Quote:
Originally Posted by travrosty
whats kind of weird is that authenticity answers are looked at with a time limit, and people want them fast, but there is no rush. getting it right is most important, not turn around, the tpa's are in a race to turn it around the fastest, at the sake of accuracy in my opinion. the one who turns it around the fastest, gets the business because collectors believe they can do the job real fast, and give an accurate opinion, but the collectors don't know what the real deal is. go fast, and make too many mistakes.
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I've got to say that while I'm not always on board with Travis opinions of TPAs, I totally agree with this point.
In stamps they don't specify any turnaround time. And the more controversial something is the more you need to send in along with it. In other words, sending in any stamp will take some time, I think 30-90 days. If it's something that's not well known sending in supporting documents cam be important. And that means it may take longer. And usually the result is "We decline to render an opinion" Which is neither good or bad just that with the current technology and knowledge they can't say with a comfortable degree of certainty. There's a group of Hawaiian stamps that are different from the known ones, but have supposedly good provenance. Multiple places have declared them as fakes, and finally they went to the royal philatelic society in the UK --- Which published a book explaining their opinion that they're fakes after 5 YEARS. (The group sold for I think 2-3 million anyway)
And yet, with a card or autograph the more it's expected to be worth the quicker they want it judged and shipped back out.
I get how a dealer might have a bit of cash tied up, and maybe the insurance co wants it in and out of the building as quickly as possible. But rushing the expensive stuff seems completely backwards.
Steve B