#8 - This stamp is probably highly valuable, since it

[Christen Hammock]

Hey Mariam!

Remember that this is a justify question; we're not just trying to support the conclusion, we're making it airtight! Answer Choice (C) doesn't guarantee that stamps with printing errors are rare. In fact, we have no idea how common they are—just that collectors already have them!

[catherineshi99]

freddythepup,

Thanks for the question! Answer choice (A) is incorrect because it talks about correlation between age and value, but we already knew that from the stimulus ("The most important factors in determining a stamp’s value, assuming it is in good condition, are its rarity and age.") So (A) doesn't really give us any new information by telling us that an older the stamp is the more valuable it is, it just puts a finer point on something we already knew (that the stamp was valuable in part because it was old). But answer choice (B) tells us something new - that the stamp is rare ("Printing errors are always confined to a few individual stamps"). If that's the case, that's the missing piece of the puzzle - now we know (from the stimulus) that the stamp is in good condition ("fine specimen") and that it is old ("quite old") AND we know now (from the answer choice) that the stamp is rare. That is the piece of the puzzle that allows us to fully support the conclusion that the stamp is "probably highly valuable."

Hope that helps!
Alex

Hi,

I chose A for the same reason. While it says that age and value are correlated, it doesn't say in which direction. For example, it could be that the newer a stamp is, the more valuable the stamp becomes, in which case being quite old would undermine the conclusion. And if the correlation were inverted, as answer choice A) states, then being 'quite old' would make the stamp 'probably highly valuable'.

How can I infer from the passage that when the author says 'age', they mean that being older is more valuable?

Thanks!

[Poonam Agrawal]

Hi Catherine!

That's a good question. When you think about the term "age," you can apply it to the situation at hand - for example, if I tell you this is an "aged" stamp, you would know it is an old stamp. If the relationship was inverse (newer stamps were more valuable), then we would expect the stimulus to say something along the lines of, the important factors are rarity and newness.

Another thing to note in eliminating answer choice (A) is that it only tells us that older stamps are more valuable. However, we are told that the stamp being examined is "quite old," which is not enough information for us to properly draw the conclusion that it is highly valuable. We need to be able to also say that the stamp is rare, which answer choice (B) does for us.

Tricky wording in this stimulus - I hope this clarifies the language a bit!