A very generic question, dear friends, yet very widespread among collectors who, hoping to make the purchase of the century, launch into reckless purchases and promptly find themselves "fished" as "fishermen".
Well yes.
Just recently, a client and friend presented me with a farsighted view of a beautiful Provisional series of the Vatican, with a photographic certificate from a well-known Italian expert. He had paid very little for it, he was beaming but he preferred to be certain of the originality of the overprints; I carefully examined the series and then confirmed its absolute originality; except that the series had been totally... screwed up!
The customer couldn't believe his ears.... an intact set at that price would have been a great deal, of course, while a hinged one... well it had cost more or less its price.
And here comes our title again; when we go to buy without the coverage of an expert, if we ourselves are not prepared to discover the flaws that hide behind the lots that we find in the various public or online auctions often accompanied by high-sounding guarantee certificates from dealers and/or experts, we risk finding ourselves with a different stamp from what had been described to us and made out to be what it actually wasn't.
But this is not the most alarming fact; the problem is that often the customer - who feels protected by his belief that he knows how to buy well if not very well - turns one eye and sometimes even both and deludes himself that he has made the great purchase, not wanting to listen to those who plays the part of "talking cricket" but giving credit to the various "cats and foxes" that infest our beautiful environment.
I'll give you an example straight away: another customer submitted to me a block of 10 of the new Modena olive green with beautiful intact rubber, a piece which is very rare in its new state with original rubber as the remains of this particular stamp (the number 8 of Modena) were almost all without rubber, therefore the value of the new one without rubber is essentially around 5% of the new one with rubber. He had paid - at a well-known public auction - 10% of the catalog price of the new one with rubber and was immensely happy about it, more than convinced that he had made a great deal and proud of the presence of two certificates guaranteeing the piece; but the block, alas, was without the slightest doubt re-gummed. So the price paid was no longer 10% of that of the catalogue, but ... twice the price of the full catalogue , as the block was practically without rubber (as almost always) and was therefore worth 5% of what was declared once manipulated properly to make it acquire a lot of value.
The customer, however, did not want to accept the appraisal and kept the block - overpaid - as good as it was with the guarantee certificates that the seller had had packaged for him.
My friends, in these cases even serious and competent operators in the sector and therefore able to provide concrete assistance to the collector find themselves disarmed; it's true, if you notice the problem you can highlight it, warn customers, who are the true lifeblood of the business, try to protect them, but you can't replace them; on the other hand, there is no shortage of hucksters and they are very good both at hiding their tricks and at filling the eyes of buyers with several layers of slices of salami, so thick and thick as to make them blind and deaf even to the most attentive, careful and sincere of warnings .
Thus many collectors and customers who would have the means to build dream collections risk being filled with material of little value, paid certainly "little" compared to the catalog price of the object, but a lot compared to the real value of the same which, at prices certainly convenient if the material was in order and of good quality, it becomes inferior due to the problems that those objects, paid so little, hide. And then when they realize it on their own, perhaps after a long time, disappointed by philately, they abandon it and speak very badly of it, as if the whole environment were the same, lumping everything together and throwing mud at our profession.
So when you see an interesting or rare object at a public or online auction that perhaps you've been looking for for a long time and haven't been able to find, and the price is very low and attractive, always ask yourself this blessed question: "Is it HIM?"
And if you are not able to give an answer with certainty yourself, do not hesitate to ask those who truly have the competence to give it to you, know how to choose them well and recognize them, and lean on them without hesitation; it is not a shame to get help from those who deal with stamps professionally and know them well, indeed it is an act owed to you, for the protection of you and your money, and which will make you mature collectors.