Stamp Grade: The Importance to Value

If you are getting serious about stamp collecting in terms of making this a serious investment then you have to know that the most important thing to other collectors is a stamp’s grade and condition.

The grade of a stamp is all about the actual stamp. How it is centered between the perforations or between margins of the sheet for items that don’t have perforations. This not only means horizontal centering, but vertical centering as well. It also refers to the condition of the gum on the back of the stamp for mint stamps, or the effect of the cancellation on the stamp for ones that have been used.

Evaluating a stamp's grade is something that takes a little experience and a lot of looking at stamps. With enough looking at the same stamp, but of various grades, it starts to become apparent when a stamp is of a high grade and another of the same type of stamp is not.

Stamp grades are fairly standardized across the industry and range from superb to poor and if you are going to become a serious collector it is important when buying a stamp to know what grade of a stamp you are getting. The better the grade, the better your collection. To see this, all you have to do is go to any stamp catalog and look at the difference between the price of a superb-grade stamp and the price of a lesser grade one.