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colliewalker1

Coin Photographs/Scans

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I am very surprised to find a number of coin websites that don't offer photographs of the coins for sale, to accompany the descriptions/gradings.

I find that in the absence of seeing the coin itself the photo is a good 'second best' and I wouldn't wish to buy without one.

I admit that some sellers offer to take back any coin with which the buyer is not satisfied - in effect a case of buying 'on approval'but presumably the buyer is stuck with the cost of postage both ways.

Ebay - which has come in for some 'stick' in earlier postings - and I can understand why - does in almost all cases give photos provided by the sellers.

An interesting question is can the photo make a coin look better than it is - OR - even fail to do it justice?

In my very short interest in coin collecting so far (about 1 month!)

I have not been disappointed.

Out of curiosity I have tried my hand at producing photos of coins - and have found it quite difficult!I have noticed that sellers often refer to scans - when scanning coins I have found that my results were very poor and didn't begin to do justice to the coin. Taking digital photos gave more 'life like' results - but my technique will need a lot of perfecting to match images offered by Chris for example.

I will be very interested to here from members as to [a] would they buy online without seeing a photo ? how much would they rely on a photo ? [c] how do they make accurate imagges of coins?

Denis

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In my view i would not buy from eBay (pictures or not) and i would not buy a coin that has no reasonable picture. I mostly buy my coins from trusted dealers (Chris Perkins, Colin Cooke etc...), the reason that i dont trust eBay is for the fact that most of the coins listed are poorly described or falsely described.

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I DO buy from E-bay, but only from the reputable sellers - who always provide good quality pictures.

I can understand why online sites don't provide pictures for all coins - it would be a mammoth task. But there's no excuse for not providing pictures for the expensive stuff.

Colin Cooks seems to have a policy of providing pictures for all coins priced over a certain limit and this seems reasonable.

I wouldn't buy online from anyone who didn't offer a return policy.

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I trust eBay on the whole. The majority of coins aren't in fact described incorrectly or falsely in my opinion. It doesn't even matter what the description is, as long as it is accompanied by a fairly good scan or picture. Many dealers sell on eBay, Chris and Colin Cooke for example, and many others like Lockdale's or Spink's. I'm not saying that eBay is a coin paradise, but the majority of people who sell coins on it are genuine, and give ample descriptions and scans. I think that caution needs to be exercised, as with any purchase. Caveat emptor, as the saying goes.

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I dont have an ebay ID, but i might buy from it if I got one. I do sometimes by coins from online dealers without photos. I do however rely on photos quite a bit, but i will occasionally buy without them.

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From my point of view scanning/photographing coins is a drag. Scanning with a good scanner at 300dpi/100% size is ok because you can scan a whole 'A4' of coins, them turn them all over and scan the other side. Then of course, you have to create new images with the correct obverse and reverse.

Lately, i'm looking for ways to save time and be more streamlined, and I often wish I didn't have to make images of so many coins. But, I always like to have as many pictures as possible because it really helps sell the coins quicker.

On the point of do pictures do coins justice...Often they don't, in fact often they look awful and if that's the case and the coin is valuable enough to warrant the time then I'll use my Nikon digital camera instead. Pictures can also make the coins look better on some occasions, so a good description and a returns policy are compulsary.

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I have seen photos of coins described, for example as GF when one can see that some may be a little better than another: I have recently looked at photos of a George IV Crown where one was listed as GF(£25) - the other NVF(£45) and I could see little difference between them: admittedly,the NVF coin showed slightly crisper detail on VERY close scrutiny - but it didn't really seem like £20 worth of difference and I chose the GF!

Another point -

This is a good example of the value of photographs to collectors.

Denis

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The main reason that i dont trust eBay is because if one takes a picture of a copper/bronze coin with the camera's flash on then it can sometimes appear to have full lustre (i only want modern milled BU bronzes you see)...

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