A study of online marketing by Great Southern Coins

What I have NOT seen is any evidence of "brightening" their photos, as some here have charged, unless they don't know what "brightening" is. You want to say they bump up the contrast? I'll buy that. You want to say they bump up the color saturation? Okay, I can see that, I guess. But "brightening"? If anything, I see "darkening".

 

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Yeah; I've noticed that and I figure it's probably GSC's intent that we not zoom on their coins.

 

It is not deep. I can find it with a loupe if I know where to look and I get the light angle just right. Otherwise, it's just part of the surface texture.

I've taken these two photos with 1.7 stops underexposure. I usually find that .7 or 1.0 will keep the bright reflections from blowing out too badly. So this is a full stop darker than what I use most of the time.

This may, in fact, be too dark, but it shows that you get more saturated colors even if the coin is a bit dark. The coin is not this dark in hand, but this was taken to give a comparison benchmark for using a slight underexposure to reveal color.

I think with about -1.3 stops underexposure, and with adjusting the obverse a bit left or right under the lights, I could reveal the gold and pink colors on the cheekbone and jaw. My photo throws more light into the field in front of the face than GSC's photo.

 

That is a very nice looking coin. I don't have a single buffalo nickel that is in that great of shape! Nice photos!

 

The only difference I see between this pair of photos and GSC's is the choice of lighting. And just maybe a little contrast bump.

 

I get my first GSC coin in the mail tomorrow! I'm more excited to compare the pictures as I am getting the coin haha

 

I bet a silver dollar that you can't tell them apart! haha

 

Here's where my name and avatar picture came from. The greatest rock band of all time...

 

Yup, I'm a fan too. Jailbreak is one of my favorite albums of all time. UFO is also one of my favorites from the 70's. I could go on for hours listing my favorite bands, I have over 1000 CD's. Pink Floyd being my all time favorite.

 

Pink Floyd hands down.

 

Making me want to buy a coin from them, for comparison, only!

 

I purchased a few coins a couple of years ago from GSC and after sending them to NGC &/or PCGS they came back with a better grade than I expected. (I'm very conservative at grading my own coins). Maybe I just got lucky. A few nights ago I looked at some Morgan Dollars they had up for auction. The bids were kind of low for the coins pictured. I wanted to bid on a few of them but don't know much about the series. I'm on a limited budget & can not afford to buy the numerous books available. Perhaps someone can direct me to a site on detecting counterfeits. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Here is one from them I just received today. I got a little of the dirt off the reverse before I took my pics. Their pictures followed by mine:

 

See? I am FAAAAAAAR from the only one. Thomas' experience exactly matches mine.

 

He also freely admits that he doesn't know much about Morgan Dollars.

 

Well then I guess I don't know much exactly the same way HE doesn't. My GSC coins come back way higher graded by NGC than I could have imagined too. I've never sent a Morgan though, other than a 1893-S for a friend who piggybacked on my order. I frankly don't care for, or about, Morgan dollars at all, white or toned.

 

It seems to me that some people have a better eye than others when selecting coins to purchase from them (or any other online seller for that matter). Kudos to those that do.

 

I can't help but notice that those who have good fortune with GSC's raw coins seem to be among the very experienced collectors here.

 

Not all, but mostly. In my case, it may be more from my 30+ years in the photo biz than my 50+ years in coins as a collector. I had to ask lots of questions in coin grading classes about the concept of "prime focal areas" on coins because 30+ years as a darkroom rat teaches one to not HAVE prime focal areas, and examine negatives edge to edge and corner to corner. That's my edge AND my curse.

 

Interesting experiment. The GSC photos still convey more luster and their directional, "downward" lighting on both portrait and buffalo capture the solidity of the figures. Look at the Indian's cheekbone, brow and the general modeling of the head and also the "weightiness" of the buffalo.

Bottom line, GSC is still creating a more "seductive" image. You're too honest!