What The Auctioneer Means Is ...

Very funny!!!

They missed one:

Very presentable copy = 1/8 inch cut off from the top and reperfed

after describing a minor fault: "does not detract" = please ignore this fault when deciding how much to bid
"appears never hinged" = not never hinged

I almost forgot.....

Short corner perf = corner torn away

'Appearing', as in 'great appearing', 'fresh appearing', etc = looks like a normal stamp as long as you don't turn it over.

'Spacefiller' = complete piece of crud. Even the describer can't talk this one up in any way. I described a stamp as a spacefiller once - I got a talking-to by the boss. My understanding after that was that there were many other words in the English language and that one should not be used as it doesn't have any descriptive value. Haha.

ETA: "Somewhat faulty" = spacefiller, but the describer got a talking-to by the boss.

When describing a specialized lot: "A few small faults as normally found on a lot like this" = not a sound stamp in the lot.

When describing a specialized lot: "A few small faults as normally found on a lot like this, but with many presentable copies" = not a sound stamp in the lot. A house-owned lot.

This is not limited to just Auctioneers, here are a few for some SCF users

How rare is this error? = How much can I get for this badly centered stamp?
These stamps came from an album that has not been touched in 75 years = There is no way I have any stamp forgeries
I think I found a rare stamp = I found a stamp that looks a bit like mine listed on ebay for thousands of dollars
I just inherited my grandpa's collection = I just picked this up at a garage sale
I am here to learn = Please tell me the answers
Here is a scan of my stamp = Here is an image from an ebay listing
What shade is this stamp? = I have no clue about color theory or computer imaging
What fancy cancel is this? = What is this big black blob
I an new at this = Please ignore my ebay stamp listings going back 8 years
I just found a new undiscovered perforation = I do not care that catalog publishers round perforations
Hey look, I found a way to work around SCF rules = I want to have my SCF account locked


Don

My favorite ----- "I have a nice collection here for sale ,just got it from a old lady who,s husband died 25 years ago and I just don't have time to go thru it ."

Many I've seen come to mind, I'll limit my contribution to two.

STC or OC ("Stated to Catalogue" or "Owner's Catalogue) = "Owner insists this pile of junk's worth $10K, we thought $300. To avoid an argument and get the consignment, we let him add it up."

"Expertly Reperfed" = "This one fooled me. On the right day, you could fool someone else and make money on it."

I have seen this more and more over the last few years. This is, quite simply, the describer being lazy. Some auction houses do this more than others. Some do it so often that I wonder what they actually do to earn their commission. What really bugs me is when it is a 'face' lot of sheets of modern postage and they say "Owner's Face Value'. The ONLY way to evaluate such a lot is to know what the face value is. I don't know about you, but I ALWAYS feel like an "owner's" value should be taken with a grain of salt. When an auction house gets 30-35% (15% from the consignor plus 20% from the buyer) for something that they have no money into, they should give the consignor the benefit of their expertise. Of course, I am only writing about lots that don't lend themselves to Estimated Values.

When I was a lot describer, first starting out, one of my jobs was to take all the lots that had "owner" values, confirm/determine them, and use THAT value in the description. Only about 3/4 of the "owner's values" were accurate - value gets added/removed from collections, sometimes the value is years old, etc.

This practice is laziness. Period. Are there any auctioneers reading this???

Auction houses almost always get at least somewhat lazy when it comes to large lots due to time constraints; they simply don't have the time to do them all. They also figure that most large lots are looked at and bought by dealers who have a good idea of the real value anyway, so most mistakes will be caught.

Owner's Catalogues are notoriously generous for sure - we all like to put the generous interpretation on our collection... When I see that in an auction, I apply a discount of 25-33% to come up with the "real" catalogue value.

Pet peeve - when an auction listing gives only Retail Value - meaningless without context - it could be 25%, 50% or 100% of Scott - all depending on the pricing policy of the last owner/dealer.

Of course, sometimes the "owner's value" is actually accurate. Discounting those numbers too much can help explain why one might lose the lot.

My favourite regardless of what is being sold is always: "As is"

unsorted - we didn't say untouched, we took the good ones out