You see it on the ones with valuable varieties. It's so funny how many hacks are out there looking to hit a home run. I wonder how many are getting played for the fool.
Yeah, been going on for a while. I had great luck on Ebay buying group lots or single coins with horrible photos years ago. Now, however, most are done on purpose to trick bidders.
If someone buys a coin whose value is entirely based on some teensy tiny detail and the pictures are blurry, they're just asking to get taken for a ride.
Nothing wrong with buying a coin off of a blurry pic. Just make sure it's for a price you'd be comfortable at for a worst case scenario. Don't pay extra for what you can't see and you can only be pleasantly surprised. Also, if it's a blurry pic of a slabbed coin, but you can make out the ID number, look it up on the TPG site or Heritage archives to find some clearer pics. I've picked up some nice coins that way.
Tip for buyers: If a photo is blurry, assume the seller is guilty until proven innocent of trying to scam you.
Or is incapable of taking good pictures. Not everyone is potographicaly literate, especially when using a cell phone instead of a camera.
Also an excellent point. Out of my US coins, my favorite is a beautifully toned AU55 1833 quarter. I bought the coin raw on eBay from an auction with blurry (but reasonable) pictures. In discussing the coin with the seller prior to purchase, there were no significant red flags. He took additional pictures for me as best he could, and described the coin for me very well. I ended up with a spectacular coin at a decent price.
Not that this is the case every time. But I've noticed that many problem key date, semi key date or potentially key/semi key date coins based on MM, etc often tend to have blurry or hard to make out photos. These listings may (very rarely) or may not (most times) be the coin people are gambling on it to be. I'd say those listings are probably the most evident 'scams' especially when the sellers have no problems with other photos or they sell a large number of coins and would know what they had if they actually had a specific key coin. People love to gamble though so the tactic works and I see some crazy bids on coins that are going to end up being a mistake or learning experience for the buyers. I have found some decent coins listed this way though but it's often sellers who don't know what they have or rarely deal with coins.
If I suspect buyers are being set up with a seller's blurry photos of a coin, I'll check the quality of photos of the sellers other past and present offerings for consistency.
Where I've had good luck is bad pictures of NGC/PCGS slabbed coins. Mostly they turn out better than the image.
