SuperButt - who is it?
I am being harassed by SuperButt - I have reported him to HipCommerce but he continues. He is posting serial $50 offers on my collection of XF Columbians listed at $9,000.00 - he may not like the posted price but this is abusive. Any way to handle him? I know we can't block a buyer. Thanks! Getting certificates on the collection to support the price, if sold individually, even on auction it would go for more than that. I may break it up to get the full value - I just hate to. It was carefully put together by a collector who died of covid.
Comments
Greg (commas not needed here!)
Sadly, only 2 of the stamps are VF (231 and 240). Most are F, but they will "grade" lower to VG (even some of the F/VF's) because of the faults they have. The 230 has multiple creases, the 232 is thinned with hinge and an occlusion, 235 is thinned, the 237 would be F/VF but has 2 blind perfs which would drop it to F, the 238 has corner crease 240 looks to have some gum loss 241 has a nibbled perf at bottom right, the 243 should be F/VF (just bordering on it), but the inked backs tamps make it undesirable, because over time, they will bleed through to the front, and most collectors will avoid this, or at the very least, it drops the value because of the long term issue of ink bleed, and the 244 is either toned or stained (or possible gum soak, which could be a sign of an attempt to redistribute gum).
The conditions are so mixed, it will be very hard to sell it as a collection, and I don't think you'll like my assessment, but I think the top CV of this lot is closer to $4,250 given the condition. I know there is an emotional element for you with this collection, and that is often the hardest part of being a dealer (like the hardest part of being a parent is knowing when to let your children hurt...), you sometimes have to let go of the sentiment and follow the market. I'm not trying to tell you how to be a dealer. I just don't think you will find a buyer for this collection, and some of the better items are being dragged down by the rest of them.
The mint Columbians also have a wide variety of gum and regum conditions yet the centering on these are really
nice all together. It is also fascinating to note many of the mint Columbians offered on the site don’t even display the back gum conditions.
This is a VF centered used 245. Dual certed and sold for $850. The 245 in her collections' centering is too close to the bottom margin to cert as VF. This will cert at F/VF which is going to grade 70. On top of that she'll pay about $45 for that cert. It will have a CV of $875, but because the grade on the cert will show 70, it will be a tough sell. The best centering is on the 240 and the 231. And centering isn't the only thing in the grading. But the majority of the items in her collection are F centering, and have faults. If you leave this group together, at the price listed, I can guarantee you, it will not sell.
I'm trying to save Victoria the cost of certs that won't pay off for her in the end.
https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/malack-245-vf-xf-seldom-seen-with-such-a-lite-cancemore-gu2289/36857797
https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/momen-us-stamps-230-240-1c-50c-columbians-mint-og-h-lot-72435/39001197
Let me be clear as well... I'm not saying the "price" Is $4,200. I'm saying that's what their realistic catalog value is. I would expect in this condition, you're more likely to get about 70% of CV for the lot. You can do better (on some) by breaking it up, you'll do worse on others, particularly the used copies.
https://www.hipstamp.com/giveaways/win/us-245-mint-og/256
Scott your advice is much welcomed no harm or foul done. The difference of opinion in price is subjective. For example Mystic will sell a used or mint set of Columbians for $5000-14000 so suggesting $2975 is seriously low. From my perspective I purchased my own used set individually and think I paid about $2500 in total but the 241 has a small thin and the 245 is reperforated. Surely these are twice as good in terms of price.
I would place the 245 in Victoria's lot at the same grading. (Actually I placed it higher at F/VF making it a CV of $825, assuming there are no other issues with it).
I would suggest though that the difference of opinion in price is not so subjective, and rather, if you examine the material for all aspects of condition, the prices are pretty tight ranges. That gamut of $5k - $14k demonstrates the difference between an F centered/conditioned group, and an XF centered/conditioned group. That's not subjective. And Mystic, as well as other sellers (all sellers SHOULD) use to apply a market price at time of listing. Those of course fluctuate but the same group won't fluctuate from $5k - $14k in the same year based on centering... you won't see that kind of swing even in 10 years...
One of the things that's very hard to do as a seller is accept the value of a stamp, when that value is less than we hope for. Of course we don't know how much Victoria paid to acquire the group. If she got it at a great price, then she can make money on it. If she over paid, then she's faced with two options: 1) hang on to it for a long time, hoping that it will increase in value or 2) sell it for cash flow, and take the loss, hopefully gaining in the valuation process and how to assess the next opportunity.
Option one does not look good actually. The 2015 CV for a 245 Used was $1,200, the 2021 CV for a 245 Used is $1,175. Not a huge drop, but downward trend over the past 6 years. The MNH CV is worse, $10,000 in 2015, $9,500 in 2021. While the XF-Sup (Grade 95) for both is still at $85,000.
I've been doing this a very long time, in a very disadvantaged market (I'm a US dealer based in Japan... so my access to material at better costs and more frequently is limited), and I have to deal with the added burden of selling to buyers who have to wait longer (shipping) and pay more (shipping). Despite that, I've grooved this area in particular. (In fairness, I rarely even bother to acquire Columbian issues anymore because they are invariably difficult to turn a profit, despite their high appeal and demand, largely due to expectations in condition). If it's not VF and MNH, and 50% of CV, people don't want it. And of course that's contrary to what the cost of acquisition is. As a result, good material is SLOW moving. A cert will only get you full CV on a stamp if it grades VF or better, and for the most part is MNH (at lest in this issue). All that needs to be weighed.
This is a hard thing... people see CV's and they want to get that from their material. I've looked at her other listings, and she has a lot she posts as "Regummed?" including in this set. So the suspicions is there, but in particular, images look fine until you hover over them, and then they are grainy, blurry, pixelated images that prevent you from really being able to tell the real quality of the issue. My intention is to help set expectations based on realism. In the description she has several of these noted as VF/XF and XF/Sup... check the illustrated grading chart in Scott, or the PSE Grading Guide, and you'll see very quickly, these are not in that sphere of centering. The best in the lot is the 50c. It MIGHT grade XF, but the left and right margins are off (right is wider than left), and top and bottom are slightly off (bottom larger than top), it's won't grade 95. I always marvel when people have listings like this up for months, and then wonder why no one will buy it. Most of these look to be regums as well but can't be definitive on that due to the grainy scans.
Scott# Condition Grade CV
230 HR F/VF 9.25
231 HR - Tear VG 2.5
232 HR, SP, Th VG 7.5
233 HR PF 70 3.5
234 MNH PF 70 92.5
235a HR, TH F 20
236 HR F/VF 3.25
237 NG F/VF 20
238 NG, CR F 30
239 HR, TH F 105
240 NG VF 200
241 Fake Cancel VG 110
242 NG, RPL, TH VG 110
243 DIS OG, TH F 650
244 NG, TH Faded F 450
245 Used F/VF 875
Total CV: $2,688.50
Note that one of the graded certs has a CV of $3.50. What is the value of a $27 cert for this stamp then?
I'm not beating up on Vic here, I'm citing exactly the kind of example that I have spoken about on many occasions about paying for and cost of cert. The $460 cost, in my view doesn't justify the certs in this case.
KEY: HR - Hinge Remnant, TH - Thin, RPL - Reperfed Left, NG - No Gum, DIS OG - Disturbed Original Gum,
Note: In the "GRADE" column, the two PF 70 grades are of the PF, the other "grading" by condition is based on my assessment of the centering plus condition. The PF, nor PSE will GRADE a stamp that is altered or damaged, hence why none of these other certs have a grade. The person submitting for cert can also request that a grade not be provided on the cert if it's less than their "desired" grade. I'd like to challenge the industry on this actually. If a stamp is ungradable due to condition, it should be so noted on the cert, in the same way that a "WARNING" is placed on the cert for fakery. It's a little interesting they didn't do that for the $1 but then cancel is fake to hide a fault, and not to "add value" due to the fake cancel, as in the case of faked fancy cancels. So I guess that's why that cert doesn't carry such a warning. It's too bad because otherwise this would just be a no-gum stamp with a fault. Instead it is treated as a "Used" and altered stamp.
This is also to contrast how poor images detract from accurate assessment by perspective buyers, and may even dissuade them from bidding/buying.
Realistically, I don't think it's really possible to recover the cost of these certs. That of course depends on the original amount paid for the lot, which we don't know. But I think this is a great lesson for buyers. My original (generous) estimate before certs was a CV of around $4k for the lot... that's of course nearly half that now.
If interested, I would offer $1,100 for the lot, but I'm sure that will be rejected. As a dealer, I wouldn't be able to make anything off of this collection for anything higher for that, and for the right collector around $2k would seem reasonable.