APS Certs. What Have You Experienced Recently?

I sent in a US 120, confirmed receipt by the APS on 10/2/2019. Asked simply if it was unused as advertised and a legit stamp (and with what tools I have appears to be so, but still wanted another opinion based on the seller.)

Still nothing.

Is this the norm?

Have a US 118 as well in their hands. That I'm now hoping to get back by the end of 2020.

Fire away...

Why ask here - you can call or Email APS


Peter

I agree with Peter. You can call or email the expertizing division directly and inquire as to the status of your submission.

@AndyRich74: I understand the spirit of your question. It's one thing to ask APS directly - which invites a stock answer. It's quite another to tabulate a series of observations from other collectors using the service. If enough people here replied to your question, some trends or tendencies (that is, a "norm") may become evident. A bell curve distribution for APS response times would be evident.

Here's my two cents, based on my two APS submissions:
(1) entered in the APS database 10/15/19, returned 12/11/19.
(2) entered in the APS database 1/22/20, not yet rendered.

Peter and revenue collector: clearly Andy is asking for others experiences using APEX. Certainly, the length of time he has been waiting for a response seems inordinately long for the simple question being asked: "genuine unused no gum" or not. It should not take over 4 months to answer this question. Bill Weiss would have returned the cert within 2 weeks of submission, possibly sooner with I would say probably a similar chance of being accurate given that he was an expertizer for APEX.

Perhaps the magnifying glass is out for repairs.

They may not have received it. Contact them

Peter

ALWAYS use Priority or Priority Express) Mail with a signature required as proof of receipt by the certifying agency. USPS proof of delivery may not be enough, especially if you have your own insurance.

With APS, the best way is to buy it through their store, pay for it and the cert cost, and have APS submit it directly for their certification. No chance of it being "not received" and, if the cert comes back bad, you will be contacted and given the option of cancelling the sale for a full refund (stamp and fees). The seller gets back-charged for the cert and must either correct the listing or remove it. I've had several APS stamps fail that way. APS does NOT vet the stamps in their store; they just list them for the sellers - just like ebay and HipStamp.

OP had a confirmed receipt

Correct, I of course sent it certified mail with return receipt, and my APS account shows they've received the stamps with a date received and a photo of both subjects. That's not an issue.

To clarify, as BFRomeos alluded to, just looking for what seems to be the norm. I don't want to be unprofessional, but as Funcitypapa said, I'm just asking if it was indeed unused and genuine; there is clearly a grill and one would think that a 120 is a pretty common stamp with quite a bit of reference material.

I did contact them when the stamp hit the three month mark in their hands; got a polite but stock reply about "we'd rather do it right than rush things" (to paraphrase.) My last query at the four month mark over a week ago has gone unanswered for over a week now; hence the post.

Thanks all.

Why are we trying to make excuses? The issue is very simple. APEX is taking a unreasonably long time to cough up the cert —nothing more or less. Same could be said for the PF with blackjack's 24 cent 1861. At least with the latter you are dealing with a shade issue and gum. With a Scott 120 there is no shade issue and this stamp has to gum to adjudicate. Even with Blackjacks stamp, how long is necessary for in house experts to determine that they did not know what shade it was and then immediately send it out to THE worlds expert on shades for that series. There is always one final authority and that is often one person, not a committee vote. If the certifying organization organization does have that authority in house, they should know who that person is and that person's opinion should be the final opinion. If there is no one authority then declare that the stamp is or is not genuine, sound or not, og or not and state that the shade is iindeterminant.

In the case of blackjacks stamp, no matter what the shade, if sound and with og, that is still a seriously desirable and valuable stamp.

I would give them a call. I can't help with your actual question as I have never used their swrvice.

Andyrich I have no experience using APEX. I have used the PSE and PF
for my stamps. I believe both of these stamp certifying organizations have
the most respect and trust of both collectors and dealers. That said I find
both will certify stamps in less than a month especially if they are told
The stamp was bought at auction and is on extension.

There are always exceptionally hard stamp submissions of which
I have had 2 taking more than 4 months and one 8 months.
The 70, Washington 24c on thin paper is in the final stages.
I have emailed the PF chairman and have gotten stock reply.

It is yet another area where transparency would be helpful. They must have an internal log with date in, status, notes, transmit info, special requirements, expert assigned, date out and so on and it would do wonders for a customer to know what is going on. In addition, speaking for myself, when it starts to take abnormally long to receive opinions I begin to look for stamps that already have really current certs or put off other submissions unless it is critical.

I do not know about the APS as much but with others it has always irked me that at times my submissions will take months to be returned and yet dealers that I know rarely wait more than a month or so.

Rodgcam: re your comment about dealer vs collector waits: that blows a hole in the so-called submitter anonymity factor claimed but many of us have never believed

@rodcam: It is not unknown for submitters to pressure expertizers.