eBay rant about deceptive sellers who have high ratings

Those are sharpening artifacts (white halos around sharp contrast edges) and jpeg compression artifacts (field smoothing/jagged edges).

Are you suggesting that this is evidence of image doctoring?

It certainly isn't in my book.

Here's how to reproduce the effect in 4 steps.
1. Take coin photo. Make sure there's a feature (Like Lincoln's nose) at a 45 degree angle to vertical or horizontal (this will ensure you get a jagged edge).
2. Apply sharpening of 150%, 1, 10. (this will ensure you will get a halo around an edge and a relatively blurry rest of photo)
3. Save as JPG at medium compression. (this will smooth the fields further relative to contrasty portions of the photo)
4. Reopen the JPG file and compare that image at 800% to the image you provided. (this will expose all the defects described above)

Have fun....Mike

p.s. be careful when you blow up digital photos -- they exhibit all sorts of odd effects introduced in the capture and post processing, even something simple like saving. These effects are enhanced by magnification above 100%, and are NOT necessarily evidence of nefarious intent.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I don't feel the seller is doctoring the coins or the images. I think he is just using the same camera setup to take every image. Once he has the lighting and settings set he does a group of coins without any changes. I also think his white balance is a bit off. It will be interesting to see.

 

Well, he's not doctoring the actual coins... but you will never convince me that's he's not playing with the images.

 

I am not sure just what your definition of "playing with" is. He has had the same identical type of images for 4+ years. I believe that he has a dedicated camera and setup. With the proper camera, lighting, and white balance, that is what his pictures look like. Now, I cannot prove that, but that is my very strong suspicion and I would be willing to bet it is correct.

 

How willing to bet? I'll take that bet. I say that he has a camera with presets and/or the photos are edited (shopped) before upload. You buy my ticket to Missouri and I will buy yours. We meet the guy (you have been acquainted with him for years) and find out how he creates his listings. We see his inventory of Lincolns that is seemingly endless and how they are not all the same shade of brown or shade of "old cleaning that is"

Now - we just need to decide what the winner of the bet gets!

 

Bet on what? That you agree with me? Aside from that, I have not had anything to do with the man in about 3 year and that was when he bought from me. BTW, when he resold my pennies, his images looked the same color as the rest of his coins did and I could still pick my coins out by their nicks

 

Most of what you are saying is the same as what rlm said. Have you taken many images of brown copper?

 

Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, we will have some additional data to compare once the coin arrives here and I post pictures.

 

well there is always replica junk out there so turn em in!(turn da counterfeiters in)

 

I Don't Understand The Problem

I'm generally in agreement with your observations, and really don't understand why anyone other than a buyer, who didn't receive a refund and a free product of their selection, would have any concern about this seemingly awesome seller.

From the items and feedback I observed, the seller is seemingly receiving bids on everything listed, and generally receiving stellar feedback.

From the negative/neutral feedback I reviewed, most are subjectively stating that the product isn't what their mind has informed them they should expect to receive. It appears that the seller generally allows the the observer to "place a grade".

Your mind is a strange organ, occasionally not registering majority reality. An informed student of Psychology will attest to this axiom, which I've proven to students on occasions where a list of written observation questions were presented to students in advance (for noting observations) of viewing a slide show with a 5 second dwell for each image. It is amazing what difference individuals see when all are viewing the same presentation in a common environment, and have noted (offsetting short term memory recollection) their observations for review by others . You generally wouldn't believe the controversy generated. This is a mechanism often successfully used in defensive litigation.

My personal opinion is one of envy, and really can't understand why one would be so concerned about a seller who is generating products that are very desired by the vast majority of buyers, has awesome images, and generally very complementary feedback.

When I view the gilded trash that is often offered on eBay, with relatively little discussion or proactive efforts for removal, and then read the in-depth discussion concerning the products/presentation of an individual who is relatively extremely well accepted by his customers, I'm apparently in the "wrong mind" (left brain versus right brain observation). :rollling:

 

2 or 3 star shipping speed?

 

lol still not here yet. hopefully today....

 

I see his feedback is descent for "shipping time" now so maybe he has improved, but when I was dealing with him, his shipping was anything but prompt.

 

Look, there is currently a coin that I wanted very badly on eBay. It is listed as UNC and may very well be. However it is raw. And although we are supposed to buy the coin, not the slab, I feel that in many cases the slab and accompanying certifications are necessary. I mean a few dollars for a cent might be OK to gamble with, but I certainly don't want to spend 50-100 for a coin I must have authenticated then graded with the possibility that it's going to be returned as DOA.

Since pics are very hard to tell exactly what the coin is, I think you should either pay so little, that if you get burned, it doesn't hurt....or buy a graded coin. IMHO

 

The coin got here today. It was packaged in a regular envelope with regular stamp. The coin was inside a 2x2 inside a small piece of cardboard taped to the eBay receipt.

After opening the package, I had to turn on the oven, 'cause here's what's for dinner tonight...



At first glance under the Ott light the coin could not be more wholesome and original looking.

I don't have time tonight to set up the camera and take pics, but I will try my very best to do so this weekend.

Stay tuned...Mike

 

Well, I'm uncertain what that all means but, after all the bad press this seller has received in this thread, perhaps he said, hmmmm I'd better do this guy right . Would you like some mayo with that turkey ? LOL

 

That looks more like a crow to me. Think about it!

 

Crow, turkey it's all a bunch of feathers to me.

 

To revisit the OP: "Why does eBay allow a seller like this continue to operate like this for 2 years is my real question."

Read more: http://www.cointalk.com/showthread.php?t=139132&pagenumber=#ixzz15gvFF4pF

eBay makes money from buyers and sellers doing business together but is amoral in that it has set up a forum where fraudsters can flourish and then eBay do less than they should to control the misrepresentation that we see there every day.

I have bought many antique and vintage items from eBay over the past few years and the amount of fraud that I have experienced has led me to buy there less and less. Reporting fraud to eBay (especially while an auction is still running) seems to have no effect in most cases, even though evidence presented is quite obvious to somebody with knowledge. If eBay were to employ experts in certain obvious areas such as coins, clocks/watches, antiques, etc. they could control the problem better but from where I am sitting it seems they are content to earn money from the proceeds of misrepresentation and outright fraud while doing only the minimum to police the fraudsters.

Of course, there are thousands of successful honest sales on eBay every day but with eBay's apparent monopoly position, I wish that they would do more to tame the beast that they have created.

Glyn, Tokyo, trading in antique and vintage watches.

 

I know I am waiting for the pictures from Leadfoot however I agree it looked like a crow to me in his posting.