Choosing the best

Hi all,

Of the following criteria, which are considered the most important
when choosing a stamp to put in an album.

Centering
Perforation condition
lighter cancellation mark
slight crease but only visible on the back.
discoloured around the edge.

I do appologise if i am asking questions that get asked all the time
but i am now on a firm mission to sort my old collection out and try
and replace anything that i have damaged when younger.

Also, i am using the SG cats as refrence, my collection is not worth a
fortune but just by flicking through a few likly area's it would seem
that it would cost a few hundred pounds to replace, should i use the
values in SG to calculate an insurance value ?

Regards

Craig

Craig wrote:

Hi all,

Of the following criteria, which are considered the most important
when choosing a stamp to put in an album.

Centering
Perforation condition
lighter cancellation mark
slight crease but only visible on the back.
discoloured around the edge.


I know this problem well! How to choose between two or more
not-quite-perfect specimens.

I rather think that if a stamp has any of your defects, its value has
probably dropped to 10% or less of the catalogue and so resale value
need not be considered too much in making the decision.

You could have a points system for each defect and mark the stamp
between 1-5 (say) for "good" to "'orrible", add up the scores and pick
the winner.

I tend to arrange them all in a row and pick whichever simply looks
"best". If it's one of a set and none of the others is particularly well
centered, then centering is not so important. If the others are close to
perfect, then centering might be of more significance.

When things get really tough, I may find room for all contenders by
pointing out that "this selection indicates the range of
colours/sizes/sharpness of image to be found in this issue".

If all else fails, I remove the non-starters from the line up and ask
the wife.

All the best,
Bob Watson

Of the following criteria, which are considered the most important
when choosing a stamp to put in an album.

Centering
Perforation condition
lighter cancellation mark
slight crease but only visible on the back.
discoloured around the edge.

I myself cannot single out any one reason. Always try to put the best
possible stamp in my collection, but sometimes there has to be an exception to
every rule. It all depend on the sta,mp. Even a damaged stamp is preferable
(temporary or perminent) if the stamp is rare or quite expensive.

Dave
Use commemorative stamps on ALL your mail.
Introduce the hobby of collecting stamps to someone.
Above all, enjoy your hobby regardless of what you collect!

Craig,

I would rank the visible (when mounted) defects as worse than the invisible
ones. So a crease only visible from the back would make it into my
collection faster than say a discoloured or torn stamp. I often exchange
stamps when I find better examples, I now mark stamps with a light pencil
arrow to indicate I want to replace it (particularily useful for stamps with
slight thins) and do not take it off my want list until I am satisfied with
my copy. I am not as picky abut cancellations - but will upgrade killers as
opportunities arise. Also the funny thing about centering is that if it is
good that is great, if it is really bad that is also great - dramatic
misperfs (where the design is cut) often end up on auction. I am easily
happy with 4 clear margins no matter the proportion, but that is just me.

Frank

"Bob Ingraham" wrote in message
...
I generally dislike discolorations or stains on any stamp, but I have
many,
especially on cover. In each case, other criteria determine the
collectibility of the item in question. An example is a German cover
franked
with both of the Hindenburg stamps, and flown on the Hindenburg. The
Hindenburg stamps were gummed with a highly acidic gum which has turned
them
brown. They probably won't last another generation, but I was willing to
pay
good money for it just to have it in *my* generation!

Bob,

As always an excellent post! I am curious though, is there not something you
can do to slow down the ravages of time on this one? Perhaps a neutralizing
bath such as book restorers use? I am not suggesting destroying the cover,
but wouldn't it be nice to know you left something so interesting to the
next generation.

Frank

Bob,

As always an excellent post! I am curious though, is there not something you
can do to slow down the ravages of time on this one? Perhaps a neutralizing
bath such as book restorers use? I am not suggesting destroying the cover,
but wouldn't it be nice to know you left something so interesting to the
next generation.

Frank

Thanks for the compliment, Frank. I've wondered as well about some sort of
neutralizing solution. I know that neutralizing sprays are used by
professional restorers, but I can't imagine anything that could penetrate
through the the stamp to the gum without further damaging the cover. I
suppose there must be methods that work, but they are probably very
expensive. Perhaps I'll try to talk to some local people. In fact, a past VP
of our stamp club works for a local museum. He might have some thoughts. If
I learn anything, I'll post the information.

Bob

P.S. I've uploaded an image of the Hindenburg cover to my website (and
tested it): http://www.ingraham.ca/bob/hindenburgacid.jpg. In case you or
any other collectors add the Hindenburg stamps to their collection, they
should be aware that "MNH" in this case is the kiss of death. The gum will
destroy the stamps, so it has to be soaked off. I wonder how MNH purists
deal with that?

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 17:38:44 GMT, Bob Ingraham
wrote:

Very nice, and what a piece of history.
Thanks for all your comments to my questions, might have a few more to
ask in to comming days.. Missus is not happy though, said i'm going to
come home from fishing, sort stamps, fiddle with my sat dish then go
to bed !

Craig

"Craig" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 17:38:44 GMT, Bob Ingraham
wrote:

Very nice, and what a piece of history.
Thanks for all your comments to my questions, might have a few more to
ask in to comming days.. Missus is not happy though, said i'm going to
come home from fishing, sort stamps, fiddle with my sat dish then go
to bed !


Neglect the missus to your own peril Craig. Show her how amorous you can be
and perhaps she will ignore the price of a few new additions to your
collection. ;-) My wife is sneaky though, sent me to the stamp show today
with my oldest daughter (3), of course sitting at a table was out of the
question, but we did look at the displays together. Was some nice SSs at one
booth, wish I had time to really examine the Ceylon collection I was eying.
Next time. I do hope one of my girls takes an interest though, something we
could do together.

Frank