Just looking at the common issue of scans that don't accurately represent what a card looks like in hand....
one way we have to gauge what a card may actually look like, at least when it comes to graded cards, is by looking at the flip. We all know what a PSA or SGC flip looks like in hand. If you see scan where the SGC green is to dark, or the PSA red is too orange, etc., you can get an idea how badly the scan might be off, and adjust accordingly with your mind's eye, so to speak.
I think another part of the problem comes with the default settings these scanners provide. With my Canon CanoScan 5600F, the defaults setting has an "auto tone" feature which makes the colors deeper and the whites much brighter.
If I turn the auto tone setting off, the cards scan appears much drabber than it looks in real life, almost washed out. I had to find a middle ground, a tone setting that shows what the card accurately looks like in hand. It took some trial and error. I'm not sure some sellers are knowledgeable enough to tweak the settings properly. The contrast and brightness settings on each person's monitor can also have an effect.
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