We all know when surfing bay that many of the pictures of items are quite frankly shit and its impossible to truly gauge what the items condition is and what flaws it holds your really at the mercy of the sellers description. You don't really find out (even with asking the seller details questions prior to buying) until you actually get the item in hand.

As a buyer i would take detailed pictures over a description like C7 - C8 Minor rubs, some flaws but a displayable figure any day of the week.

How do people feel about Detailed High Resolution Pictures V Detail Seller Description's, Seller C scale ratings etc?

Which would make you more likely to buy?

Do you think people with minimal descriptions and poor pictures can make more money than if they used High Resolution pictures with detailed descriptions? Or is the reverse true?

Jay

For me it would be à good pic! People know crap about à detailed discription.

Just to highlight -


Detailed High Quality Pictures

(Of course there are more Angles of the figure that could be pictured like the dome from the top, the COO etc)





Typical eBay Example of Poor Pictures

(This listing did have a description which i added of course as we know many auctions have a poor picture followed by a poor description)



Just to add if i took much poor pictures of the first R2 shown (High Quality Pics) it wouldn't be hard to make the figure appear much minter than it actually is! - This is probably one of my biggest bug bears with poor pictures used on eBay and do a lesser degree forums. Take the second Shit Pic R2 the seller describes it as mint and from the crap picture the sticker certainly looks white but if i took the same sort of crap picture with flash of the first R2 believe me the sticker would appear white as well!

How many of us have took a punt a buying a figure on the bay with a loose description and shit pics? I know i have in the past many times you end up with crap or been disappointed and then the odd time its better than expected either way though you defo roll the dice to some degree imo although the gold plated buyer protection (at the detriment to honest sellers) that's now available on eBay definitely means that rolling the dice carries much less risk these days.

I have noticed that eBay sellers like C9.5 Graded who use high quality pictures consistently seem to do very well on the end prices and have many satisfied customers.

Anyway i though this would be an interesting and relevant topic to discuss and i'm interested to see what other peoples takes are

Cheers Jay

like said im in for a high end good pic against a sellers description any day.
i got burned a couple of time on an ebay auction by bad unfocused pics thinking i scored something interesting.
the bottom line is the auctions were pretty low that it wasnt worth the effort of making any claim trough ebay or paypal.
the worst thing is sometimes you cannot tell a original weapon from repro.

on the other hand ive scored 2 possible lili ledy figs because of normal pics and a lot of comparing against lili ledy references.
i will know more when i got them in hand.

i think the real thing is that when you add a high end pic youre fee goes up quite a bit and so youre proffit goes down.
a-face it ebay isnt what it ussed to be,now its just a money making auctions site that doesnt really care about fair handeling :pale:

Great timing on this subject Jay. I have recently been on the search for a minty white snowtrooper and sensorscope R2 for my loose collection.

It seems like a huge percentage of the pics on these figures are shot way too bright, to make the figures look whiter than they probably really are. I immediately pass on any figures shot this way. They're usually accompanied by descriptions that are very vague as well. "Please see photo", "item pictured as is", etc....these sellers have driven me absolutely mad in my search for that elusive "white" figure.

I also hate those sellers that advertise C9.8/C9.6 etc.-these are rarely anything close to even a C9 imo. I'm far from a grading expert but even I know when someones trying to bullshit me. These guys also list these figures this high when the figure has a repro weapon or no weapon at all. That really irks me as well. I don't think any figure should receive that high a grade without an original weapon. Of course that's just my opinion, so it'll be interesting to see what you guys with more expertise think.

I think the sellers are definitely making more money by this practice because I think there are a lot of buyers willing to take that gamble. Guys like me who want to be sure they get the mintiest figures possible will be probably be willing to hold out for a more honest seller, even if it means spending a little extra money.

Ok that's my rant for the day. This has been somewhat of a sore spot for me. It felt good to let out a little of my frustration on this subject.

Brad

Brad I have a spare mint snowtrooper I would gladly give you but there are some restrictions on postage weights here when sending to the states, I fear it might mean putting a brick in a box just to get over the weight requirements..

If I can work out what to do I will get it sent over no problem.

As for the discussion- A picture speaks a thousand words (if its detailed )

I would take a friends honest appraisal of an item if I had to, I recently bought 2 MOCS unseen from Joe Y - he gave me 2 lines of description in chat as he didn't have pictures, now I know he is a good guy and he's good for a return if I wasn't happy but it turned out well for me and the figures were in nice condition- however I wouldn't advise doing that with anyone else than a respected member or a close friend. If you did do that make sure you at least get it in writing that if the items not up to your standards for the price you paid the seller that he will grant you a refund if you aren't satisfied.

Anyone else- its detailed pictures all the way. There is the smallest of chances that when making a quick decision purchase on a blurry picture you might get a better than described item but generally thats not the case.

Ebay is the worst place for pictures - always ask for more and if they won't provide more detailed ones then move along.

DLT9 wrote:

i think the real thing is that when you add a high end pic you're fee goes up quite a bit and so you're proffit goes down.
a-face it ebay isnt what it ussed to be,now its just a money making auctions site that doesn't really care about fair handeling :pale:

Bjorn you can add an unlimited amount of High Resolution Large size pictures to your ebay listing completely free.

You just need to upload them to photobucket or similar check out this thread on how to do it bro its really easy You'll notice all the high quality vintage sellers on eBay use this method to add tons of High Quality Pictures to their listings at zero cost!

Check out this TIG Sticky for the link to a step to step guide

http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t2315-how-to-add-multiple-high-quality-sized-pictures-to-your-ebay-listings-for-free-with-photobucket#40132

Brad i hear you bro i had a similar nightmare trying to find a minty white loose Luke Stormtrooper on ebay one that i purchased looked minty white in the auction (due to over use of flash and crap picture) only to turn out turd yellow on arrival In the end i gave up tbh,

Jay

Joe-thanks for the offer, that's really cool of you(special Panchi "hugs" going out to you right now!) Don't sweat it though if it's that much of a hassle, it's the thought that counts

Jay-that illustrates my point exactly. I'm not a gambling man because my luck is really crappy. The problem is I'm a "I want it now" kind of guy, so it makes it very hard for me to be patient and wait for a better seller with more details and better pics. It seems like for every honest seller there's at least 10 that list a figure with 1 shitty picture and a worthless description.

Brad

Lol don't worry I might be weird but I am not "that" weird

Sheesh! Gonna get myself a name as a Brad stalker here!

So many things to worry about while bidding on Ebay. A good series of pictures from different angles does more than anything for me. I usually try to wait for a collector selling out rather than a dealer because sometimes they've done the work for you making sure its the quality you're looking for and those auctions usually are the ones with the best pics and descriptions.

I agree with you guys on this. High res pix are a sure way to get me to buy on Ebay. Look at the Vader I picked up recently. Real shitty picture of it and a somewhat vague description. I took the gamble thinking it was actually sealed, which one side is still originally sealed. But ended up with a nice minty NO COO Vader and a decent cardback cheap. The C scale on Ebay is garbage on top of it. Most sellers always use a C-8 or 9 to described their figures and when they arrive, they are more like C3. I don't like using the scale at all, but had a buyer recently ask me about the Tri Pruneface I had for sale. I told them I'd give it an 80 or 85 and it actually graded 80. Guess I just lucked up on it. Other than that, I never used it. As far as buying from forum friends, I'll take a good description any day because I know you guys here or some on RS know how to actually describe an item so there's no doubt let to wonder if the item will come in as it was described.

And Jay, if the seller of the R2 you linked a pix of is the same one I'm thinking of (the picture matches all their others), then I agree they need better pictures. I bought a C8 Pruneface from them that should've been more like a C5-6 with the heavy wear to the coat, but the figure was at least an 8. And with the volume they sell everyday, you would think they could take better shots for their figures.

Hi-res photo are really important to me. Not just to confirm condition of the piece but also for confirming the the variation of the MOC. Although I would like the best condition piece I can afford, not all Luke Jedi MOC variants are easily available and sometimes I am lucky just to get hold of a beater. It is the Hi-Res photos which help me ascertain if I need the piece or whether I have one already.

As for asking questions: I have found in the past that when I have asked very specific questions, the seller suddenly cancels the auction and relists at a higher price a few days later... or a "New Ebay User" suddenly appears in the game and starts bidding like a mad twat. I wonder if this has happened to anyone else - especially when the seller can see from your feedback that you a blantent focus collector.

Im with everyone else on the pics side of it. I've learned that there is NO continuity when it comes to opinions on condition. If it's been a higher end item, I'll ask for more pics and insist on no flash be used as well. In defense of people most use the flash since it's usually automatic and they end up with a figure thats whiter than sour cream.

Craig T wrote:

As for asking questions: I have found in the past that when I have asked very specific questions, the seller suddenly cancels the auction and relists at a higher price a few days later...

Gotta agree with that one. It clearly alerts them and they go off to do a bit more research.

Yeah, I'm all for good pics any day (HATES the flash--we hates it!!!) but even then pics can be somewhat misleading. Especially if a flaw is difficult to capture in the picture. I've had two purchases recently that fit into this category. Decent pics in the auction but once the item was in hand the flaws were much more obvious--and left out of the description--but you could see them in the pics. Neither of them anything really expensive, like DLT9's situation--just a pain and not worth the effort to recoup anything and I'm left with two figures I can't use and have two slots in the collection that I still have to fill.

Even before eBay added their C scale descriptions have been highly suspect. Like everybody else I've ended up with items that weren't quite as high on the mint-meter as the seller believed them to be.

Sounds like we've all had similar experiences on eBay so we can commiserate

Quote :

Neither of them anything really expensive, like DLT9's situation--just a pain and not worth the effort to recoup anything

That's another good point Dave. I think some of these shady sellers know people aren't going to mess with the hassle of getting their money back on these less expensive items, so they just keep on listing vague descriptions and crappy pics knowing someone will eventually take the chance.

Brad

Cool avatar Scanman.

Oh, and I agree. Sellers like that are working the numbers game.