I stumbled across this auction tonight on eBay... https://www.ebay.com/itm/1882-BU-WO...599520?hash=item2cf88dbce0:g:qbsAAOSw2XtdnVMR The description reads: The coin is in raw uncertified condition and is a very nice coin. Please look at the pictures as this is the actual coin you will receive. Coin has been cleaned and artificially toned. I think that those things are mutually exclusive, but I digress... I wonder if you ask him how he knows that they've been cleaned and artificially toned, if he'd tell you that the only way that he could know for sure is if he did it himself, and he is sure.
Very strange. The guy put a lot of effort in the description, not so much with the B/W pictures. I was just looking at his listings. All of his picture stink! That's gotta be intentional!
A good way to sell your Morgan dollars that wouldn't ordinarily sell. Just polish them and say you did so.
Not really, if I were to post coins for sale all of my pictures would stink, too, but that's because I have a very old, low resolution camera, and no skills at working with my photos to improve them. I see that sort of listing often on ebay, and when I suspect that a coin might be modified, I often contact the seller. If I get no reply, that probably means something negative; if he replies by saying he accepts all returns with no questions asked, it means something else. If he says something else that might not seem like the truth, then I dismiss the coin.
You wanta sell something, it's all in the advertising. Good pictures probably equals better sales, don't you think?
You are assuming the purchasers have a modicum of common coin sense. Sadly I am afraid you are over assuming.
Yuck. In no universe should anyone pay more than melt for that. Also, cleaned (or in this case, highly polished) and AT are not mutually exclusive. I've seen plenty of these where the AT is an attempt to hide the cleaning. Nothing's going to hide the polishing job on this one, though.
He must do his own coin polishing, because the Morgans all look the same. All have "mirrored surfaces" (his wording).
I contacted this seller a year or so ago to ask about a particular coin I was interested in buying. I asked about cleaning and polishing. He answered that he did not know and that he is selling the coin just as he received it.
Sorry, I didn't see this reply. Yes a quality picture is surely an aid to selling, but this assumes that none of the sellers who have quality pictures are doctoring those pictures to end up with a superior looking coin. Even though I once had a deep interest in photography—I even took two courses in photography in college—that was fifty years ago. I abandoned my interest after college because the expense was so high, and I had no free lab to use anymore. My eyes at my age are not good enough to distinguish a good picture from a doctored one.
If he accepts a return and the buyer leaves negative feedback, he can get that feedback removed. Lack of negative feedback isn't a reliable indicator.
