Dagnab it, I had hoped that this horrific practice would not rear its ugly head in the revenues field. 🙁

As controversial as this opinion might be, were I a person of infinite means, I would buy up items like this and trim them down just to get these abominations off the market.

Various opinions ensued:

From stallzer: It’s the double whammy. Butchering of a multiple and grading of proofs.

From StateRevs: Disgusting.

From rogdcam: There is zero harm in grading proofs. Cutting up multiples like this example is silly though.

From jogil: What ever happened to having at least a pair for imperforate stamps instead of this butchery where eight surrounding stamps are ruined for the sake of one stamp? To me this is a block of nine (plate proof) stamps with eight damaged (plate proof) stamps in it. (The philatelic “keep imperforates in at least pairs” law should be passed.)

From ericjackson: I think items like this are ugly. Furthermore, at $10 per proof, the block of nine prior to destruction would have sold for $90. And then there is the cost of the certificate, so the creation of this monstrosity is, in the long run, a money loser.

From revcollector: Sickening. People who do this should be staked out on an anthill.

From bookbndrbob: I think “monstrosity” sums it up pretty well.

From rogdcam: Hardly swimming across the tide. Grading is harmless. “Creating” these jumbos is just plain nonsense. I have said before that if the PF, PSE, PSAG and others refused to grade these things it would stop. Anything for a buck. There must be a market for them or else it would not happen. So we need an anthill and tongue pliers for the grading agencies, the people that cut them up, the buyers, the auction houses that auction them (that includes Siegel), Ebay, HipStamp, sundry dealers both small and large and so on.

From revcollector: The graders, dealers, and auction houses are simply businesses catering to a clientele. It’s that clientele that drive this; saying it’s the others is just the tail wagging the dog.

From 51studebaker: Be careful what you wish for… I think that US personal property rights supersede the wishes of folks who think this is an ethical issue. If a person wants to light cigars with multiples they are have the right to; pretty sure that most folks do not want to live in a country which allows others to come into your house and confiscate your personal property based upon their beliefs.
Don

(For the record I also dislike and disagree with this practice. I just do not see a good resolution unless major organizations and/or benefactors would start a ‘stamp conservancy’ movement and started purchasing important material and locking it up into a permanent conservation holdings. Of course this effectively removes the material from ever again being owned by any collectors… )

From revcollector: The part of US personal property rights that people either forget about or ignore is the concept of responsibility. Understanding what it is that one owns, and why it is valuable or important. And that collecting is more then simple ego gratification, or doing something simply because one can. Unfortunately, as long as there are collectors of certificates who are only interested in saying “my certificates are better then yours”, this will continue to happen to common and rare stamps alike.

From stallzer: Blocks shown by the OP that were mutilated in the name of 1 grade 100 stamp should not be allowed to have a grade. If perforating the item was not part of the original process then it shouldn’t get a grade. These are nothing more than manufactured “gems” and yes, I do understand the difference between the preservation of history vs. the love of money.