HA and imagery of consigned coins

rawmorgan · September 1, 2012 4:04AM

I have bought from Heritage, but have never consigned. Last week when I was looking at the Long Beach lots I was seeing many poor quality images.

They look like scans of the slab; there is great detail on the label, but poor dark images of the coins.

Example chosen randomly

As a consigner or a future consigner I would want the best possible image to advertise my coin(s).

It seems to me that if I were the owner of the above coin I would be irritated that its image would be holding back possible bids.

Does Heritage take scans of slabs to quickly put up images of the coins, and then adjust them for better quality as they get closer to the start of the floor bid?

I had a few coins in mind, but the images of them were so bad, I wasn't going to take a chance on them.

I know that these coins are in plastic, but I bid because I like the coin.

I like dealing with Heritage, I have been nothing but very satisfied with my wins, and have only seen this imagery recently.

Has something changed?

I guess my point while rambling, is that I would be hesitant to consign anything if in the end its image was this poor.

mingot · September 1, 2012 4:43AM

Same with me, completely passed on some coins that just had images that were beyond terrible -- and not just "oh, i dont think that is a pretty image", but "wow, all i can do is make out the basics of the devices it's so dark".

if i was the consignor i would have blown a nut.

who knows, though, maybe they are house coins

TahoeDale · September 1, 2012 5:16AM

I have had many consignments to Heritage over the years, and have discussed at length the image quality of their work.

In most cases, the scan is of the coin in the holder, and the separate image(if any) is photography. And this latter image is
almost always lighter than the scan.

Because of the difference in the pics, I have requested Heritage to send me proofs of the coins that are consigned, if the value
is significant, and they have complied.

I have found that the in hand view of the coin ( almost every time) resembles the scan more than the photo of the coin by itself.
I think Heritage bbelieves that the lighter image allows for more inspection, online, and they are not trying to get the same result for both pics.

But it does make it tough to rely only on the online images.

johnrav · September 1, 2012 5:24AM

some scanners have a setting where you can adjust the depth of what is being imaged. looks like they need to see if they have that option, so its the coin being scanned, not the label. (?)

devious · September 1, 2012 6:06AM

I recently sold some coins to HA and was disappointed by their images of the coins. Unless the bidders were looking up the cert numbers (most coins had TV imaging done), they were not seeing the coin as they could have. Many of the TrueViews were spot-on too as to what the coin looks like in hand. Oh well!

I wish they would do something about their horrible coin images for future consignments.

HA and imagery of consigned coins

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