Coin Photos And Lack Thereof On Ebay

I like to have a good look at what I am buying. It seems foolish buying blindly. In the past I have got burned on listings with "stock photos".

Sometimes its a drag being in a fairly rural area. I don't really have access to LCS or coin shows w/o having to travel a significant distance.

I would just be worried that dealers at these shows would take me for a sap. I had some not so good experiences when I was a teen at coins shows. They seemed more interested in making the "big" sales while I felt ignored.

As has been mentioned, many sellers who inherited coins or decided to sell something they collected eons ago don't take the best pictures because they really do not know how. Some don't even know of such a thing as a macro setting, let alone what lighting you need, etc. Those that are making one time sales, or are attempting to sell a specific group simply may not have ever needed to know how to take photos of small items.

Plus, since so many photos are taken with a cell phone, their will always be those sellers who honestly try to take decent pictures but can't figure out how. They provide the best they can and hope you can see what they have.

Also, as has been mentioned, those photos that are blurry or nearly impossible to see sometimes do add an element of gambling which some find attractive. From my own experience, you'll get burned 19 times out of 20 if you think that your are going to steal something nice because no one else wants to bid on a cruddy pictured coin.

As has always been true, a greedy person is ALWAYS the easiest to fleece. Thinking you MIGHT get a $100 coin for $2 doesn't pay off. It just doesn't.

HOWEVER, I've had several occasions when I've been interested in coins with bad pictures and have ASKED the seller for better pictures and received them. In many cases those better pictures are viewed by few and do offer some fine bargains.

I never have a problem. These dealers know their competition is just a few steps away. Sure, there are always going to be boneheaded dealers and that might fly in a one horse town, but those types are not going to sell much when there are friendlier dealers nearby.

If you are going to travel, make sure you are traveling to a larger show. The more dealers, the better.

I use ebay as well as my LCS. They are different, both have some real benefits. I live in the middle of nowhere, so I don't travel to shows much, but hope to in the future.
I really rely on good pictures when buying, and tend to favor vendors that have better pictures. Also, I think it helps me to have better pictures when selling on ebay. I'm not a dealer, but getting rid of duplicates helps me upgrade and expand.
Sometimes I'm working when tired and the quality suffers. When that happens, I try to edit the listing.
My feeling is if you have over 5,000 coin sales on ebay and still use crappy pictures, something else is wrong. That said, there is a real skill to being able to see through blurry pics, and an occasional gamble has sometimes paid big dividends. Remember, a poor picture appears that way to other potential buyers, possibly eliminating some bidders.


One of my favorites.

I like good pics, so I am in agreement with everybody. Although I do agree that on lower end coins I have taken a chance on less than great photos and have been pleasantly surprised.


But I like amateur good pictures from regular sellers better than good pictures from the big sellers, as a rule.
With those you get a better idea of what the coin actually looks like in your room, under a real light.

Some of the professional sellers take incredibly high definition staged lighting pics that you can seriously see some detail-- but not the overall aesthetic and when you get the coin it barely looks like the same coin as what you saw in the picture. But when you look under magnification you can see the same nicks and things, so you know it is the same coin.

So I feel you should take the time to do a good picture-- but not the time to do an incredible picture, haha.