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 Replies: 10 / Views: 321 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
571 Posts |
Hey folks. I thought I'd share an example of what bad photos can hide. I posted about a 1919-S Mercury dime a few weeks ago: Mercury Dime - Is this Corrosion and Can It Be Restored?http://goccf.com/t/396058 There were some great suggestions about the potential to remove what appeared to be a kind of surface corrosion. I was willing to bid on this coin if the price was right. Well it ended up going for a little over $80 (seller: 'mbarrcoins'). Low and behold the winner is selling it with new photos. Anyone familiar with 'brownstown216-4'? Interestingly, the new photos are truly "better", and they don't hide what M Barr Coins was able to hide. Brownstown is selling it via BIN for $100 more than he/she bought it for. I certainly found this a bit funny in the description: " I'm not certain of it but it appears to have a few faint hairlines as can be seen in the photographs, so it may have had a past cleaning." Top photos is coin sold at auction by M Barr Coins Bottom photos is coin currently for sale by Brownstown There is simply no doubt in my mind that this is a cleaned (details) coin based on a slew of obverse hairlines, and I had zero inkling of this based on the original photos.   My avatar is from the reverse of the US 1987 Constitution Silver Dollar and features 13 diverse people intended to represent the wide cultural and social spectrum of the United States.
>>> E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One) - the de facto motto of the United States <<<
Edited by one_fine_dime
04/08/2021 09:54 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1614 Posts |
Quote:
Interestingly, the new photos are truly "better", and they don't hide what M Barr Coins was able to hide. Indeed, with the new sellers pictures you can easily see the hairlines on the surfaces, especially on the obverse. EDIT: Also noticed he is referring to the black substance as "Heavily Toned"
Edited by Rothery
04/07/2021 11:14 pm
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Valued Member
United States
331 Posts |
I'm amazed with how well the initial photos hid all those hairlines, that's scary. Just a little more for my list of reasons to stray away from online buying  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4579 Posts |
Lighting plays a good trick sometime.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
647 Posts |
Glad you had the discipline to stick to your guns on how much you were willing to spend and not get caught up with bidding frenzy.
smat
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Pillar of the Community
United States
571 Posts |
Here is another example, same two eBay sellers. Top photos are M Barr and bottom photos are Brownstown after he/she purchased Barr's coin. I actually bid on this one, I thought Barr's coin was a great looking specimen, and I placed a single snipe bid of $170. Brownstown won the coin for $190 and now he/she is selling it for $500! Again, with the new photos, I see obverse hairlines.   My avatar is from the reverse of the US 1987 Constitution Silver Dollar and features 13 diverse people intended to represent the wide cultural and social spectrum of the United States.
>>> E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One) - the de facto motto of the United States <<<
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3559 Posts |
To be objective, consider the tens of thousands(++) of coins being sold on ebay. A few sellers post near perfect, outstanding photos. Many sellers post pretty decent photos. Many sellers post not-so-good photos, and some post tiny blurry blobs.
The take away message for me when purchasing coins on ebay is to always be aware of the possible issues involving all posted photos, and factor that in with the sellers reputation (and the experience you've had with them in the past). As we know, it can be a jungle.
Interesting to see how some buyers go about trying to flip coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1567 Posts |
I actually use to play this game. That is buying coins with bad pics. I usually would go after new sellers who might legitimately not know how to take a good pic. It was a good way to get cheap coins. MOSTLY I got what I paid for. I would say about 80 percent were strikes and fouls. On the other hand some of the "diamonds in the rough" include an 1883-S morgan that came back as an MS61; an 1895-O that looked no better than F10 but which was very blurry and darkly lit and came back as a VF-25; a 1913-S type 2 Buff which was labled as an 1918-S in AG. And my prize a 1926-D LWC that was listed as an EF with a really blurry pic and bad lighting, which was an absolute needle sharp EDS in RB!! I've lost a lot of money, on some coins, doing this; broke even on other coins; but the 1883-S Morgan evened it all out by itself and still left me with a profit. The problem is that there are so many people playing the game that now even crappy pics get lots of atention. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3559 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1511 Posts |
I do the same as jmkendall, some are hits and some are misses. Really does depend on the seller though.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
875 Posts |
At a certain point you know who the "bad" sellers are. Usually the larger ones.
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Replies: 10 / Views: 321 |
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Posted 04/08/2021 02:33 am
