Stamps2Go Grading Guidelines

Grading of philatelic materials is a highly subjective business, and to our knowledge there is no "officially" accepted system of grading. However, it is easy to suggest guidelines based on the common practice of dealers and collectors.

Stamp grading generally involves taking all aspects of a stamp's condition into account, including whether it is in mint or used condition, the centering, cancellations and marks, margins, design clarity, trueness of color, and tears, missing perfs or other damage. It can be very challenging, if not impossible, to assign a specific grade to a stamp based on all of these factors.

Stamps2Go has established a separate rating to denote the gum condition of the stamp, and whether it is used or unused. See Category Guidelines for more information. Thus, grading of stamps is to be determined solely on centering, cancellation, color quality, perf condition, and other faults.

It must be left to the individual seller to assign a specific grade to the items he is offering. Some people may assign a higher priority to centering, whereas others are more concerned with stamp faults, when evaluating the grade. Regardless of the grade assigned to a stamp, it is important that sellers describe any defects which exist, so that there will not be any surprises when the buyer receives the stamp.

Whenever an item is listed for sale on Stamps2Go it must be assigned one a grade, as shown below. Even though these grade levels have been assigned names, it should be assumed that they roughly indicate the condition of a stamp from worst to best condition, as in a grade scale of 1 to 7.

It is possible that a particular specimen may be in superb condition except for a small flaw like a few missing perfs. Technically speaking, a stamp with missing perfs would be considered damaged, but the seller may want to assign a grade of "Average", representing a compromise between the stamp's faults, and it's otherwise good condition. This is why it is important that a description (and preferably an image) accompany each item.

The most important thing for buyers and sellers to keep in mind is that these grading levels are provided primarily as search criteria. The actual grade, condition, and desirability of an item should be ascertained from careful review of the image of the stamp (if provided), and the description or comments provided by the seller.

Damaged

An item which suffers from moderate to severe damage, such as a major tear, missing corner, severe creasing, etc. More insignificant damage, like a small 1mm closed tear or a light crease, would not necessarily doom a stamp to be listed as damaged, if its condition is otherwise fine or superb. All damage, however, should be explicitly described in the comments that accompany the item.

Poor

A stamp without major damage, but which is horribly cancelled or grossly off center.

Average

No major flaws or heavy smeared cancellations, and reasonably well centered. It is permissable for an "average" stamp to have a design which is cut slightly by the perforations.

Fine

A stamp where no part of the design is cut by perforations. Color should be reasonably bright, and any cancellation should be sharp and not extremely heavy.

F-VF

A stamp that is visibly off center, but with good margins all around. In between Fine and Very Fine.

Very Fine

An almost perfectly centered stamp which has ample margins all around, good color, and if used, has a light, clear postmark.

Superb

A perfectly centered specimen with ample margins, bright color and  no flaws. If used, the postmark must be light and sharply defined.

Various

If this is a set or mixture of stamps, and the grade of the individual stamps is different, select 'Various' as the grade.