The Philatelic Foundation Grading Upgrade

Overall it has probably brought more people into the hobby. I am all for anybody that is smart enough to buy a stamp with a graded or non-graded cert instead of a NYStamps bargain that is not a bargain. Not everyone is at expert level nor does everyone desire to be or have time to be and that should not preclude them from enjoying stamp collecting with a much higher level of confidence that they purchased a VF fault free stamp that is genuine. Grading brings continuity. It beats the heck out of plowing through 3000 listings that all say Gem or XF or Superb or Choice for no real reason other than to make you look and waste your time.

I sense an underlying degree of animosity from several posters on this thread. Apparently, some of us that are buying rare and/or high-grade stamps have more money than sense?

No, I think there is more a degree of animosity from the grading of stamps concerning its own definition.

The talk of numerical grading will always ruffle feathers. It's stuff like this that makes the numerical grading a complete joke.


http://psestamp.com/set_registry/di...&alltime=yes

And in the PSE "Hall of fame" this tied for the number 1 greatest set of all time.......give me a break

'And another one gets whacked, and another one gets wacked, and ten more blocks of six bite the dust …. " Sad. And what about an image of the back side of these gems? Or does it matter if someone noted "ate at Joes" on the back? To borrow a famous (infamous) line, "where is your humanity?"

So many early blocks being chopped to bits to sacrifice to the PSE Gods.....or are they? The story is starting to sound like a philatelic urban myth. Is it real news or fake news? Can anybody quantify the problem? A few scary photos does not suffice. Data, data, data.

A few photos? You don't think this is encouraging collectors to mutilate blocks and submit checks.....errr..I mean stamps to PSE hoping for huge 300% returns? Like I said, give me a break.

Fake news. Run some Siegel PowerSearch's for 100 Jumbos of early imperfs. You will not find much. The PSE population report quantities do not support the carnage being painted either. Give me a break.

I don't have to run that, I have seen quite a few. And I know dealers that cut imperfs, including scarce ones. I suggest you spend the time looking at the last 20 years of auctions, and not only from Siegel. See how many of those imperfs show up, including 1851's that were obviously cut from a strip of other multiple.

Show me. What percentage of graded stamps do you suppose fall into that category. Ballpark.

"Show you"???? Do your own looking, I'm not here to provide you with entertainment.

It would be nice if people debated honestly. We are not talking about all graded stamps. We are talking about the 95's and up or the 90J's and up. A significant portion of those stamps came from multiples. Those multiples are lost forever. The grading craze has produced nothing other than money and taken from the hobby what cannot be replaced. Examples? Give me a break. Look through any Siegel catalog and you will find them.

They stand out Winston and are dramatic but at the end of the day the percentage of those examples is teeny tiny.

One particularly annoying example was shown on page 12 of the May 2019 USPCS Chairman's Chatter. Not the appropriate place to be celebrating a stamp produced so shamelessly from a multiple and not a high point for the USPCS.

Inasmuch as the number of graded stamps 95 and above is pretty small, it's not as if it is in the millions. But far too many multiples have been destroyed forever for greed and ego alone.