Is a certified 3rd party grading company trust worthy?......

Can I trust sending very valuable high end stamps in for authentication, grading, certification ......my concern is damage done during testing or items stolen or come up missing! .....Is there a preferred 3rd party grading company that you trust!..... John

Welcome John.

There are quite a few reputable organisations who will issue certificates of their opinion of authenticity. In some ways it depends what stamps you mean. If US stamps and you are US based, the American Philatelic Society are worth investigating. In the UK, the Expert Committee of the Royal Philatelic Society would be my choice. In Europe each country has its own committee or individual experts. If any of them damaged the stamps sent them or items went missing they wouldn't keep doing it for long! The Royal have been in the game since the 19th century.

Grading condition is really a US thing. After all if it is high end enough, the condition grade will be related to other known examples of the same stamp. The worlds "most valuable stamp" is cut to shape, dirty and looks like a "second". Since it is the only one and has the provenance, $9M when it last sold from the DuPont collection!

Don't forget there is a charge for a good certificate based, often on catalogue price or market value. If you have many very valuable stamps you might want to consider this.

Paul

Thanks Paul for your knowledgeable insight on a new step that I will take in my love of collecting stamps,...many years of buying other people's collections,coin and stamp show and finding gems among them,....trading and gifting with others and selling off things that I no longer want just to help me with the next buying spree ,....then hoarding the rest,... Now it's time to get some of the special one's authenticated and certified.......then co-signing with a reparable Auction house.

Just sharing one of the special rare finds that I will send off for authentication and certifying....that is why I started this conversation."..chat forum, will post more soon.....thanks for stopping in.

1) A British Straits Settlement EIGHTCENTS.......change to.....

2) A HONGKONG....red hand stamped....overprint.....is it very rare???....not listed in any books or web site that I visited, seen one on cherry stones auction web site a long tine ago...don't remember what it sold for!

3) With a new 4 cent surcharge in black ink.....

4) with a Singapore cancelation in black ink.....

I know condition is every tin and this stamp has it fare share of them....but still....Rare

sorry can't figure out how to edit the picture..........still learning...will figure it out one day.