I Know People Don't Like This... But I Have A Question About Stamp Grading

I see lots of examples of US stamps being graded. Do people get stamps graded that aren't US?

I collect Japan, and now that I have duplicate copies of many I thought it would be fun to try and find very well centered copies and collect high graded varieties too.

I don't know where I would go to get a japanese stamp graded. Does the PSE grade non US stamps? http://psestamp.com/

I know this is a hot topic here, and I'm not trying to ruin anyone's hobby with my pursuit of grading. I'm in my 30's and come from a Magic the Gathering background and Pokemon background, and both of those games used grading quite a lot. Heck, even in the digital games, like Pokemon GO, each pokemon you catch is graded from 1-100 and people go around catching multiples of the same Pokemon to find a 100 quality version.

Grading has just been something I've grown up with, so, if I can do that with stamps than that excites me.

I've collected coins, comics, and sports cards at various points in my life, and all three are hobbies where grading is prevalent. Not so with stamps. While expertizing is important, numeric grading and to an even lesser extent encapsulation (I believe only PSE does encapusalation) is only really embraced here in the U.S., and on U.S. stamps almost exclusively.

In all candor, I would not spend the money getting non-U.S. stamps numerically graded. There isn't a market for that material (or at least not enough of a market to justify the expense).

Expertizing is a different matter, and I would never argue against it, but numerical grading?... nah.

revenuecollector thank you for the input!

I'll save my money on the grading then for Japanese stamps and stick to just getting certificates for ones that I think are in good quality and also not forgeries.

Remember that the vast majority of stamps, even more expensive ones, don't require certification - expertising is only necessary where there's potential contention (prevalence of forgeries, shades, artificial changes to the stamp etc).

I don't know if PSE grades Japanese stamps, but they do grade Canadian stamps and possibly Chinese stamps. If you are truly interested in a grade for personal reasons, I would check with them. Perhaps a grade on a stamp that could use authentication. I do not think that having inexpensive stamps graded will result in a positive financial outcome.

I believe there are speculators/investors in stamps presently buying super well centered international classics with the hope they will one day grade very high. If they buy these stamps 2-3x catalog but then sell 10 years from now at 10-100x catalog.... I think Canadian stamps are slowLy following the trend as I think I have noticed more graded over last year or two and they seem to sell at premium if graded very high

Presently there is no market, but 5,10, 15 years from now. Who knows? If you think you have a good eye for centering, it may not be unreasonable to speculate and buy super centered international stamps, have them graded, and wait. No one thought Amazon would be a trillion dollar company when Bezos was selling stuff out of garage

Re Canadian stamps, I haven't noticed Canadian sellers/auction hours paying any attention to PSE grading, just some US sellers. So it may be a trend, but as yet limited to the US marketplace.

From the PSE website:

PSE Grades USA including Revenues, Confederate States and Hawaii. Also UN, Canada, Australia, France, Great Britain and Commonwealth (Edward on), China (and PRC, with some exceptions: pre-1972 and ROC), India (not states), Israel, Thailand.

I'll bet there has abeen a mad rush to get UN stamps graded.

UN graded stamps seem to be scarce if not downright rare.

I have been waiting patiently for Lundy to be added to the PSE list.

Mentioning graded UN is always good for a laugh in philatelic circles.

Fixed that for ya.

Actually there is still a market for the Geneva and Vienna UN material. Nothing amazing, but the occasional collections do seem to sell.

You guys have all been super helpful, thanks again for the plethora of replies!

revenuecollector, I laughed my rear end off at that!