How Long Is The PF Taking To Issue Certificates Nowadays?

Just curious how long the PF is taking, given the pandemic, to issue certs after collectors send in their material. Anyone who has sent in over the last 4-5 months who would be willing to comment on actual experience? It took about 6 weeks a year or so ago when I sent in about a dozen, but I assume the timing is being stretched a bit. Have some more that I'm thinking about submitting. I have also messaged the PF to get their feedback on current expected timing. Thanks.

I recently had one take 3 months to get back.

I sent a US item in 7/1 and got it back 8/20 ... a little over 7 weeks. I suppose a lot has to do with how challenging the item is.

I've been waiting for a lot to come back that I submitted mid September (14th) with the 20 day response checked (and paid for). As I said, I'm still waiting.

Thanks for your replies. I've been searching for some items in the PF database and am trying to get a handle on how to, if possible, connect a cert number with a date of issuance, since I'm not seeing that in the database. Would anyone who has recently received back a cert from PF be willing to forward (by PM if preferred), the certificate number and date issued? Or would someone have a tip on whether there is a way to get an issuance date for a particular cert number? Thanks again.

Related to that, I have noticed that PF has not posted the stamp I got back on 8/20 into their seachable database.

I submitted an item on August 24th and received it back on October 26th

They have have a particularly challenging item of mine for almost a year now.

I like the PSE database on StampSmarter (thank you, Don) since it appears to be pretty up to date and shows pics of the actual certs so you can see all the comments and the date. I'm still trying to figure out if there is a way to see what the date is for PF certs since the actual cert is not shown on their website (unless I'm missing something). It also appears to me that the PF database is not quite up to date. But I appreciate all this info being available; COVID slowing things down no doubt.

Not having dates in the PF database has always irked me and made research difficult at times. Not sure what the reason for not having dates is.

Oracle of Delphi -


The only way I found to get a handle on PF certificate dates was to create my own database. I did it with my own collection, and it's been very useful. I simply made a spreadsheet with a sampling of the PF certs on my own stamps. I found that after entering 80 certs and sorting by certificate number, I could map the date of just about any other certificate I was searching in the PF database to within 6 months. I'd be happy to share it with anyone who wants to send me an email.

I have a handful of pretty standard items that have been in at the PF since mid August, and I'm still waiting. Going on 4 months now.

Matt

Just wanted to bump this thread since I am trying to figure out how up-to-date the PF cert database is. Would anyone who has received a certificate back in Aug, Sep or Oct be willing to let me know what the date of the cert is and the cert number? You can PM me if you wish to keep the info confidential. Thank you in advance.

PM sent

Finally received my 5 items back from the PF, that were sent in in August (nearly 6 months wait). Certificate numbers 570831-570835 (and they're even already available online!).

-Matt

For a relatively small fee, you can get express service. I wonder if there are so many people doing that that the people paying for standard service are constantly getting pushed to the back of the line?