Tips for the registry...

mrc32

I am adding my first real set that I am going to be working on and updating. The first question I had to answer was if I should start with just one card. Well I did. One card and we are off.

So here are some questions.
1)I have added a picture for my one card, but it was WAY to big size-wise. What dimensions do you use on your photos?
2)I'd like to add pictures of the back of the card as well, but what software program do you use to put those photos together?
3)Does it really take 3 days for PSA to approve my set if I change just one word in the description? I made a grammer mistake in my set description and wanted to change it. Its going to take 3 days? Yikes

Thanks
Mrc32

helionaut

I scan at 150 or 300 DPI, but reduce it to 72 dpi. Any decent graphics program like Photoshop or Fireworks will do this. To add the back, simply increase the size of the canvas of one picture so you have a blank space large enough to accommodate the other image. Then copy and paste the other image onto it.

I think changing the comment, with no card changes, happens instantly as they don't have to review anything. Or in any case it seems like small changes like adding 1-2 cards to an existing set happens overnight.

Alfiewt

I have been experimenting with scans recently for the registry. I think scans for two cards that I recently added to my 1979 Milton Bradley set came out reaaly good. Check out the scans for the Lou Brock and Juan Marichal scans in my set here. My goal is to have crisp, clean scans of all of my cards showing front and back. I also try to size the scans so you can hit the "next image" link in the window to go through the scans without having to reajust the window size each time.

The method I have found to work best:

First I scan the card at 200 DPI and 50% compression. If the card borders are a light color, you should leave the scanner lid up to show the edges of the card good. I then use a program called infranview to crop and resize the scans. This program can be downloaded for free here. I resize the scans to a size of 290 X about 490 pixels. When you have an image open in the ifranview program, all you have to do to resize it is choose resize/resample under the image menu and put 290 in for width, it will fix the height for you if you have the preserve aspect ratio box checked.

Now to combine two scans so you can show both the front and back of the cards:

There is a good turtorial to explain this here. The one problem I had when following this turtorial is that I couldn't resize the white sreen in my paint program by dragging the corner. I overcame this by opening an image of a card I want to stich and using the stretch tool under the image menu in the paint program to strech the width to 200%. This makes it the perfect size to paste images of the front and back of the card on. Just use the paste from option under the edit menu and paste the scan of the front of the card, then the image of the back of the card side by side. Then simply save and you will have a scan with both the front and back of the card.

If you have any more questions please ask. I really wish more people would post scans on the registry (and if the can do front/back scans, even better), If everyone posted scans the registry would be a great referance to look up an image of pretty much any card.

Virtualizard

Alfie,

I'm glad you're posting scans, front and back. This has come up many times before and I urge everyone to add scans of their cards. What good is it to just see the numbers next to someone's name in the registry? Share your cards, not your list of cards!

I have all of my cards on the registry scanned, front and back (currently somewhere around 1200 cards). Here is a link to my 1970 Topps Baseball set which I am currently most active on (over 90% complete).

I have also started collecting the 1960 Topps Baseball set in the past few months. I love the look of these cards.

Check out my other sets as well. As I add and upgrade, new scans will be included each time. This can be a great resource for all collectors. That's what I believe the set registry should be used for (I do like my "Best of the Registry" certificate though ).

JEB.

Virtualizard

mrc32,

Sorry, I forgot to answer your questions.

1. If you are talking about actual physical size, I size my scans to 7" tall keeping the width proportional (70-100 dpi).
2. To add a scan of the card back there are many programs that have a "stitch" feature - chances are you have one on your computer right now (they usually come with scanners and printers.) Or you can do the cut and paste method already mentioned.
3. As far as the updating of the set registry goes, I have experienced a wide range of turnaround times - from literally minutes to 3 days or so. I'd say the average is less than 24 hours though.

Hope that helps.

JEB.

wolfbear

Felt pretty good about having close to 700 scans of cards up on the registry,
but now I find out some of you have both front and back scans up ?

This is very troubling ...