Is it just me or does this slab look a little "off" (for lack of a better word). http://cgi.ebay.com/1923-PEACE-DOLL...ryZ11980QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
What's bothering you is probably due to the lighting. I'd bet the seller took the photo with a flash or a single bright light near the camera and the light is bouncing off the surface of the slab in the portions of the slab outside the coin. Notice the reflection of the light near the top of the slab?
I was not even looking at the coin save that it is sharp as a tack on a very fuzzy looking slab. Look at the numbering in the title of the slab. It is the only part of the slab - front or back - that is clear. In fact, the title and the coin are sharp and everything else is dim and fuzzy.
Unless NGC has really old version holders that I'm unaware of..... My first question is where is the bar code? Next, only the grade should be bold. I've never seen the date and serial number in bold. It looks like a fake holder to me.
As someone with a lot of digital photography & Photoshop experience I could come up with at least a dozen ways to explain the oddities of the picture. The best thing to do is to contact the seller and ask for a number of additional photos from different angles, this might clarify the problem as just being bad photography. If is doesn't - just stay away and hope the best for the high bidder...
To me it looks like a picture of a picture. See how it's squared off on the corners? The coin looks like maybe before it was slabbed it was exposed to the weather/elements on the back side. The condition of the back and front are obviously different.
If you end up purchasing the coin, you might consider sending it to NGC to reholder it. I think they charge $5 to $10 to reholder(check with them).
As i was just looking at the auction, i was wondering if anyone has ever placed a bid higher than the buy it now price! That would be funny!!
I have done that. Suppose the opening bid is $100 and the BIN price is $200. Rather than buy it for $200 I may rather bid $210 and hope to get it for $100 (if nobody else bids) or slightly more (if someone else bids). It's a gamble that potentially could save me $100 and at the most cost me $10. That's a pretty good gamble to me.
This is a good strategy, however I recall doing this twice and having it backfire. Basically I lost the auction at the very end (by a small amount) and then wished I had just used the Buy It Now feature instead...
