Has Anyone Ever Met A Re-Perfer?

We discuss re-perforated stamps a lot in this forum. Has anyone ever met and discussed the practice with a actual practitioner? I was looking through the PSE database at used US 154's (not an outrageously expensive stamp) and was surprised at the number of reperf calls, even on stamps that would be graded "fine" at best. I wonder if much of the "work" is recent or was done 50 years or more ago.

Also, based on what I've seen posted on this forum, it seems that PSE is more likely to make a reperf call than PF - any opinions on that?Just curious ...

Might have met one right here on SCF and not even known it.

And yes I do think that PSE calls more reperfs than PF. Not an empirical finding but rather a personal opinion.

Only third hand; I have had discussions with knowledgeable dealers who have known people who have done reperfing.

Don't know who the re-perfers are, but I was pretty chagrined when a good number of my higher value stamps with older certs or no certs were deemed reperfed and got whacked at auction. I still have no idea why someone would go to the trouble of reperfing some of these stamps. My initial emotional reaction was - are all these really reperfed (proof please?) or are the "experts" currently obsessed with this particular fault nowadays? More rational reaction - only buy higher value stamps that have recent certs or can be put on extension to get same.

Like Oracle, I can see someone taking the time to re-perf high end stamps. To see $25-$250 stamps (of which there are plenty of) doctored, it doesn't make sense. To make it look "right" must require an extensive amount of time and skill.

And practice.
Don

If you think it's just "experts obsessed", I suggest you start searching for mid to high value Columbians, or Trans-Miss, or Scott 259-263 and 274-278 issues that still have a natural straight edge.

And once someone gets proficient at using reperfing equipment, I suspect that it does not take a whole lot of time to produce a doctored stamp.

Here is a firm that advertises stamp restoration and reperforation
http://home.golden.net/~hanssitt/HAM/SRShome.html
it looks like the webpage was last updated 15 years ago, so I don't know if they are still active.

Another way around getting this particular 'burn' is to collect imperfs only. My passion is in the 1847, 1851 issues. Of course, there are other things to worry about. Anyway, a secondary interest of mine is 'anything pretty', so I DO dabble in the perforated era, so I guess I am still subject to the re-perfer's craft. I am sure I have met a re-perfer or two, but not knowingly.

Restoration:FCI Restoration.

https://goscf.com/t/43694

Of course imperf stamps can come from trimmed examples of perforated stamps, too. It's often not financially feasible for postage issues, but it happens with first issue revenues all the time. and flat plate coils, of course.

Here's a 9 page thread with the people from FCI stamp restoration service from May 2015.

https://goscf.com/t/43694

And their Homepage;

http://home.golden.net/~hanssitt/SR.../ordrus.html

I have been involved with stamps as a hobby since the late 1960s and with stamp dealers very closely since then having worked in the trade. I've been involved with retail & wholesale mail sales, mail auctions, price lists, stamp shows, storefronts, auction houses, promotional sales and internet sales over the years. I've known and worked with old-times dealers who had Nassau Street shops, some gone since the 1970s, who knew steady suppliers of re-perfed material and could get it done to order. The dealers who learned the trade from that generation also knew who and how to re-perf stamps. Re-perfing is still practiced today as the techniques are still being passed on. I have seen several such operations over the last few decades and I have learned how it is done and how the tools are made as well. The same goes for re-gumming and stamp restoration. In my opinion, it takes too much effort to make a steady income and the actual reliable market is too small. It was always a supplemental part of the business in my experience. A "black market" in the tools and expertise still exists. I know of a couple machine shops that can and have made the tools. They can be very high quality and produce a high quality product. Most are are neither.

Any FVF stamp, mint or used, with a straight edge or margin damage re-perfed into a Fine, even Average grade, fully perfed stamp is easily more saleable. Look around for any quantity of U.S. flat plate issues with natural straight edges and they are not to be found. 14 stamps from every pane of 50 and 19 stamps from every pane of 100 multi-pane flat plate sheets are straight edge stamps. Collectors have shunned these since they were issued. They were not all used for postage either. Large supplies of these stamps, postage really, were "improved" for promotional sales to non-collectors and for overseas markets. This included modern U.S. combination press issues from the 1980s as well. There were several competing dealers in that market in the 1980s & 1990s. This is still one of those "don't look behind the curtain" parts of the stamp industry. As I can see on this and other stamp threads, people either actually don't know about this or are keeping the facade up. Education is the key. This community is properly vigilant. Hats off to those who will talk about this issue.

A good 30+ years ago I bought an auction lot consisting of 50 of the one cent Pilgrim stamp, the "Mayflower". My goal was to select the handful of nicely centered for stock and blow the rest out cheap. Everyone of the stamps in the lot had at least one side with fake perforations. I returned the lot and the auctioneer apologized profusely. We were both of the opinion that someone might have been practicing on these relatively inexpensive stamps. Dave

Have I ever met a re-perfer? Its not like they walk around a show and introduce themselves to everyone as a reperfer. I do know a dealer (not one mentioned often if ever here) that is widely alleged to use the services of a reperfer and regummer and I'd bet the farm one of our more frequenntly mentioned dealers does too (I do know he does other "improving" himself).