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Post by stardiamond on Jul 5, 2023 16:33:17 GMT -5
I paid $28.93 for this parcel expecting to get more for a cab made from the little slab. The parcel arrived today and I took pictures. The little slab with the knife edge is smaller than I expected. I tried photographing the two slabs in one picture but the large picture looked like the listing picture. I put it on stand with an ott lite and the picture looks like the slab. The slab I wanted from the parcel was not as good as expected and the other one much better. He would have got more for the parcel with good pictures.
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realrockhound
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Post by realrockhound on Jul 5, 2023 17:01:34 GMT -5
Flipped it over to hide what you were really getting. Scammed ya
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
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Post by khara on Jul 5, 2023 17:56:12 GMT -5
But the small slab is tapered? So only useable in the very center? Did he disclose this in his description? And only showed the one side, not both? If so, that’s intentionally misleading. I would never make a listing like that. Interesting though that you are noticing that the big slab you think is worth more than his pictures show. I guess you got one better than you thought and one worse. It would probably tend to make me not buy from him again though.
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Post by MsAli on Jul 5, 2023 19:31:32 GMT -5
IMO
They should always show both sides, wrt and dry with any flaws noted. If not, then don't buy from them unless they are willing to provide those.
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khara
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Post by khara on Jul 6, 2023 1:33:47 GMT -5
@hefty Ya I definitely prefer a ruler or hand for scale. Although I have noticed that I think there’s even a misleading way that one can position their hand. Like holding the rock up at their fingertips above their palm with air space between, the rock can look like it fills their entire hand when it really doesn’t. I think there’s intentional trickery there. Your photo actually looks dry, that’s wet huh? The color difference could be just lighting and camera, or they could be messing with a filter setting. There is one eBay seller I’ll never buy from again because I realized he must’ve been using a vibrancy filter. All of his listings looked way more colorful on screen than in person. I tried to recreate his pics and the only way was to turn vibrancy way up on a photo editing software. Not cool. I don’t mind if the photos are cropped to fully fill the screen. You can only hold your phone or camera so close before it goes out of focus. I always zoom in anyway to see what I’ll see when really examining the stone up close. I’ve seen some listings where the person did not crop at all and the item looks so tiny and you can barely even see it. And, ya, I’ve ended up with my fair share of things that if I’d been shopping in person I definitely would not have bought. I guess that’s the drawback of having such easy access to vendors from far away, we’re now and then going to make a bad buy.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 6, 2023 11:11:39 GMT -5
This is the listing picture I bought from. I also use a quarter in my cab listings. I didn't consider the picture of the small slab, deceptive. I saw that it was a single cab slab and I wouldn't know the shape and size until trimming it. The purpose of the post was that buying from a picture is not as accurate as looking at the actual item. Live sale prices are higher and the inventory to choose from smaller. Buying from pictures there will be surprises and disappointments. The small piece was expected and the big piece was a surprise.
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Post by Rockoonz on Jul 6, 2023 12:29:01 GMT -5
Photos are difficult, at least they are for me. I tried a little slab sales in a couple groups on FB and the pics were always an issue. The goal is for the pic to match what I see, and the screen on the phone or the real camera is too small to judge that, so they are transferred to the laptop before I even get to see if I like them. If I don't like them, then deleting the pics and starting over is another chunk of time. By the time it's done I think I'm paying myself about minimum wage for the time and giving the slab away for free sometimes.
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NDK
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Post by NDK on Jul 6, 2023 12:37:55 GMT -5
@hefty take another picture of that slab with a black background & compare to the sellers photo. A lot of people don't realize that alone can make a big difference in how the rock looks.
I'm not sticking up for the seller, just pointing out small changes can make a big difference in photos.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 15, 2023 13:26:14 GMT -5
This was the largest cab I would get from the piece. As long as the pattern is equal on both sides, the taper gets domed and isn't consequential.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 17, 2023 14:54:34 GMT -5
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brybry
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Post by brybry on Sept 17, 2023 17:45:55 GMT -5
Your design looks better to me. Hard to describe, it looks fuller, a more complete overall picture compared to the 2nd option.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Sept 17, 2023 21:23:21 GMT -5
Photos are difficult, at least they are for me. I tried a little slab sales in a couple groups on FB and the pics were always an issue. The goal is for the pic to match what I see, and the screen on the phone or the real camera is too small to judge that, so they are transferred to the laptop before I even get to see if I like them. If I don't like them, then deleting the pics and starting over is another chunk of time. By the time it's done I think I'm paying myself about minimum wage for the time and giving the slab away for free sometimes. Same with cabs. And I do my post-shoot color editing on a big monitor. I despise sellers who boost the saturation on stones they're selling -- that's just plain dishonest. But sometimes it's impossible to exactly match color due to the innate nature of electronic imaging. That should be mentioned in the description. I do feel that if a seller states the size of the piece it's the job of the buyer to pay attention to it and know what they're buying. Image cropping is routine in on-line selling and buyers should be aware of it.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 17, 2023 21:47:24 GMT -5
Some cabs are difficult for me to photograph, some are easy. The best compliment, I can get from a review is that it looked exactly like the picture. Since I am selling, I invested in a better camera and macro lens. I don't use a lightbox or a formal set up. The best I can do is post multiple photos taken under different lighting conditions. I recently tried selling on FB and had a learning curve from what I do on Etsy. On Etsy, the primary is cropped in a particular way and the width needs to wider to prevent chopping the top and bottom. When I tried using those pictures on FB, I got a giant cab. To make the pictures look good on FB it required a larger background to cab ratio.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 26, 2023 21:18:54 GMT -5
I bought a super seven nodule on Etsy to make some cabs. What is desirable, expensive and harder to find is nice cacoxenite (gold filaments) with amethyst. Most of the less expensive pieces are mostly amethyst. The piece arrived and it didn't look like the picture. I weighed it and the weight matched the listing. I contacted the seller about the problem and said that I would send pictures in the morning. These are some of the pictures. I was hoping to get the right piece, but he didn't have it. He sent me a replacement picture and it wasn't as good. He is sending me two larger pieces and am keeping the one he sent. The yield from the pieces should be fair.
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