What Does "App" Mean In A Stamp Description

I see it all the time and I have to finally admit I don't know what it means.

Typically it is after centering, like " VF (App) "

Appears

Could it be Appearance? I have seen that description before.

It means that the stamp has that "appearance", but may have some faults (which hopefully are also included in the description). "App" or "appearance" is intended to inform the person reading the description that the stamp is not fault-free.

When I see "VF App" on ebay it usually means that if I take my glasses off and and look at the computer screen through a heavily finger-printed beer mug, I can't see the faults.

SPQR!

Thank you all. I wouldn't have guessed that and I'm betting there are plenty of novice collectors out there clueless as well.

"VF Appearing." VF centering but with flaws.

When I see a comment like "appears VF", alarm bells go off.

Yup, it is like adding the qualifier "but" to a description. But what you might ask.

The sushi appears to be fresh…the car appears to not have been in an accident…the document appears to be real…my wife appears to be happy….

The other one is appears NH. I tend to not like dealers who use terms like that.

App = Approximately

Jack Kelley

no appears, not approx
approx means close to or roughly the same
appears means it looks like (vf or what ever) but really has some fault that isn't obvious
very different things

Perhaps those sellers who use 'appears to be...' are those sellers who have been burned by buyers who claim 'Not as described'. An 'appears to be...' qualifier is less definitive.
Don

or burned by their own poor descriptions

For some reason the vast majority of ebay sellers don't put any additional information about the stamp in the lot description. They cover themselves with code words like "unused" instead of saying "no gum" or "appears" instead of describing faults.

I'm a big user of the description. I'm not going to claim to be perfect, but I do try to list any and all faults explicitly. That doesn't always work either though; as a surprising number of buyers don't seem to ever read the description.