I'm Still Green And Have A Lot To Learn. Dose Anyone See Anything Worth Certifying?

Impossible to evaluate with these photographs, although these appear to be common varieties.

You need to provide a clear, focused image of each individual stamp, a FULL image, not just part of the stamp. The front side is all that would be required initially.

The image should preferably be from a scanner; if you use a phone camera, hold it directly above the stamp and not at a slant.

Review other threads with the same question, and see how they present their stamps, and how the experienced members respond.

Ok the 3rd stamp down shows a backwards sideways 'P' at the top center. Now to make sure I just checked 50 other 331s and not one had a backwards sideways watermark. So this is the norm.

Onaroll - I ask the question of you "what do you see that makes you think that these may be valuable"?

Although it does not show fully in your cropped scans, the pair of stamps in the third image has a straight edge at both left and right. It is from a booklet pane (2 stamps wide, 3 stamps high), which was printed with the paper turned 90 degrees, thus the watermarked letters are turned. Very normal.

Second, it has George Washington on it, so it will not be Scott 331 which portrays Benjamin Franklin. It is perf 10, which will make it Scott 424.

Maybe this will help. http://alternativeinvestmentcoach.c...e-us-stamps/

Sorry, but the article you link to is a bunch of crap, to put it bluntly. The stamp illustrated as item #8 is the wrong illustration - it shows a #300 stamp issued in 1903 rather than a grilled stamp of the late 1860s. Also item #4 shows the wrong illustration, which was meant to be a coil stamp of a different design, probably Scott #316. A couple of others should be corrected/debunked too, but these two are the ones which have mislead you.

Onaroll, if you are trying to value your stamps you need to go to a stamp website, not an investment blog that is written by someone that does not know much about stamps. Some info that you can use and learn from can be found on this excellent website: www.stampsmarter.com

Peter

I just read the referenced article. What a pile!! All kinds of errors. Writers should not be allowed to write about things they have no idea about. No novice should be investing in stamps! If one wishes to start it as a hobby, learn about it for a decade or so, THEN sink $$$ into a few well-chosen issues, then Go For It. This lady's expertise in the field of philately appears to be --ZERO--. Just because she CLAIMS to be an investment expert doesn't make her so. A swing and a miss on this particular article.

Thank you for your advice. I'm not so much looking for $ value there already priceless to me. I have never learned so much from any other hobby as I have have from collecting stamps and as you can see have a long ways to go! TY

Onaroll, my previous post may have seemed harsh. My intent was not to discourage you from pursuing this hobby, or to even make you think it is not something to 'invest' in. It is a great hobby for the right type of person, and you can learn a lot if that is your goal. Also, on this forum, there are tons of people willing to help you along with all kinds of knowledge/experience. If you pursue it, you will have successes and failures (I suspect we all have!), but in the end it is important to have fun and feel fulfilled.

Based on what I saw in the pictures, no. All are pretty common stamps. An example of what you should send for certification. Say you come across an 1869 pictorial that doesn't appear to have a grill impressed on it. The 1 cent vwrsion doesn't justify the cost and effort of certification, but the other varieties do. Same goes for the grilled issues especially Scott 142. These are examples that certification is useful for, but there are many others. Also, if you are thinking about buying a rare stamp that is uncertified like a 143, insist that it be certified before completing the sale.