Used Stamp Condition Preferences Wanted

Hello, 

I am looking for opinions and guidance in resolving a dilemma I have in collecting used stamps...

Let's say that you have three or four different copies of the same used stamp --  which one are YOU putting in your album ?

1 -- you have a beautifully centered stamp (90+) .. but with a heavy cancel ...obliterating the majority of the design - which to me is unacceptable
1A -- still beautifully  centered ...with average cancel ...but with hinge remnants covering up thins that are not visible from the front
2 -- average centering (60-80) ...but with light or very light cancel
3 -- poor centering -- even 1 side perfs into the frame margin ...but with a beautifully centered Socked-On-the-Nose (SON) cancel.

SON is where my heart is on used stamps and what keeps me so interested in collecting Belgian stamps because it's easy to find SON cancels ...but my goal is to find those with the two towns that I lived in in Belgium ...Verviers and Ixelles (a surburb of Bruxelles)

A smaller issue are stamps with a straight edge ...usually sheet stamps as opposed to booklet stamps -- I've never been fond of one straight edge on a stamp and usually pass or replace it with a good copy with perfs all four sides...

A final issue that throws a monkey wrench into things is when you have a less desirable stamp but has great vibrant color for a used stamp as opposed to a faded or toned stamp.

My solution to date has been to replace lesser quality stamps with nicely centered SON cancels which is easy to do with Belgium and Great Britain but much harder to do with US stamps ... as I don't come across that many US stamps with nice SON cancels

While I realize that everybody collects to their own preferences I'm really interested in hearing how others have resolved this issue on collecting used stamps

When I first started collecting as a child in Belgium my local dealer who was German was very fastidious about a stamps condition when adding to your collection ... I was taught at that time that a stamp with missing perfs or tears or Thins was not acceptable and should be thrown away ...unless it had a nice SON cancel which would be a space filler until a sound copy could be obtained...
over the years I have thrown away many $100 plus stamps that were damaged because I didn't feel anyone would have any interest in them

You can use my trash can in the future.

Vandalism.
Acting on poor advice.

not 1 - I want to see the design

I'm going to put stamp 2 in the album. At least I can see the image and enjoy the stamp.

When I get another copy, I can check which one looks better. That may mean a swap on the page, but I'll have an easy side by side comparison then.

I was strictly a MNH kinda guy up until about 10-years ago when I got hold of one of the old bound Scott Brown Internationals 1840-1900 that was in near-new condition. That album only gets used SON or unusual killer/color cancelled stamps. I restrict myself to VF or better centered, fully sound stamps with clear and fully readable cancels and although at times I have to take a pass on a stamp (nice cancel with poor centering), which can be hard to do, in the long run this method has kept me satisfied with my acquisitions.

I want to see the design.

2 - seeing the design is all important to me. Especially when it comes to stamps >$10. Sometimes I am amazed at some graded stamps that get graded high mostly because of the centering despite heavy cancels. IMO the color and being to see the design details is everything.

Below is a US #72 I like because of light cancel and color. Was't too expensive because of centering but I love it.

I'll start with the last statement by you first: are you collecting for yourself or somebody else? It's only really important that you have an interest in an item for you to add it to your collection. I have many examples of all of the situations you describe and while I am partial to SON myself, the only category you list that I generally would not purchase are those with damage, tears or thins. I have several copies of early Germany and the 1900 German colonies stamps showing the Kaiser's yacht that have maybe 3 overlapping CDS cancels that I find very attractive.

I'll go for option 2: average centering (if design doesn't Touch perf. is ok) with a light cancel, preferably on a corner.
But, I must say that, being European, I collect our way. So, I don't share this US centering/grading obsession.

#1, #2, probably #3 for me. I don't throw away higher priced stamps unless they're "totally gone." 1A depends on the stamp.

There are other factors coming into play with the classic, pre-World War II, Portuguese colonial issues, and perhaps other countries: varieties in color (shades) and also perfs. Not all that common much of the time in US. Don't know Belgium real well, although kept what I had when I down-sized the world wide collection past couple years. While I'm not interested in topical collecting per se, I do like the Belgian parcel post train stamps.

Can be hard to get good, SON, cancels on the Portugal and colonies Ceres issues (1914-roughly 1939) due to the narrowness of the stamps.

My preference would be #2. I want to see the design. However, if it's a scarce stamp, I will accept anything until a better one comes along. (aka space filler)

I'll save number one and number two. And hope that at some point in the future I get a nice copy with a nice cancel to replace them both

I keep my collection in stockbooks, so I have no problem with keeping all of 1-3, or more.
I tend to keep any cancel I find interesting.

I don't collect stamp backs, and once ran an ad that read "You've heard of seconds? I collect thirds". I once bought a US #1 that was literally in two pieces. If I had to get perfect copies, I wouldn't have the stamps I enjoy. Dinged classics go for 5-10% of catalog, and like I said, I don't collect backs (except for Latvian map stamps <g>).I also don't care a huge amount about centering. I *do* care about cancels that obliterate the design. I'm aware that my resale value is low, but it's surprisingly strong -- there's a strong demand from the underground that collects like I do.

Our hobby has no "party line" - collect what you want and how you want.When I describe how I collect to newbies, I always point out that mine is very much a minority opinion, and I point out the things I don't care about (never hinged, original gum, centering, thins, etc, plus I use hinges, always from the golden age of real peelables) that many people care a great deal about. I admire collections that follow your childhood dealer's tenets. Where I disagree is the insistence that there's One True Path.

Even within the confines of my own collection there isn't "One True Path". For the past 20 years or more, I've refrained from buying anything but mint never hinged for my U.S. collection — with the exception of used space-fillers for Scott #599A and 634A. But in my Esperanto topical collection I have a lot of mint hinged stamps, even for issues where MNH copies would only cost a few cents.