Lesson for today; Heritage pictures!

[Leothelion]

The first pic shows great photography and a nice coin!

 

 

 

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This second pic shows poor photography and probably a nice coin!

 

 

 

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I can't tell you how frustrating it has been when I see pictures like this. Even though this coin is not mine, It's an insult to my searching efforts when I see this and it's very common among Jefferson nickels. I did some checking with the Buffalo nickels and a larger percent of those pics are just fine. So what's the problem here? Does Heritage offer gallery type photography for a fee? And if you decline to have your coins presentated in their sales, are your coins subjected to some kind of run of the mill photography.I have notice that the thumbnail pictures take on a pattern for the bad and good pictures. Can you see which auctions to avoid by just looking at the thumbnails?

 

 

 

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Heritages pics of Jeffersons! When the pictures show that the light used to take the pictures are in a 6:00 o'clock position or from the chin up, I have found that these coin auctions are a waste of time to check into or click on. Because the pictures are going to be of low quality and so the coin must be low quality as well. But for the coins with good photography, these are the your best bets to bidding on nice coins.

 

 

 

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Heritages pics of buffalo nickels! Leo

[Hoot]

The lighting angle on those heritage coins you illustrate are from the directional lighting of their scanner. And I simply can't agree with you that their buffalo nickel scans are fine in comparison to the Jeffs. The different coin design makes for differences in how the coins are illuminated, but their scans are highly unreliable for assessing the true color and quality of their buffalo nickels. I've had the same experience with coins of other denominations that I've bought from them. And their "nice" photos - that are actually from digital photographs - are often WAY off for color and showing surface blemishes. Retouched for certain.

 

Hoot

[bigd5]

All I know is that I haven't purchased a coin via Heritage, online, in...........forever. With the copper, I see these brownish-blackish round discs, that I assume are coins, but couldn't tell for sure if my life depended on it.

 

Everything else isn't much better. Heck, I didn't even check the lots in the last sale they had up.

 

I do remember a little while back they had a "lightening" feature where you could click the arrows and lighten the images. That worked, was cumbersome, but at least gave me the ability to see the design features.

[TomB]

I have to agree that the scanning method Heritage chooses to employ has finally alienated me from bidding in their auctions. The last few coins I have either won from Heritage, or have purchased outright, have been either problem coins or have been extremely low end for the grade. Please note that none of those purchases was described in such a manner. Heritage has accepted all of my returns, but they have charged me a fee to return auction lots. Also, I have to pay shipping on these dogs.

 

As an example, there is a major dealer with whom I have done quite a bit of business and whom I like. This dealer had a coin I was interested in but consigned it to Heritage the day before I asked to buy it. I told them outright that I would guarantee that I would not bid on their coin through Heritage because of the issues I have just written about. Will they get more for the coin through Heritage? I don't know, but they could have sold it immediately to a good customer had they pulled back the consignment.

[Leothelion]

Hoot

I know that you look through the buffs much more often then I do. I only took a gander on several pics that I clicked on and found that more of those pics were taken, as you say, from a digital then from a scanner, especially on the lower grade buffs. There's a Pcgs collector who is selling his collection thru Heritage, it looks like all his coins got the scanner treatment. But as far as the Jeffs go, the scanner is used quite often when compared to the number of digital pictures that are available. IMO, it's pointless to study a coin when it was improperly scanned. I have scanned several coins with better results then Heritage! Their carelessness is an injustice to the sellers and collectors.

Whether it's a scan or a digital picture, I have found it very difficult to capture the exact color/toning of a coin. And it's due to the color temperature of the type of lighting used. (As we are familiar with) Flouresent gives you green, tungstan makes orange, incandescent is yellow and so on. Unless you have a camera that compensates for this color temperatue and that is, if you can get the white balance adjusted correctly, it's very difficult to get the same colors on paper, so to speak, as we see with the naked eye.

But I hate to think Heritage has an agenda with how they represent the coins they sell, not taking the time to put a collector's coins in the best possible light so they can sell better! I know for certain that I've seen enough of their scans and have come up with a way of avoiding those scanned auctions. I don't have time to look at bad pictures! And I can avoid those auctions simply by looking at their thumbnail pics!

 

Leo

[Hoot]

Leo - I haven't single doubt that you can do a better job with your scans than Heritage!!! Whatever their method is, it's arcane.

 

"But I hate to think Heritage has an agenda with how they represent the coins they sell, not taking the time to put a collector's coins in the best possible light so they can sell better!"

 

They do. They have great contempt for Jefferson nickels. I approached them with around 20 FS Jeffs last Fall. The fellow I talked to said that they "got a lot of those and most were not worth very much." I explained that those that I had were some of the best (in terms of population stats) and would do better than most due to their appeal to PCGS registry collectors (they were all graded by PCGS). He basically said, "yeah, yeah" and told me to be in touch.

 

I was not in touch.

 

But knowing how some Jefferson nickels do in the big auctions, I routed my coins through a local dealer who had a big submission for FUN. To make a long story short, Heritage placed some in their Signature auction, and some in their Bullet auction. They were all imaged poorly, but those in the Signature sale did extremely well, while those in the Bullet sale did poorly, and only half met my reserve. The division that Heritage made between the Signature and Bullet auctions made zero sense. It was not done on the basis of value or an understanding of rarity, or any other discernable criterion. It was as if they had put numbers in a hat to choose which went where. To make it worse, they batched some of the coins and concomitantly changed the reserve. I was happy when one of those batches did not sell, as the combined reserves were way off.

 

Bottom line for Jefferson nickels, and probably other series, is that the Heritage numismatists do not know their heads from a hole in the ground. They are so concerned with keeping up their multi-million dollar volume that they abandon quality for quantity. MANY mistakes are made along the way and they treat many of their clients (like me) with contempt. Their photos go to show how little they care about their customers.

 

I've consigned some nice coins for the ANA sale in July - all to ANR.

 

Hoot

[BankNote1]

Since I can't buy a coin from The Evil Empire™ I don't guess it matters much to me. Although, I know someone who does some of the photos (scans) for The Evil Empire™ and this person doesn't know diddly about coins or currency! Also with the quantity of stuff that The Evil Empire™ has to photo I doubt that there is a conspiracy in the photo room. I must admit that there might be things that go on at a higher level that might be a little _____ well you know what I mean...

[FC57coins]

I've seen many a coin butchered by Heritage's photographer, that's one of the main reasons I probably would never list any coins (not that I have anything worth listing with anyone) with them. Here's an example of a dime I picked up recently from Heritage. The top pic is theirs, the botton pic is mine - Although I make no claims to great photgraphy, at least I was able to do more justice to the colors and luster of the coin.

 

Heritage

 

 

Mine

 

[JamminJ]

Heritage

 

 

Mine

 

 

I prefer Heritage's image. The surfaces of the coin are much easier to see.

 

-JamminJ

[TomB]

I'm with JamminJ on this one as I can interpret the image from Heritage better.

[FC57coins]

To me the Heritage image looked dull and lifeless. But I guess that's why different people like different things about coins

[JamminJ]

To me the Heritage image looked dull and lifeless. But I guess that's why different people like different things about coins

 

Heritage's image is kind of dull and lifeless. However, when viewing stuff like this the images are not the end result but rather a means to the end. What I really want from a photo is evidence of how the coin will look in hand and how much I will like or dislike it.

 

In Heritage's photo you can see the surfaces well and can assess marks, tics, etc along with the strike. One can also see there's some color there although how bibrant is left to the imagination. Missing completely is the coin's luster.

 

In your photos you can really see the luster - so much so that most everything else is kind of hidden. Like the dull photo I can see some kind of color but nopt how vibrant it might be. The surfaces are kind of hidden by the large contrast between the light and dark areas of the cartwheel.

 

Just my thoughts on the matter, with no unkind intentions towards yuor photos.

 

-JamminJ

[Oldtrader3]

I had Heritage calling me for awhile to sell my coins through them. When I told them that I wasn't ready to sell, they just ignored "NO(!)" and kept right on talking. We repeated the exact same conversation several more times during other calls. When I finally did decide to sell a large portion of my collection it was not through them.

 

Unfortunately, I do not have a digital camera. It was stolen last year, but I still can get an approximation of the coin surfaces and color with a scanner and Photoshop.

 

My take on Heritage is that they are too arrogant to care about customer need. The terrible images are just a manifestation of this.

[Elcontador]

In this particular area, I've never had a problem with Heritage, or any other major auction house. I never bid on a coin from an image. If someone I trust can't give me a lot consultation, I'm not interested in the coin.

 

If a coin's type, date and image interest me, I contact a numismatist I know at the auction house for a lot consultation. He more often than not tells me that I'd be better off waiting for a nicer coin for the grade to come along. If he likes the coin, he tells me why, and answers specific questions I have. Then I'll have a dealer I trust look at the coin. I never ask either guy to look at many coins for me; that would be rude.

 

If both of them like the coin, I'll get an idea of the market for it, and then place a bid. I don't get many lots, but I've never been disappointed with a lot I acquire this way.

[Leothelion]

In this particular area, I've never had a problem with Heritage, or any other major auction house. I never bid on a coin from an image. If someone I trust can't give me a lot consultation, I'm not interested in the coin.

 

If a coin's type, date and image interest me, I contact a numismatist I know at the auction house for a lot consultation. He more often than not tells me that I'd be better off waiting for a nicer coin for the grade to come along. If he likes the coin, he tells me why, and answers specific questions I have. Then I'll have a dealer I trust look at the coin. I never ask either guy to look at many coins for me; that would be rude.

 

If both of them like the coin, I'll get an idea of the market for it, and then place a bid. I don't get many lots, but I've never been disappointed with a lot I acquire this way.

 

You're exactly right! I've done this with Teletrade as long as it's a toll free number , not that Heritage doesn't have one. Particular buyers can usually get this service while at the same time, they, whoever they are, don't really want a coin coming back. So it can be a somewhat seesaw world when it comes to getting a straight answer but then again, I'm certain, they do want to sell a nice coin and help get a nice price for it. But for those who don't ask and buy anyway, are likely clueless and accept the coin for whatever it may look like.

 

Leo