Originally Posted by slipk1068 (Post 1198623)

Won this card 9/29/2013 in a PWCC auction. 1st scan is the PWCC scan, 2nd scan I just made 5 minutes ago.

I saved the PWCC scan as a JPEG. My scan is using a Cannon MX870 scanner 300dpi. All I did was put the card in the scanner and switch from "Black and White Documents" to "Color Photo" then saved it as a JPEG.

A fellow board member (Donk) once implied that I altered a scan of a $10 card I was auctioning on Net54, so consider that when comparing the 2 if you choose to believe I (or anyone) would alter a scan to sell a $10 poor condition T206.

D@v1d $h1p$ey

Originally Posted by slipk1068 (Post 1198626)

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=350846238664


Does anyone believe this bid history looks legit?

Originally Posted by Runscott (Post 1198586)

Yes, I know. I have both scanner types. My slabbed cards still require adjustments - yes, scans are crisp and clear using CCD for slabs, but contrast and color are sometimes off. If anyone who has bought a slabbed card from me thinks my scans look freaky, just say so and I'll rethink things.

Originally Posted by cyseymour (Post 1198713)

I was looking at the Epson 700, and it has a feature called DIGITAL ICE. It is advertised as "DIGITAL ICE - remove the appearance of tears and creases from damaged photos"

http://www.amazon.com/Epson-B11B1780...rds=epson+v700

We've had a lot of people on this board complain of auction house scans where you can't see the creases on the card. Does anyone think that those auction houses might be applying this DIGITAL ICE technology to their scans?

Originally Posted by Sean1125 (Post 1198716)

Here's a little secret:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epson-Perfec...item20d0cc1d12

$60 CCD scanner

Takes scans like this with 0 editing what so ever:

http://seanbassikcards.com/wp-conten...ads/img180.jpg

Originally Posted by D. Bergin (Post 1198723)

As far as cleaning up creases, I can't speak for anybody else who may be artificially enhancing stuff, but sometimes they just don't show up very well on scans. They get flattened out or hidden by the light source.

Originally Posted by D. Bergin (Post 1198707)

I have an Epson V700, which cost a lot of dough IMO and is CCD based.

I constantly have to adjust in Professional mode to try and make items look as close to realistic as possible, depending on what is being scanned.

I'm not talking brightness and contrast and such........I'm not touching those features unless it's something that legitimately needs to be touched up for non-auction/selling reasons.

I'm talking the Sharpness and Descreen features, and the levels those features are set at. A newspaper is scanned differently from a magazine which is scanned differently from a lithograph which is scanned differently from a real photo.

Sometimes on older photos with off-white borders or backs you have to disable the automatic brightness that gets implemented on the initial pre-scan because it makes it too bright and exaggerated, sometimes it comes out closer to reality and you keep it.

On many printed style baseball cards, postcards or magazines, you have to implement the descreen into magazine setting in order to keep the cross-hatch or dot patterns from over-whelming the scan, and then you have to implement the sharpness setting at the same time, in order to keep the descreen setting from dulling down the card/item too much.

A few other things, you should always be scanning in photo mode and not document mode. You should also be disabling such features as dust removal and color adjustment at all times, unless it's something not related to re-selling something.

I'm sure a lot of these large ebay consignment auction houses have several different people scanning with several different scanners, using several types of settings, and this is a reason for several of the differences you see.

Maybe I'm rambling but I hope this makes some sort of sense to somebody. Maybe I'm just worrying too much about it.

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas (Post 1198770)

Makes perfect sense to me, Dave. I've been following this thread quietly, but you pretty well summed up my thoughts on the subject. I have 3 different scanners myself that I use for different scanning projects, and all 3 will give different results if you just throw something in there and scan away. In my experience, ALL scanners have different "factory settings" straight out of the box and/or different software for acquiring the scans which may/may not have similar "native" settings if left alone without adjustment.

To suggest that all scans of an item should look identical and match its actual appearance if you just use a "good" scanner and "don't adjust the settings" is naive at best, and to focus on whether the "color" of the card/flip/whatever is accurately represented on your monitor is like a dog chasing its tail. You know what color the flip is "supposed" to be, so just adjust the monitor on your end until that looks right. Then it won't matter whether the seller has done anything to monkey with the colors.

Now if there are specks, lines, creases, folds, tears, etc. that are visible with the card in hand that do not show up in the scan, that is another matter entirely, but still may be a result of the default settings in the scanning software. You have to remember that most scanning software is not designed with card collectors in mind. Believe it or not, the general public would actually LIKE for most tiny flaws to be removed or masked when they are scanning documents, family photos, magazine articles, etc. That is why scanning software with "Digital ICE" technology and other built-in "touch up" tools proudly state such on their packaging, and chances are, unless you "adjust" those settings (as in, turn them off), they're going to be actively cleaning up your scans straight out of the box. If you're more concerned with giving an "accurate" representation in the scanned image rather than the "best looking" image that the other 99% of non-card-collecting scanner users are going after, chances are, you're going to have to adjust some settings.

Or, you can just go with whatever the scanner poops out with its factory settings and just hope it displays accurately on the buyer's monitor. Then use the time you save by not adjusting settings to ponder why your camera won't take "good pictures" when you push the button or your television's picture always seems "too bright" when you plug it in or that song on your stereo doesn't "sound live" when you turn it on, even though you've left them all on their factory settings. Maybe you'll get lucky with factory settings, but it's more likely that you will have to make some adjustments to get your equipment to accurately reproduce real life.

Originally Posted by D. Bergin (Post 1198776)

I remembered another thing about the "Digital Ice". It's a real memory hog and since I'm still running the same Dell computer system I was 8 years ago or so, it usually just locks everything up for 10 minutes or more while it "processes".

When I've used it for other projects it hasn't seemed to be too helpful for me, and doesn't do much more then the simpler dust removal program already does in a lot less time.

I've seen it "attempt" to fix a crease and it just comes out worse or badly shaded.........though I'm sure it's been upgraded since I got my copy of it.

Originally Posted by cyseymour (Post 1198780)

If you look at the photo comparison on Amazon for Digital-Ice, there is an old photo of a man standing up and a woman sitting down. As you can see in the photo, there is a profound difference once Digital-Ice is used. The wrinkles have disappeared almost completely.

If your computer is 8 years old and the system locks up every time you try to use Digital-Ice, that is one thing. But I doubt that would be a problem for the auction houses. We've had people on net54 provide scans where wrinkles seemed to have just disappeared from a card.

Don't you think it is possible that, in those instances, certain auction houses may have been using Digital-Ice???

Originally Posted by D. Bergin (Post 1198776)

When I've used it for other projects it hasn't seemed to be too helpful for me, and doesn't do much more then the simpler dust removal program already does in a lot less time.

Originally Posted by cyseymour (Post 1198780)

If you look at the photo comparison on Amazon for Digital-Ice, there is an old photo of a man standing up and a woman sitting down. As you can see in the photo, there is a profound difference once Digital-Ice is used. The wrinkles have disappeared almost completely.

If your computer is 8 years old and the system locks up every time you try to use Digital-Ice, that is one thing. But I doubt that would be a problem for the auction houses. We've had people on net54 provide scans where wrinkles seemed to have just disappeared from a card.

Don't you think it is possible that, in those instances, certain auction houses may have been using Digital-Ice???

Originally Posted by Sean1125 (Post 1198716)

Here's a little secret:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epson-Perfec...item20d0cc1d12

$60 CCD scanner

Takes scans like this with 0 editing what so ever:

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth (Post 1195708)

It is good to see Brent is posting here. Since he is, I certainly hope he will address concerns previously expressed here and elsewhere (1) that his scans are not realistic depictions of the cards being offered but appear overly bright and (2) that high dollar items in his auctions sometimes appear to have bidders with astounding numbers of retractions to their name and/or very high percentages of bidding activity with him, suggesting (at least to me) the possibllity that they are bidding up their own items and retracting once they find out what the high bidder's max was.

Originally Posted by BeanTown (Post 1631994)

Peter, you must own a time machine?

Originally Posted by BeanTown (Post 1631994)

Peter, you must own a time machine?

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth (Post 1632353)

Long as y'all want to go back there, read post 76 then post 78. Oldie but goodie.

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth (Post 1632353)

Long as y'all want to go back there, read post 76 then post 78. Oldie but goodie.

Originally Posted by Brent Huigens (Post 1196475)

Thanks to everyone who has written here in a fair manner. These message boards provide a valuable check & balance to the hobby and we are not exempt from harsh (accurate or inaccurate) criticism.

From reading the comments and concerns on this thread it appears that there are two primary issues raised:

1) some folks feel scans sometimes appear inaccurate to how the card appears in person.

Scanning is something we take pride in doing right. Obviously we have no interest in misrepresenting a card as it would only hurt our buyer satisfaction. Frankly, this is the first time we have heard anybody suggest our scans were misleading. On that note, I can confirm that we've recently introduced some new scanners and that our settings have fluctuated somewhat over the last 90 days. However, the images we are now producing are exactly as we'd like them to appear so I ask that folks consider the images in current auctions and forward any examples that you feel are inaccurate. Please also remember that much of how a scan appears is as affected by the settings on the monitor you're using and if the scans appear overly bright (for example) you may want to consider lowering the brightness on your monitor.

Just to confirm, our scans are never enhanced artificially. We do have to specify certain parameters when the image is captured but all items sold receive the same settings and never is a single item isolated and adjusted in any way. Even if you don't like our scans, at least you be assured that they are 100% consistent from card to card.

Lastly, we have dedicated more time and effort to the scanning process than perhaps any other auction house. Yes, our images SHOULD appear brighter and clearer than your average scanner which often produce a grayish, sometimes foggy filter over the image. Our goal is have the card appear as it does in-person under quality lighting... nothing more, and nothing less.

2) questions surrounding bid retractions, etc

This is a valid concern and one we take very seriously. In fact, we are the only seller I'm aware of that actually prosecutes bid retractors. Anyone who retracts a bid in our auction is flagged by eBay trust and safety and their account is labeled with the improper action. Buyers will receive notices from eBay specifying their improper action and after a few retractions their account will be suspended. Furthermore, anyone who retracts a bid in a manner which we feel is highly unethical (i.e. perceived as possibly manipulating an auction) with have their account immediately blocked from future bidding with PWCC.

eBay has a weak policy on bid retractors and we are working with them to strengthen their position and issue more account restrictions when retractions occur.

Our policy on bid manipulation is firm, and has teeth. Any ID felt to be participating in an improper manner is blocked from bidding and reported to eBay. Any consignor who we feel may be manipulating their own auctions is also blocked from doing business with us and will have their IDs block and reported; this latter scenario is rare but has occurred. We have zero patience for this sort of activity and will pursue improper behavior with every resource we have available.

-------------------------------------

A couple comments that we ask all auction participants to consider as they help us police the eBay marketplace:
1) just because a bidder places 50% or more of their bids with PWCC does not suggest they are manipulating an auction. We have over 15,000 unique past buyers and many of these past customers appreciate the service we provide and choose to bid with us for the majority of their eBay bids. We have some clients who bid exclusively with us and will show bid percentages of 80% or higher. The critical detail to research is whether or not these bidders have received feedback from us for past purchases. A flag for us is any bidder with a high % of bids but little to no feedback; statistically it is unlikely that a bidder would place many bids, perhaps largely with only our account, and not win any items. Bidders with this sort of track record are usually blocked.

2) just because a bidder places multiple bids (even 10+ bids) on a single item is not automatically label that bidder as a shill participant. In researching countless situations like this, it has become abundantly clear that many eBay bidders choose to bid in ways that some would consider eccentric... they feel it's part of the fun of bidding on eBay. Until eBay changes its minimum bid increment, this sort of behavior may continue. What is important to look for are bidders who place multiple bids until becoming the high bidder and then retract their bid. Bidders who bid in this fashion are quickly blocked by us and are reported to eBay.

3) Please keep eBay in perspective with the other non-eBay auction venues. The beauty of eBay is that it's impartial and transparent. This transparency affords a wealth of information pertaining to bidder activity and information will naturally lead to conspiracy theories. If any impropriety is believed to have occurred, please contact us so we can take action. Please avoid jumping to emotional conclusions and let the data determine what’s right or wrong. Nobody cares more about the auction integrity than us. I assure you your time will not be wasted and we will research your claim. Help us make it better!

Thanks again to all who help make this hobby honest. Collector confidence is our #1 priority; without trust, we don't have much to offer our clients.

Brent Huigens
PWCC Auctions, LLC
brent@pwccauctions.com
510-725-7853