Cancellation Opinion On Scot #39

Very well written, Classic. Understood.
Personally I think its pretty cool to have a US stamp dealer in Japan. Sometimes I buy from Steve Taylor, a US cover dealer who is equally nice and competent-sounding, in the UK. Anyway, I hope this works out for you regardless of the trail you choose to walk.

Keep the transaction logistics simple. This is the exact reason to have the cert FIRST. What are legitimate reasons for a return to you? A filled thin? A sealed tear? A minute crease? A bent perf? Something else that has slipped below your radar, but might be mentioned on a cert? The point being, most of the discussion has been solely on the cancel being genuine or not. There are other shades of gray.

If I were in your shoes, I would develop an agent in the US to help with the shipping logistics and costs between you and your preferred certifying source - or if indeed you have half a million in inventory, get on a plane and bring it over yourself. A modest overhead cost and an excuse for a vacation.

Keep it simple!

John,
Those issues you mention are possibilities, but usually that just results in a modification of the rate. We're already asking for less than 1/2 CV, on a very scarce issue. I have the "advantage" in this case that someone looking to score this stamp at 1/2 or lower CV is also looking for the bargain. As a dealer, this is sometimes who we sell to, which is ok. I see why you think that logistic is simpler, but it really isn't. It means no less than 3 times sending the stamp over long distance, versus one. (Japan to cert agency, cert agency to Japan, Japan to seller). My expectation is send once, discount/refund if need be. That's actually pretty simple.


Edit: One other point, on the points you made about condition, we are more than competent to ID all of those. Our only issue with this stamp is not taking the biased position that the cancel is real. While I'm specialist in many areas (and condition is one of them), cancellation is a weakness, otherwise I'd just list it. I'm already well aware the stamp has some condition issues, though I haven't done a complete/deep examination of it yet, because I'm not ready to list it. The images show easily thought that it has two internal vertical creases (looks like from paper press roller), and a small tear between the 2nd and 3rd perf, about 1mm. Ragged perf in top, slight toning and soiling at left.

Do whatever you like. I would not be a buyer without a cert in advance. Discounts/refunds are a hassle and frustration - especially when you are trying to build a dealer reputation and expand a clientele. I cannot see how this selling strategy helps. Good luck.

You misunderstand my agent scenario. Not worth clarifying.

John,
I appreciate your feedback for certain, and I get that not all buyers are comfortable with the approach. I am not sure you would be interested in the stamp if I had cert in hand? So are you a target buyer? We're not a new dealer, nor new to ebay, and we've had to handle lots of these cases over the years. The bigger point for me is, I have an inventory item sitting on a shelf, that I need to do something with or it will continue to sit on the shelf. At the end of the day, I think we are an extremely fair dealer, and we're not out to rip anyone off.
If you are specifically interested in this stamp if we have a cert in hand, then I wouldn't post it for sale, I'd send it to be certed, and then offer it to you based on the cert result. That's a whole other matter... if there is an interested buyer (which is hard to identify for this issue, as not everyone has a spare $5k laying around...)
Not saying that it's not without it's problems in selling it, but that's the case with a high value stamp like this. So finding a buyer, the best place for exposure for us is ebay.

You'll sell it in a second if you have a cert. It will rot in ebay purgatory without one. If you want to sell it fast, get the cert. PSE is faster than PF. Get the expedited service, and ship it express. From the time you send it to PSE until the time you get it back could be as short as 4 weeks, counting 2 trips across the Pacific.

Assuming one trusts PSE as much as the PF with an item such as this.

I certainly wouldn't.

Me three. Not their (PSE's) forte, compared to the alternate choices for certification.

make me no.4. not pse's cup of tea.

Would you have trusted a Weiss cert? Were he still around to cert it?

Nope.

Nope too

Writing as someone who might buy this stamp were it offered with a clean recent cert from either PF, PSE, or even APEX, I wouldn't touch the stamp as offered. Too complicated and the odds are too high that either the cancel is not good or it is good but the cert mentions faults. In either case I would not be interested even if the price was 10% of catalog. Just my opinion.

The stamp has faults, I can already identify those. (There is a diagonal crease runs 3/4 of the length from bottom toward top right from back).
The issue is whether it's a genuine grid cancel or not.

But I want to mention to everyone, I appreciate all the views, and on the balance of issues, I'm going to have the stamp certed. It doesn't cost me anything to feed it in the meantime, and if the cancel is good, even with the crease it will be among a very few used examples, if it passes.