Heritage / Superior / B&M Auction, PL / DMPL Photography

ABC123

Doesn't it seem that the coin photos presented by the major Auction firms are less than top quality, especially regarding photos of Morgan Dollars ? Coins that are described as PL or DMPL hardly show any contrast, and are described as being black-and-white Cameo ! With all the money the Auctions generate you would think they would have much better coin photography. If they would devote more time and money to the photography, they could spend less time and money on the written hyped description. The coin is what, it is ! Show me the $$$. What's up with this situation ?

poorguy

Here's a good example of a frosty brilliant obverse and DMPL reverse common date morgan. I've seen coins like this in Heritage auctions that in the images, both sides looked washed out and without a lick of contrast on the PL/DMPL side. Both sides looked the same in the heritage image.

Russ

<< <i>Doesn't it seem that the coin photos presented by the major Auction firms are less than top quality >>



This is shocking news. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Russ, NCNE

VamGuy

This post makes no sense.

Heritage images are flawless, and the black mirror like fields are clearly seen in this unretouched typical Morgan photo.

ABC123

Good to know a few more potential auction bidders feel the same about the poor photography. But that still doesn't explain the Auction firms not wanting to provide a photo that matches the written description. You would think the more accurate the photo the more and higher bids it would generate to the auction firm and to the consignor !

tradedollarnut

<< <i>Good to know a few more potential auction bidders feel the same about the poor photography. But that still doesn't explain the Auction firms not wanting to provide a photo that matches the written description. You would think the more accurate the photo the more and higher bids it would generate to the auction firm and to the consignor ! >>



The people who spend by far the most amount of money know enough to view the coin in person before they bid. The marginal benefit of a few bids from those who would bid higher off better pictures is outweighed by the cost of providing the better pictures.

messydesk

<< <i>The people who spend by far the most amount of money know enough to view the coin in person before they bid. The marginal benefit of a few bids from those who would bid higher off better pictures is outweighed by the cost of providing the better pictures. >>


Couldn't you say the same about providing pictures in general? Or havng a heavy, fancy catalog with high resolution, glossy printing? I would think that crappy pictures unnecessarily reflects poorly on the company showing them.

HighRelief

What a great post, I have been waiting for someone else to see what type of grap pictures Heritage takes for the PL and DMPL Morgan's now. What happened here? A Monkey with a polaroid camera could do a better job. Heritage, up until about a year ago, took excellent pictures showing good contrast between the devices for the PL and DMPL Morgan's. I phoned Heritage a while back about this and they said they would work on it, but I am still waiting. Check out Superior at www.sgbh.com for some great contrasting pictures of PL and DMPL'S and also the toned coins.