the price tag.

Balf

K,

can you please bring your scientific mind and your intellect to the einstein thread? I am trying to get a breakthrough there. Thanks