Help Identifing This Signature On The Back Of Stamp

All Lovely Forum members,

Thank you for the Knowledge & Time you share to keep the Philately still a Fun Hobby for both Older and Younger generations to pursue.
I am new to this forum, I am from India and have been a stamp collector for 25 Years now.
Though started the hobby for fun, Now seriously into it making my collection a Specialized collection. I collect the countries I have lived over the years.
USA, Belgium, Germany & France, United Arab Emirates and Of course India :-)

I am writing my first Post to seek the help of Knowledgeable seniors here in the Forum to identify the dealer / Owner stamp on the back of one of the Stamps. Any help would be really appreciated.

It would help if you would show the front of the stamp.

Here is the Actual Stamp -

Welcome.

This pair is suspect to my hobbyist eye; the line pair line between the stamps is not straight. See image below, the line at the top is centered in perforation hole while the line at the bottom is set off to the right side.

As a flat plate pair, the perforations should not align horizontally. It appears to me that something is going on with the perforations.
Don



Information of possible 'source' pairs that are often used to fake these...
https://stampsmarter.org/1847usa/WFFakes.html

Thank you Don, for the quick reply.
That's what I suspected too. It was sold as 388 Line Pair.
The Stamp is signed on the back. Want to know who stamped it and whats the Legacy of this Stamp.

It is probably just an owner's mark


Peter

Thanks Petert4522 for the response.

@Don & @Petert4522,
The Stamp is sold on ebay from 'Mike Zimpfer Stamp Store'
Any idea about the reputation of this dealer.

The Owner Mark does it authenticate the Pair as 388?

An owner's mark means nothing more than that it was once in someone's collection.

'Mike Zimpfer Stamp Store sells under the ebay account named Boots4222. he is also a member here in this community under the name Gizzmo4222.

He may see this thread and reply. If you search on Boots4222 in this forum you will find a few threads including this one
https://goscf.com/t/83017

I have had few transactions with him including one where he sent me an empty envelope. At first, he felt the stamp was in there the envelope when he shipped it. But a few days later the same stamp was relisted by him. When I brought this to his attention, he made the situation right with me and I was satisfied. But I was glad I had followed up closely, it only cost me my time.
Don

Another observation ... The top and bottom edges are not parallel, Consider these editings of the image:

I first cropped-off the left and right ends slightly, into the outer frame line to get this image:


Then I abutted two copies of the above image end-to-end. I do not know the parameters of how the oriiginal image was made, but I know the printed dimensions of the stamps must be the same size. Then ignoring the top and bottom edges, I aligned the printed images, making sure they were matched by height. The top and bottom edges are not the same distance apart!

Another observation..
If the image is a cell phone picture, then lens distortion effects make all your point moot.
In coil cases, anything but a good hires scan is useless.

Counterfeit perforations, counterfeit line to try to hide them.

I am unsure that the most important point has been made yet, why would anyone with a cert-less mint 388 line pair list it on ebay starting at $0.99? Seems like a pretty big warning signal.

Second most important point, the overwhelming majority of cert-less W/F coils on ebay are faked/altered (often heard percentage of faked/altered at 85%). Seems like a pretty big warning signal.

Last point, know as much about who you are buying from as you do about what you are buying.

It is important to note that a Google search on this sellers ebay name (Boots4222) would have brought up the SCF threads in the first search result. But because this seller's listings are now under his store name of Mike Zimpfer Stamp Store and the original Boots4222 does not appear in his listings. Interesting.

But now with this thread and moving forward, buyers who do discovery on who they are buying from will be able to find it and make better informed buying decisions.

Hopefully, people understand that flaunting the APS membership/logo in an ebay listings meant zero in this case. APS does not have the resources needed to police its own HipStamp APS Store never mind the entirety of ebay.
Don

That is too low according to what several very knowledgeable people have told me, it's at least 90% and possibly higher. Starting at 99 cents allows people to think they have a chance at a bargain, and it's cheaper to list that way. The type of buyer who would bid on an item like this are not the type to think logically about why is the starting bid so low, anyway.

Wow, Thank you so much for the responses, its enlightening. What about this Stamp - This is a Fake too?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/355245265598

Please go to the 'Search' button at the top of this page and type in NYStamps. You will need to reserve about an hour or so to read through all the bad experiences, fake stamps, and frustrated buyers who have previously done business with them.

Also ask yourself, why would anyone have a stamp with a catalog value of $42,000+ be selling it on ebay without any certification and starting at $0.01?
Don