Buying damaged or badly centered stamps is a bad idea. Correct?
Not always. If you subscribe to that philosophy, then you would never own the British Guiana 1 Magenta, one of the worlds rarest stamps. Its corners are trimmed off. Hence it is a damaged stamp, but it still a world class rarity and worth a lot of money. There is nothing wrong with owning damaged stamps as long as they are priced appropriately and accurately described. Generally speaking, damaged copies of stamps are worth much less, especially when undamaged copies of the same stamp also exist. If your budget cant afford an undamaged copy, a damaged copy may be a nice compromise. Some damage is much less noticeable (tiny thin, a few missing perforations, a minor crease, etc). In these cases, you can still add very attractive looking stamps to your collection at a fraction of the cost of undamaged copies. Some damaged items are much more obvious (heavy stains, missing pieces of the stamp, major tears, etc) and typically sell for a fraction of catalog value.
