Why do-----
 

most ebay sellers show such bad pictures, some have obviously been selling for a considerable time, is it deliberate? Tim

Couple of Reasons
 

Hi Tim ,
I think sometimes it is to gloss over details of condition ;
also quite possibly many Sellers lack adequate image manipulation skills or software to produce good images .

This is unfortunate because good free image manipulation software is out there .

For instance :
www.irfanview.com

Rick

Hello Rick,
I am just not sure, they seem to have mastered all the PC skills to list there items and conclude business right enough. Tim

Well
 

Decent photography skills have to be learned and possibly it just isn't important enough to the Sellers that don't take good pictures . Proper lighting and composition may not come easily to some folks .

At that point it is up to the potential Bidder to take the images into irfanview or photoshop and try to improve upon them for his own edification .

I firmly believe that many people do not know how to properly compress a jpg file for minimum kb size and maximum format size .

In Photoshop the 'unsharpen mask' feature is invaluable .

Another factor may be the photo hosting service used for the auction .

hey rick,
thanks for the link! it's pretty cool... ;)

Hi Spunjer ,
It's great freeware and is just about as good as Photoshop once you get it wired . :D

GIMP
 

People who work a lot with pics might also want to try http://www.gimp.org/ - also freeware and available for Unix, MacOSX, and M$... (as well as source code)

Great suggestion Kai .
It's amazing how much freeware there is out there . :)

www.tucows.com

tucows.com is my friend....

thanks for the link, kai

My photography skills are abysmal. :(

I'm beyond help. :o

Tim, you're not talking about something like this, are you: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Yes, thats got to be the worst. The ones that bug me are never usually that bad, they are often just good enough to get you interested. Tim

Interestingly enough, the first two dha I purchased from eBay had awful auction photos. I was naive enough to jump at them and, because the photos were so bad picked them up at a very fair price.

They are still two of my favorites, and are genuine antiques of good (not great) quality.

Sometimes bad pix can be a boon, if one is willing to take a risk. :)

Yes I agree that can happen 1% of the time :(

Darn, Let that VOC sword slip away for only $30,000.00. Trouble is only one was for sale, seller may have given me the lesser of the two.

I agree. That was about three years ago, and it hasn't happened since. :D