amsd

Editor, Seal News; contributor, JuicyHeads
24 Jul 2014
05:13:53pm

re: Bigger Scans Please

Clayton's plea comes close on the heels of another request to remind folks to post legible scans.

Some of you use stock cards and show entire stock card where stamp only takes up 5% of the space. You can easily crop and resave the cropped image.

Please don't slather your stamps or lense with vaseline prior to imaging; also you needn't affix gauze to the lens. If foggy or overcast immediately above the scanner's bed, wait until the fog burns off. and, if the stamp really IS so washed out you can't tell if it's Lenin or Lennon, maybe it's best just to send to the Holocaust Museum and save the scanner some work.

I know, picky picky


David

 
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TuskenRaider

24 Jul 2014
06:14:31pm

re: Bigger Scans Please

Hi everyone;

I spend way too much time on my scans in Approvals, but I feel the results are worth it! When I look at the work of other sellers I feel really good about the time I took to make them nice looking.

Sellers:
hint number 1); keep scans at a max of 940 pixels if possible, and I won't have to scroll side-to-side.

hint number 2); If stamp is printed on paper, use a black background, if on foil like those Tonga stamps, or on colored paper, use a lighter background.

hint number 3); After scanning use a sharpen lightly adjustment, to bring out details. When I do this I can spot flaws I didn't see prior to scanning.

hint number 4); After posting an image, open your approval book or auction and actually look at it. The ones I uploaded were much darker afterwards. So I went back to original, readjusted brightness, and uploaded new images. If you do this on the first couple scans, you won't have to re-upload 24 scans.

hint number 5); I try to keep all stamps in the same order as in the Scott catalog, so buyers can fill want lists more easily

hint number 6); I never give catalog prices, that is in the eye of the beholder, but I always give catalog numbers if I know them. You as a buyer can look the prices up or use the number to check against your want lists.

hint number 7); Instead of posting pages one-at-a-time, wait until you have a half dozen or so pages, and upload all at once. You will find that listing goes very fast if done in batches. And if your stamps are nice ones, they will be worth waiting to see, by your buyers.

hint number 8); Are the stamps something you would buy yourself, or just trying to unload a bunch of stuff. I only want to look at stamps I'll be proud to display in my album, or if duplicates, I can easily sell. When I'm making up a lot, I keep a small jar on the desk labeled "Davey Jones Locker", and 5% or more of my material gets torn in half and deep sixed into the jar, for later burial at sea.

Hint number 9); I never display stamps on their sides to save space. I don't mount them in my album that way, so I can't picture how they will look in my album. I keep wide stamps on one page and tall ones on a different page. If wide and tall in the same set, I wasts a bit of space and display together.

I guess that's just about enough for now!

Happy scanning
Ken Tall Pines

 
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cdj1122

re: Bigger Scans Please

".... hint number 4); After posting an image, open your approval book or auction and actually look at it....."

This should be hint #1, and if followed occasionally, the other hints would be just trim. It ought to be hint #10 as well, for those with over active forgetters.

There are two members who I simply ignore because over time I became frustrated trying to double squint ( *** ) in a effort to figure out what was being offered.
In the approval section it is largely a waste of time providing Scott Numbers as far as I am concerned since I work visually using Gibbons for Brits, Facit for Scandinavia, Yvert, Michel and so on when I need a reference. I haven't bought a new Scott in well over twenty years. In fact I find the handy magazine style catalog from Mystic suffices when I am looking for a number of a US stamp.
I thought that the approvals idea was to facilitate a place where members could offer some of those numerous duplicates that we almost all have lying about without involving a lot of work, cataloging and describing the items being offered.

(***) This is accomplished by closing both eyes and activating a fertile imagination

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