You're right! I had to whip out my Maui Jims to even look at it. That is so obvious! I can't believe anyone would bid on a card that is presented that way. I certainly would not.
Don
Collect primarily 1959-1963 Topps Baseball set registry id Don Johnson Collection ebay id truecollector14
I've won several of Block's cards and have noticed this scan brightness thing he does. The cards certainly don't look in person as they do in his scans. However, in his defense, none of them have been low end cards. In fact, he described this card as looking like a 9 in an 8 holder and I can say that I've been over every square milimeter of the card and cannot find a flaw (it will reside in a PSA 9 holder in due time). So, my overall experience with Mr. Block has been positive.
That's nothing. Can you believe PSA only gave me a 7 on this obviously mint Clemente rookie? I was robbed! And I won't sell it for less than PSA 9 money.
I collect coins as well, and I had a dealer tell me he wanted full 63 money for his 62 graded coins. For those of you do do the numismatic thing, thats almost as bad as saying you want full PSA 10 money for a PSA 9 card.
Make sure you bid early on his auctions, he seems to have a habit of his server crashing and the auctions getting pulled at the end whenever the bids are to low. Funny how it never crashes when the bids are high
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
There have been some interesting,disturbing,and colorful(get it) threads regarding Mr. Blocks buisness practices(or lack of) in the past. The future is so bright it is starting to look shady. I just got the current SMR in the mail today and I just cant believe PSA STILL CONTINUES to run ads for this guy.Funny thing is ...Mr. Block seemed to be spending a whole bunch of time behind the Global GAI booth right next to Mike Baker at the National. Probably begging for that .5 grade bump. Anyone here remember when Larry came on here with that awful icon and made a fool of himself??? "maybe someone could make it an 8 with the right TOUCH" Unbelievable.
If he is indeed encouraging that someone should, uh, improve that card, he ought to go into business with that other dealer who raised a ruckus on Net54 when he acknowledged that he uses the services of a professional card doctor. The one with initials like an expensive car.
"For those how know what they are doing, can surely get this card upgraded"
I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish with these descriptions. It doesn't really take 'how-to' instructions to get card doctors to bid on your auctions. A clear scan showing a well centered generally high end card is all it takes. If anything, these desciptions would only scare them away by attracting too much attention. Plus, PSA might not appreciate a dealer publicly stating that a 7 can be trimmed into an 8 or that a 3 can be pressed into a 7. Is he an authorized dealer?
The scary thing is the evolution of selling, it reminds me of radar detectors..
so we had those radar detectors to warn us against the police shooting radar, then the police got lasers, we then got upgraded radar detectors that could read the lasers, as the polices ability to read our speed was enhanced, the development of the radar detection systems grew accordingly..
first we had ebay, a way to connect buyers and sellers.. now here we are on ebay, as prices for scanners fell and every seller could afford one, we as buyers refuse (for the most part) to purchase an item without a scan..
now the crooked sellers have gone and begun to use altering methods from software to manipulate the cards we see..I guess the old attage, "My eyes must be decieving me" really holds water. Now we must develop ways to tell if the scan has been altered.
what a shame it has come to this.......just plain old sad!!
There are ways to tell if an image has been altered. My "mint" Clemente up there doesn't even pass a casual glance, nor does that Mantle that has been brightened so much as to turn the red flip pink. The rest of the card isn't pink because they brightened the white borders (probably kinda yellowish in reality) and everything outside, but forgot about the flip. Anyway, most altered images are deliberately made small and crappy so it's harder to detect the alterations. Even so, a graphics professional can usually examine an image in PhotoShop and determine, for example, when somebody puts Sarah Michelle Gellar's head on some nude model's body, no matter how good it looks to the eye.
Appears that Block Sportscards and this guy are in business together. Only difference in these two cards is that the card is in a PSA holder and the color is drastically improved thanks to Block.
<< <i>Even so, a graphics professional can usually examine an image in PhotoShop and determine, for example, when somebody puts Sarah Michelle Gellar's head on some nude model's body, >>
A good photographer or designer can put Sarah Michelle's head on another body and NOBODY could tell the difference. Most car ads are a composite of several different scenes from various different shoots, and even those in the business have to ask how many parts there were. Doctoring a scan of a card is childs play, but apparentely we're dealing with someone even more remedial here.
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
Just looking at the image, yes I agree, it can be impossible to tell even to a trained eye. The covers of Vogue and Cosmo (or any magazine with a celebrity or gorgeous girl on it) are retouched all to hell.
But even a professionally doctored digital image can be analyzed in a high-end graphics program and traces of the doctoring can be detected by another professional. Unless after the doctoring the image is turned into a low-res, crappy mess -- which is what many eBay scans are.
Comments
Rather amateurish photo shop work.
While fooling around with the image, they accidentally turned the flip pink.
"How about a little fire Scarecrow ?"
Collect primarily 1959-1963 Topps Baseball
set registry id Don Johnson Collection
ebay id truecollector14
sad thing is that the card itself its very nice ...why mess around with it ...
Groucho Marx
My ebay listings
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
Awful.
Real ethical...
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
practices(or lack of) in the past. The future is so bright it is starting to look shady. I just got the current SMR in the mail today and I just cant believe PSA STILL CONTINUES to run ads for this guy.Funny thing is ...Mr. Block seemed to be spending a whole bunch of time behind the Global GAI booth right next to Mike Baker at the National. Probably begging for that .5 grade bump. Anyone here remember when Larry came on here with that awful icon and made a fool of himself??? "maybe someone could make it an 8 with the right TOUCH" Unbelievable.
"For those how know what they are doing, can surely get this card upgraded"
I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish with these descriptions. It doesn't really take 'how-to' instructions to get card doctors to bid on your auctions. A clear scan showing a well centered generally high end card is all it takes. If anything, these desciptions would only scare them away by attracting too much attention. Plus, PSA might not appreciate a dealer publicly stating that a 7 can be trimmed into an 8 or that a 3 can be pressed into a 7. Is he an authorized dealer?
He is an SMR advertiser, is it OK for advertisers to advocate card doctoring?
<< <i>that other dealer who raised a ruckus on Net54 when he acknowledged that he uses the services of a professional card doctor. >>
yes, but he said that was for research purposes only
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
so we had those radar detectors to warn us against the police shooting radar, then the police got lasers, we then got upgraded radar detectors that could read the lasers, as the polices ability to read our speed was enhanced, the development of the radar detection systems grew accordingly..
first we had ebay, a way to connect buyers and sellers..
now here we are on ebay, as prices for scanners fell and every seller could afford one, we as buyers refuse (for the most part) to purchase an item without a scan..
now the crooked sellers have gone and begun to use altering methods from software to manipulate the cards we see..I guess the old attage, "My eyes must be decieving me" really holds water. Now we must develop ways to tell if the scan has been altered.
what a shame it has come to this.......just plain old sad!!
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<< <i>Even so, a graphics professional can usually examine an image in PhotoShop and determine, for example, when somebody puts Sarah Michelle Gellar's head on some nude model's body, >>
A good photographer or designer can put Sarah Michelle's head on another body and NOBODY could tell the difference. Most car ads are a composite of several different scenes from various different shoots, and even those in the business have to ask how many parts there were.
Doctoring a scan of a card is childs play, but apparentely we're dealing with someone even more remedial here.
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
But even a professionally doctored digital image can be analyzed in a high-end graphics program and traces of the doctoring can be detected by another professional. Unless after the doctoring the image is turned into a low-res, crappy mess -- which is what many eBay scans are.
Turn the freaking brightness down!
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's