Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

You must be in "sales" - rounding up to exaggerate. Should be "around 20 years". Can't be "...more".

Therefore are all your statements that imprecise or exaggerated?

_________________
------------------------------------------
Anyone else accumulating NWPI material for research?

..........So who cares about replicas and how to collect

I collect and store mine one day on my car......





SUPERB COLLECTION OF SWISS STAMPS .....RARE ...RARE...RARE

Show me another one

Excellent.

But of course, if you want to do the classic e-bay thing properly, you'd probably have to buy a black mercedes and endorse it: "SUPERB COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE GERMAN HITLER STAMPS... RARE...RARE...RARE", and then display a few pieces of common rubbish that probably came from Bohemia and Moravia anyway.

Well, it seems blank spaces are killing some of us off. I just don't understand why, those blank spaces in our albums are part of philatelly, you just can't have them all. And if you can't afford those stamps to fill up the spaces, why then wasting your money on reproductions or 'fakes'? Why not just accepting these blank spaces as part of philatellic history (There's a reason why these stamps are expensive or hard to find) instead of trying to fool yourself with this pseudo-completeness by filling up the gaps with reproductions?

Regarding the question at the beginning. I think everybody has to figure it out for himself whether selling these home made reproductions makes you a bad person. I just wouldn't do it. Danger of getting mixed up in real frauds - reproductions sold as genuine - is just to big. Even more, I just wouldn't feel right selling reproductions to people to fill up their gaps. I mean, what do you sell them but just printed paper?

Concerning the question of money. If I would earn only €400/month I just wouldn't take the risk of investing in the necessary equipment for producing well made reproductions. Even more, if you don't earn a lot of money, I just wouldn't want to print stamps who probably end up might being used by others to rip off people who also don't earn a lot and also just try to built up a small collection as their cheap way to distraction.

Now, calling these forgeries some sort of art is really a bridge to far for me. It's just a matter of technique, there's no real process of artistic creation in it (Even if printing the forgeries would take huge technological skills). When talking about art it's about design and inspiration, not just copying this as best as possible (That's why Van Gogh's original is in the museum and not the copy's others made of it.) Regarding stamps I'd say you find more artistic creation and inspiration in some cinderella's than in these reproductions of valluable or rare stamps.

So, shareman, why not using your artistic approach to design and print your own cinderella's? Why not trying to get your way in the stamp art world and proposing designs for real stamps at postal administrations? If your in for the art, that's the way you have to go. Everybody can make a copy, but to all can create true art.

You are really expressing the dilemma that many of us must confront

I have a worldwide collection, predominantly used.

Ok, if available I collect the best used stamp I can find, but what if I get a dud?

If I do not have it, then I include it in my collection. Some day I might get a better example and that would be great.

But a dud..a space filler..damaged..is still an example of the stamp albiet of lesser value

There are purists here on Stampboards who mock spacefillers, damaged stamps, etc etc. So be it. But as a collector , I have an example of that particular stamp and I do not really care what the purists say..its MINE, and it is a REAL example of that stamp.

Live with it.

I do draw the line at reproductions and facsimiles. I do not accept those but that is my hangup. Others are not so discerning

I made a "fun stamp" last year, when APTA did not react for a long time, after a member made a "mistake"

A Swiss designer picked the design up and asked me to use it for his collection!



He sent me a few covers, I want call it true art though, but it's not a fake!

I have seen items listed on EBay, 'expertised' Nachdruck.

_________________
With kind regards, Jim

What an interesting thread ! As a collector and exhibitor of french colony forgeries by Fournier I do tend to disagree that "serious" collectors hate forgeries. I find it a very interesting part of the hobby. I love to go through the collections I purchase to dig up those " album weeds". It makes us better philatelists and adds to the history of our hobby. The entire concept of the purpose of the forger is really a part of the story as well. Were they attempting to defraud the postal market...daring and truly criminal or just the philatelic market.. there's one born every minute, creates value in the product too. A truly postaly used example verses a created used example is much more valuable.
I think the real danger here is the uneducated collector. If one doesn't know the difference or make themselves aware of the element of fakes and forgeries then they are not truly a "serious" collector anyway. No amount of talent can create an exact duplicate of a govt issued postage stamp. Paper, printing, watermark, perfs., proper post marks..Ect. Something separates the fac-simile from the genuine even in today's world of laser imaging.
What makes shareman's work interesting is that he is going about it in the tradition of the early greats. Not great at forging ( fourniers stuff really is not that good) but great at promoting ! If you have a catalog, some advertising and it catches on.. You may be around 100 years from now. The reference collections ( I think 420 sample books-each numbered) created by the upu in Switzerland in 1920's from fourniers remaining stock retail around 8500$ and one sold recently at auction price of I think 3500$.
So point being, I think it is part of our hobby that we should be aware of and not destroy it. It is part of history just as the real examples are and sometimes the story they tell is just as interesting. I keep a copy of any forgeries I discover next to the real examples in my albums...just VERY clearly marked. I also make sure I do my homework before I purchase anything of significant value and at least double check the cheap stuff.
Wonder if my Fournier exhibit can win a Grand at an APS show..we will see.

Given the quality that can be produced even from an inexpensive printer these days, you can easily print off a good facsimile to fill the space in your album, which would be more aesthetically pleasing, than a blank space or a black and white photo.

Personally, as I don't have, and never will have albums, it isn't an issue for me. My 'unsorted' are in stock books etc*, and my 'collection' is on Hagners.

*The 'etc' covers a multitude of sins.

_________________
With kind regards, Jim

Just from a quick glance I think these are pretty easy to identify as copies - all you have to do is look at the elliptical perforations. The printing of the Gibraltar stamp is nice, but again...the perfs are all wrong.

I can't decide if it's wrong or right. There was an analogy with reproductions of art work that many people buy for their homes. That analogy is fine to a point, but there's not much chance of them being mistaken for the real thing.

If some fool proof method can be designed to make them forever identifiable then I would be surprised. However well intended the forger is - it's a avenue that others would gladly exploit.

Toughie.

And didn't I see some modern fakes of some GB Machins being sold here recently ... *cough*....

According to your question. Yes I think you are a bad person. You try to create something that image to be worth money but instead are worth nothing. I also think you are an internet troll.
No normally intelligent and morally person would do like you do. You are too much provocative to bee serious.