1926 Sesquicentennial half.....

[Bruceswar]

Here is one I picked up while ago for the right price.... even as it sits...... but I was taking some shots of the coin.....

Here is how alot of pictures look on ebay....

 

Now you are prolly thinking the coin looks ok.. and mabye a gem with the right lighting.... Now most ebay photos will not be cropped or have any info on them...

 

 

Now if you take the coin and take better shots of it.... you will see how the coin that looks ok in the first pics.. looks like so much less...

 

 

What do you think of the coin seeing all pics?

[Weidel Legacy Collection]

The angle, lighting, and contrast sure do change the results, don't they? The first images don't show anything too bad - the strike looks good and the surfaces look clean. The images you took show some serious hair-lining on the reverse like someone took a chamois to it and the obverse has all kind of marks on it including some deep ones on George's cheek.

 

How was it described on the bay of E?

[Bruceswar]

I got it at a local shop, so I knew what I was getting into....

[melmcbee]

Now that is amazing and a little frightening. Is this an example of why some dealers put the specifics of their camera, film speed, etc into their description?

[TomB]

That's pretty dramatic, and very cool.

 

This serves as a very nice lesson in why people should tilt coins in the light while looking at them. It is also nice to change light sources, however, this is not always possible at a show.

[michael]

an excellent thread and a good perspective of what photos can hide

 

sight seen in hand inspection is the only way to 100% judge a book by its cover

 

and then you need a good light and quiet

 

and a good nights rest along with a good glass and experience

 

michael

[Bruceswar]

This is just one example of what pics can really do to a coin.. they can make it look like 2 totally different coins... As for putting the camera specs .. I have not seen that.. The way I would do it if I was going to sell a coin via Ebay would be to take pics, and make sure that they are the best representive of the coin possible, even if the coin is cleaned like this ..... I think great pics alwats help the coin sales... Honesty is the key to ebay....

[jom]

That's a pretty drastic difference. But the more subtle ones that can cause problems also. I have a 36D nickel that has a slight hairline on the Indian's braid. I've taken pictues of it where the line either looks like a crater or it disappears altogether. It is one of the things I worry about when trying to decide to buy a coin off Ebay....you really never know what you are going to get.

 

jom

[michael]

a superlative thread

 

anyone who registers with ebay should be required to open this thread before they are approved to sign up as a member!!

 

 

michael

[Bruceswar]

that would be a nice idea... or should be required to learn how to take some pics that really show the coin... cuz I have seen so many coins that look like the first set... It makes you wonder how many actually look like this.... Now since I got this from a shop site seen.. I knew what I was getting into.... but people on ebay that saw the first set of pics would not know.. and that would lead to hassle and alot of returns, if a policy was offered.