How Is It Possible; Austia #sc Pr1 ?

This stamp was sold for less than 100$ on ebay, it has a certificate issued by the seller...is it a joke, a forgery or a fake expert (charlatan) ?

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/P94856-LOMB...ig_cvip=true

A seller to avoid apparently.

Check his feedback:

https://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayIS....m2531.l4585

I would say "fake expert"
Anyway I don't trust any seller expertizing his own stamps.

There's nothing wrong with the price or the certificate.

You can take the certificate as you like. It is a dealer/seller's guarantee. It was not probably not considered at all in the bidding except that seller states it is genuine.

The stamp has no gum. Scott cat is $3750 or thereabouts. Go to the Specialized 1840-1940 (or Sassone or Michel) and you'll find the no gum price is way lower. My 2003 has mint at $3250, no gum at $1000. The stamp has dirt on the face. Looking at the back, it might have a corner margin crease only in the margin. It is just barely 4 margins, not F-VF to me, but anything can be said about grading. An OG copy with margins like at the bottom but all around plus a Diena certificate would bring about a half of catalog at auction or more. Pricing steeply decreases as quality goes down, particularly for classics. Also see the ebay bids for this; 38 bids by 20 bidders says the winning bid level is likely correct. Add in that ebay is a haven for cheap bidders except on the most desirable items in best condition and the sales price make sense.

And 13 negatives in nearly 44,000 sales is bad? I don't think so. You have to read the negatives to see what the problems are; I don't think it's worth my time to do that.

Sassone 2018: *13 000 000 and NG 3250 euros.
Scott 2013: * 3750 and NG 1400$
Michel 2009: 300 euros

Maybe articles like those one discourage buyers to trust his certificate.

https://www.romanianstamps.ro/f0038...ertizate.php
http://www.pisc.org.uk/forum/message/583.html

Thank you Rodenbach99. Also if one is not familiar with their catalog values, be aware that both catalogs have highly inflated prices.

Trust his certificate? No. The ebay buyers didn't, based on the price achieved. This is like a Stolow "certificate" or Richter signature. For Stolow, if you have the receipt, you can get a refund. But does anyone keep those forever?

I stupidly assume that a buyer of such things has some knowledge of their own. The Lombardy-Venetia stamp is genuine. Trusting certificates blindly is a bad thing. Now on the Romanian stamps, a color analysis from a copy of a photo or photocopy does not do it for me. It looks like the earlier issue (not easy to tell) including margins present. There looks to be a surface scrape at bottom so I wonder how he called that. And the second stamp "analysis" says genuineness can't be told from the cert picture? I'm starting to distrust that site more than the "Stamp Fisherman". The last Romanian stamp shown IS a forgery.

So shall we go back to the US #104 thread and the PF cert? Think their record is better than 13 errors out of 44,000? I wonder.

I thought it was a reprint but it has a characteristic of the first printings.A thick line
in the frame next too the K. The buyer made a good deal for sure,gum or no gum.