The Philatelic Foundation Grading Upgrade

The perfs are short at the top, but that might have happened after the PF cert was created. As far as the centering itself, anyone who collects this issue would be glad to take this centering.

Good breakfast => not cranky (acidic stomach, low blood sugar) at 1100.




Clearly, one was graded shortly before lunch, and the other shortly after lunch.




Which perfs? I am sure that you know, as well as any of us, that perfs (especially on older classic stamps) are not always equidistant from the design; some perfs drift, some pins are bent, etc.

I am reluctant to think that that there will be, speedily & in our days, a happy agreement on whether to go by the closest perf, or the average perf, or the average perf adjusted by the standard deviation of the perfs, or ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who thinks that the arithmetic of perfs is simple, but that the mathematics are complex)

Ahh yes, the dreaded hangry grading parameter.

Maybe because it's Saturday night and I've had a glass of wine, but does anyone realize that half of what is being discussed, when it comes to perforations on stamps, is the non-presence of paper?

That is, 50% of what is being analyzed here, is, generally, about nothing?

Food for thought...



Jim

Hmmmmmmmmmm

When there are more grades on the high end than low end, it seems to be an exercise to extract a higher price.

How about a VF Jumbo Gem?

Given that most of the stamps put in for grading are going to be at least VF, mostly higher grades should be expected.

Philatelic third-party grading (TPG) is still going through an initial euphoria, much the same as graded coins did in the 1980s. The concept is fairly new, and nobody can say with certainty where the dust will settle. All the compelling pro and con reasoning that has been expressed on this thread, sounds much like what I heard during the early years of coin certification. Whether TPG withstands the test of time, is purely a function of the market. Yes, you can advocate for or against the concept. But none of us know what the long-term impact of TPG will actually be. I collect stamps because I enjoy them. When I purchase an expensive stamp, I make sure that it is visually appealing, sound and includes a reliable certificate (for me, that's preferably PF). I do not collect graded stamps, and I am perfectly comfortable with that approach. I respect the opinions of those that believe in TPG as well as those that don't. I think both sectors will probably be with us for a long time, and despite arguments to the contrary, associated prices will sort themselves out as market conditions prevail.

It's been at least 20 years now, I think it's gone beyond the "fairly new" stage. Unfortunately, we are stuck with it.

True, but when PSE (who was then owned by PCGS) first came out with "slabbed" stamps, it was largely a flop. TPG, as we know it in the stamp hobby, has only been a hot commodity for the last decade, and perhaps a bit longer. IMHO, it is still too new to pass judgment. My point is that time will sort out the true demand for this product in our marketplace.

And anybody that finds the numerical grade offensive to their sensibilities can use white out on that strip of certificate text since at the end of the day it is still just a good old certificate of Authenticity.

I am not certain about the comparison between coins and stamps. Stamps have never had the commodity investor interest that coins have had although some have tried and failed abysmally to make it so.

Grading is here to stay even if people stopped paying big money for the higher grades because it is just another way of quantifying a stamp and it is merely a check box on an application and a few extra dollars.

Take away the desecration of early imperf multiples and there is really very little to clutch ones pearls over.

The desecration is not limited to imperfs. Plenty of scarce perforated blocks have been broken up as well.

And what does breaking up perforated blocks have to do with grading specifically?

Except for the rise of 'self grading', grading software which is really primarily 'centering software', a lack of any hobby-wide standardization of any grading specification, and the ephemeral nature of a graded stamp over time.

I think we should start a new industry of 'house grading'. We send folks out to grade houses. The graded homes would then be used to help buyers who cannot figure out if the house they are considering is worth buying or not. Never mind that after a few years the grade is not really applicable. Never mind that there would not be any industry-wide standard grade specification; just take our word for it, your house is currently a 90J.
Don