Why are toned coins so popular?

Two "decades ago", digital cameras were still struggling to reach one megapixel.

If your impression of digital imagine was formed "decades ago", you really do owe it to yourself to get out more.

Think of the most spectacular coin photo you've ever seen. Unless you've kept your eyes closed for the last five or ten years, I can virtually guarantee that it's digital.

 

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The ebay app for whatever reason sometimes displays uncropped "raw" versions of photos even when they're cropped on the website. Kurt is probably having that happen on his where hes seeing the original image before any editing was done.

 

Thanks Jeff, you made my point. Older digital photos suck! I take photos with a 10-year-old cannon digital camera that is adequate for my needs.

However, I see magnified objects sharper through a top-of-the line microscope with good light than any digital device and that's what we were writing about earlier.

 

I think you're right. I mean, the lighting angles still are typical GSC, but the post-processing I saw on the PC site is missing.

 

I really wish I could look over your shoulder on the two platforms. Better yet, fire up some Web dev tools and see what's actually coming across. Best of all, see what GSC uploaded in the first place.

When I upload images to eBay, I'm not presented with an opportunity to upload separate ones for desktop vs. mobile presentation. I also don't see any adulteration of my uploaded images when I check them out on my own machine. I can certainly imagine eBay resizing or otherwise reprocessing images; I just haven't seen it happening.

I have seen much poorer images on the phone app (Android and iPad) a few years back -- for a while, they offered only downsized images on the mobile app, and they were terrible. But that seems to be fixed lately.

Are you clicking to view images full-screen on the desktop? Because when you do that, eBay tells your browser to downsize the image to fit your screen. When you hover over the large thumbnail and get the pop-up enlarged image, that is full-sized. I can also click to open the image, then right-click and choose "open image in new window", and then click on the image in the new window to expand it to full-size-with-scrolling instead of shrink-to-fit.

Ugh -- that last paragraph is a mess, and I don't have time to fix it. I'll try to remember to return to it.

 

Maybe some of this will be helpful, maybe not, Jeff.

My PC monitor is in the vertical (portrait) orientation (don't ask), and is set at 1050 pixels by 1680 pixels. In its vertical orientation, the monitor screen is about 11-1/2 inches wide (the 1050 pixels). That gives a "pitch" of about 92 pixels per inch.

(more to follow)

 

Okay, when I hit the link to the 1903 proof dollar, provided by @IBetASilverDollar, the image of the obverse is exactly 4-1/2 inches on my screen. It's roughly square for all intents and purposes, so let's call it 414x414 pixels. It cannot be clicked to get more resolution, and it cannot be "moused-over" to get more resolution. It's just a single 414 pixel image that has obviously been post-processed out the wazoo to add APPARENT sharpness. I am a past Abobe Photoshop "zen master", and I recognize the sharpening I'm seeing as the crudest sharpen filter in Photoshop, not anything more nuanced like a well-chosen "unsharp mask".

(more to follow)

 

Now, my IPhone SE carries a 640x1136 screen resolution and a pitch of 326 ppi, compared to the PC's 92 ppi. When I open the eBay app and pick that same coin, the initial low mag image is edge to edge, or 640x640 pixels. Well more resolution right away. THEN, I can double click the image and it zooms WAAAAY in, and reveals things that were NOT visible at the original resolution. For example, I can now see a bright spot on the lower loop of the "3" in the date and a dark spot on the upper loop. Then there's the reverse, which is a hot mess of shortcomings.

(I'll wait for responses before continuing.)

 

Oh, that coin is now up to $1625, from $405 yesterday afternoon. and there's still over 5 days to go.

 

I would reply Kurt but I'll be honest, I'm not sure if what you've recently found has you feeling better or worse about how GSC lists their photos.

My original and current opinion is more about the fact that they're listing a coin that will sell for 3-5k+ raw on the internet (it's already at $1625 with over 5 days left). They're doing this knowing full well that they are limiting their potential buyer's market significantly and they are still choosing to do so which raises a big red flag and makes me ask why are they selling this coin raw? I think any answer to why will lead down an unethical road personally.

 

I'm disappointed in the choices SOMEBODY has made in the chain of business. I don't yet know who. Could be GSC, could be eBay, could be somebody else. I now see why terms like "juiced", "cooked", and even "Glamor Shots" have been used to describe the pictures on their eBay listings as seen on a garden variety WinTel PC. Until yesterday, I had never seen such a thing. I only had looked at GSC coins with an iOS device, and there is SOOOO much superiority in those images. They are worlds apart.

 

If you have one available, you might try another browser on your PC and see if that changes things. The rendering method of higher-than-specified resolution images, anti-aliasing, and color palettes is very much browser dependent.

 

I just checked the same coin from my iPad 2. Not an "Air", not a "Mini", a straight old-fashioned "getting long in the tooth" iPad2. I can see the faults on the coin even BETTER than I can on the iPhone.

 

Alas, no, no Administrator rights. I have a Windows 10 laptop at home, but it's a cheapie Toshiba. Its main purpose on my network is to "rip" DVD's so I can put them in my iTunes library, which resides on my NAS.

 

I understand and I hear this a lot online, but only there. I am VERY used to dealing in a world where buyers and sellers alike prefer to deal ONLY in raw coins.

 

Yeah I completely get that and it's why I phrased my original post the way I did, something like "I get a lot of people are anti-TPG and prefer raw but...".

GSC knows very well a raw coin in that price range online will instantly eliminate a large portion of potential buyers and they are still choosing to do so. Especially questionable when I'm sure their relationship with TPGs is at the point where that coin could be in a slab in the snap of a finger.

 

By the way, if I were grading that coin, based on what I can see on my iPad, I don't know if I could straight grade it. If a gun were put to my head and I was told I had to give it a number, I'm thinking either a PF62 or PF63, nothing more. Even that hurts my soul, because I know PF64 coins that are MUCH nicer, more than a 1 or 2 point difference.

 

While you guys debate the minutia of the appearance of online photos, you miss the bigger picture that many of the coins offered by this seller are not what he claims they are and he uses deceptive photography to boost his sales.

All you have to do is review his feedback and understand that feedback % is meaningless, especially for high volume sellers.

If you were considering bidding on that 1903 Morgan Proof and you reviewed his feedback you would see that the same coin was sold in January 2017 and returned because:

"Coin is fraud, cannot be graded by PCGS, do not buy raw coins, doctored photo"

The person who bought the coin has only 4 feedback and was lured by the prospect of making some easy money by buying a valuable raw rare coin at a bargain price based on deceptive photos. Now I don't know what the buyer means by "cannot be graded by PCGS" but it doesn't sound like a net grade, rather it sounds like PCGS can't verify the authenticity of the coin.

Now of course this one coin doesn't condemn his entire inventory but it raises doubts about the trustworthiness of the dealer which is all the reason I need to avoid his coins all together.

 

I guess this is your mulligan!

 

What I can tell you for absolute CERTAINTY is that the 1903 proof dollar you just showed, and the one currently for sale, ARE NOT THE SAME COIN. 2 different coins. This one now is UGLIER, and each of them have obvious marks the other lacks.