Grading at its concomitant price inflation is what drove me away from coin collecting into the gummy arms of stamps. Yes, it's one thing to grade rare coins and stamps but the price increases eventually percolate down to all levels
In the past I've collected baseball cards, comics, and books (in particular vintage paperbacks). Cards and comics both succumbed to grading mania for modern, and even fresh off the presses, items. I have not seen it in book collecting, yet, and hope it never happens. In fact, book collecting seems to be the only collectible area I know of that accepts the practice of owners and dealers defacing books without penalty, with writing on the flyleaf giving owner's name or a bookstore stamp, or even writing in prices and "1st edition" notations.
Ted, you don't have a "bane" here, you have a pet peeve. (Look up the definition of the former.) But semantics aside, I'd like to make a few points.
* The Navy stamp priced at 10c in your illustration may be a stock photo. That is, you could buy this and end up with a similar stamp with far inferior centering.
* Don't pay too much attention to asking prices for these modern graded stamps. It is easy to bid low if buying and offer high if selling. Focus instead on completed listings and the prices that such graded example do actually bring. The prices may be far different.
* You really do need to handle a lot of stamps over the course of your philatelic career to know "how they come," i.e., what the typical condition is for a particular issue. At least for issues prior to 1940, you might be surprised at the scarcity of really well-centered, NH, flawless examples.
* My pet peeve is not modern graded stamps, it is those Ebay sellers pushing very common 1c green Washington stamps, for example, often used and damaged, as "VINTAGE" and "RARE" for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. In some cases, the sellers may be naive, but I think most are scammers hoping to find the unwitting sucker. Now that will turn you off from philately!
Ted--The situation you describe is worse than I thought. Certainly it is misleading when a "grade" ignores faults.
I avoid this silliness plus the MNH madness by collecting used stamps. I collect stamps, not gum.
That’s the way to go. 👍
Grading at its concomitant price inflation is what drove me away from coin collecting into the gummy arms of stamps. Yes, it's one thing to grade rare coins and stamps but the price increases eventually percolate down to all levels
In the past I've collected baseball cards, comics, and books (in particular vintage paperbacks). Cards and comics both succumbed to grading mania for modern, and even fresh off the presses, items. I have not seen it in book collecting, yet, and hope it never happens. In fact, book collecting seems to be the only collectible area I know of that accepts the practice of owners and dealers defacing books without penalty, with writing on the flyleaf giving owner's name or a bookstore stamp, or even writing in prices and "1st edition" notations.
Ted, you don't have a "bane" here, you have a pet peeve. (Look up the definition of the former.) But semantics aside, I'd like to make a few points.
* The Navy stamp priced at 10c in your illustration may be a stock photo. That is, you could buy this and end up with a similar stamp with far inferior centering.
* Don't pay too much attention to asking prices for these modern graded stamps. It is easy to bid low if buying and offer high if selling. Focus instead on completed listings and the prices that such graded example do actually bring. The prices may be far different.
* You really do need to handle a lot of stamps over the course of your philatelic career to know "how they come," i.e., what the typical condition is for a particular issue. At least for issues prior to 1940, you might be surprised at the scarcity of really well-centered, NH, flawless examples.
* My pet peeve is not modern graded stamps, it is those Ebay sellers pushing very common 1c green Washington stamps, for example, often used and damaged, as "VINTAGE" and "RARE" for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. In some cases, the sellers may be naive, but I think most are scammers hoping to find the unwitting sucker. Now that will turn you off from philately!
bane
1 of 3
noun (1)
ˈbān
Synonyms of bane
1
: a source of harm or ruin : CURSE