Scott 467 Stamp Multiple Mutilated For A Grade

This stamp (or whatever you call it) is in the upcoming Golden Oak auction.




Those of you who have read my comments in the past know that in general I am a fan of sensible grading BUT things like this really do harm to the cause. Why on earth would you mutilate the pair shown on the certificate and then double down by chopping that up further to achieve a highly graded stamp. Not to mention that having a complete block gives so much context to the nature of this spectacular error. Shameful.

LOT 114

https://stampauctionnetwork.com/GO/...6.cfm#Lot114

After getting the new cert, they probably had no choice but to split it up:

Items such as this is one reason that I despise grading. It has done irreparable harm to the hobby, even though it has made a lot of money for some people and probably sold more stamps then might have been sold.

Stupid is as stupid does. It doesn't even look attractive, and as rog noted has completely lost its very important context

I for one, appreciate the callback to Billy Madison on that second cert.

Well, I just found something interesting regarding the mutilated 467. It was offered in March of 2021 by Siegel with a reserve of $800 and went unsold. Lot 3666 in Sale 1278.

https://siegelauctions.com/lot_grd....emailflag=on

Unbelieveable that this is also happening to perforated stamps. Are perforated stamps going to look better if their neighboring stamps are going to be mutilated?

Disturbing trend.
I will deliver mine to the auction house in their intact blocks - or my heirs will - but after that, what can we do? How might we affect the larger culture to educate collectors to avoid this?

The Rumsey block was delivered intact and with PF Cert to the auctioneer. It was the auction company which broke the item up for a hoped for better price.

Now one reason I can think of for such actions is that the new hingeless albums as well as other modern albums have space for the 5 cent color errors as a single stamp. Even the just as rare pair is just two singles to an album. Just the same as the folks who take off the plate number or other selvage from stamps so they "look better" on the page.





***Post Edited by adding strike through for first sentence as requested by poster.***

PPG hit on the main reason why many of these errors become singles. A single album space combined with clueless collectors. That does not explain the choice of trimming made with the 467 however. Truly bizarre. Equally odd that Siegel could not sell it at the reserve of $800 so Golden Oak doubles down and opens at $2200.

"The Rumsey block was delivered intact and with PF Cert to the auctioneer. It was the auction company which broke the item up for a hoped for better price."

I seriously doubt they did that without the owner's permission.

I'm personally not a big fan of selvage as I like stamps to fit the mounts in my album, but I very rarely would buy a stamp with selvage anyway. The few I've bought and removed the selvage, the selvage had been hinged or was noted with a defect on a certificate where the stamp was otherwise perfect, MNH.

I had a graded item a while back that had selvage and asked PSE if the stamp would receive the same grade if I removed the selvage... their response was that it would almost never change the grade.

The item posted here is just abhorrent and whoever thought the stamp was going to get some kind of '100J' grading for a perforated stamp grossly misunderstood how this works.

Stamp grading is the "woke" of philately.

No, it's the fascism of philately.

Someone needs a meds adjustment.