PF Increases Grade After Selvedge Is Removed

I have been meaning to post this for a while because I find it to be thought provoking.

The first picture is of a 261A with selvedge attached:


The second picture is of the same 261A sans selvedge:


With selvedge removed the grade increased by five points, from 90 to 95, which increased the SMQ value from $4,000 to $6,800.

Thoughts other than "I hate grading" or similar?

There was at least 10 years in between, so different people might well have looked at it the second time.

FWIW, I would agree with the first grade (90). IMO, the 'shift' to the right is enough to rule out the 95. But then, they are not paying me to grade these things. Although we want to think that things such as grading criteria remain static, they do not. I think revcollector nailed it with his assessment.

As a casual viewer with no interest in grading, appears to have noticeably larger margin to the left and to the top. Is that five points off perfect?

The left is larger then the right, but I am not sure the top and bottom are very different. I suspect that is an optical illusion from the angle of the scan.

In general does selvedge make a difference in a stamp in terms of presentation? Does is enhance or take away from it in any way? Just curious.

Oh, the games people play now, every hour and every day now, never knowing what they bought now, so they rely on others to have the final say about what they should pay.

Hid away for days and days now, until it becomes time to sell now, and they realize what they thought was golden then, was just marketing hype back in the day, causing them to overpay.

Russ,
By either grading, this is a very high-grade item. Whatever point you are trying to make, makes no sense. Can you translate it into English?

Presentationally, stamp-edging tends to detract from appearance, especially if you use printed albums. But it generally shouldn't be removed if it contains information or from older stamps. I certainly wouldn't have yanked the edging from this stamp.

Hola, That makes sense. I don't like how it looks in my Album pages, but I don't mess with it because I worry I'll ruin the Perfs or something. Thanks Geoff :)

I agree, I would not have removed it either. I suspect it was removed by a dealer, possibly because he thought that it would bring a higher grade that way. Which it did.

Some collectors see stamps with margin selvedge as more interesting or visually appealing than those without. I almost exclusively collect imperforate stamps (1851-57 U.S.), and I prefer specimens with margin selvedge (the bigger, the better). Margin selvedge on an imperforate stamp also makes it a lot easier to determine the sheet position the stamp came from, for those who like to plate the stamps.

And occasionally the margins on 1851's have real substance, such as the triple transfer, one inverted variety.

Guess it kind of shows that even numerical grading is relative. The beauty will always lie in the eye of the beholder, not in the grade. +1 for keeping the selvedge attached.

John, grading gives a false sense of value to stamps especially to newer collectors who do not know the hobby. Yes, it is a great stamp relative to the 99.95% of stamps out there by volume worth pennies. But a 70% increase. See the adjacent thread about zep set auctions. I can remember when they were hot and pristine sets sold for north of 6,000, too. History will repeat itself.

Hoosier - One difference between the 261A and the C15 for is that there are 6 mint copies of 261A graded 95 or above and 268 mint copies of C15 graded 95 or above. 202 of the C15 copies are MNH. Only two copies of the 261A are MNH. Things are far from simple when you delve into the numbers. Finding well centered copies of the dollar issues of this series is very difficult.

The back story on the 261A is that I bought it from Ed at Century with selvedge detached but included and with the 2006 PF cert. Ed did not remove it to grade it again. He has told me multiple times that he usually removes selvedge because stamps sell better without it and a lot of customers remove it anyway. I decided to sell the stamp along with some others through Christopher Rupp and Christopher had the eye to decide whether to recertify and if so should another shot at grading be attempted. He did it on his own and was right in his judgement.

I appreciate the comments. Personally I would have liked to have owned the stamp with selvedge attached because I have a thing for that condition. I am trying to understand though how it changed the aesthetic enough to bump the number. Interesting. I wish that the PF and PSE provided notes with certificates regarding the process and findings.