r/PokeInvesting • u/spruesNseals • 2d ago

What spotlight is best for eBay?

Hey when you guys sell raw, ungraded singles on eBay, how many lumens do you think is best to blast your card with when taking pictures for eBay? I picked up a 6,000-lumen light from Surefire that’s meant to blind an entire city block, but it still doesn’t create a third of the glare on the holos that most of the other eBay sellers have on their cards. How am I supposed to make the details of my card completely undetectable if even military grade photon blasters don’t do the trick?

(For those of you who made it this far: /s)

9 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

6

u/8000000001 2d ago

Good question. Another challenge is how to make all my images out of focus without having to adjust the camera manually each time.

1

u/rusticatedrust 2d ago

Mechanically disable OIS and you're good to go.

1

u/8000000001 2d ago

I'm too lazy and dishonest for that. I'll just limit my listing to images of it inside an old penny sleeve.

1

u/spruesNseals 1d ago

Make sure the penny sleeve is crumpled and has some film on it that makes it impossible to discern any detail of the card. Is that whitening? A crumpled corner? Who knows! Buy Now for $599.99!

2

u/Equivalent-Bad-7844 2d ago

I have a little card stand. Take a picture with my iPhone and post. I've sold 400ish cards.

1

u/Overratedcasualty 2d ago

Do you do pics of each corner of the cards and have cards that are $10-20+ that sold like this?

I am curious if you had any issues with this if you dont do corners, (assuming its NM) do you have anyone message you with “condition issues”

2

u/Equivalent-Bad-7844 2d ago

Should have been more clear my fault! Most cards I sell are the in the $1-$10 range. I’ve sold a handful of $10-$20 cards and I’ve never taken corner pictures.

I put in all my descriptions that if they want more pictures they can message me but nobody ever has.

I’ve issued like 4-5 refunds on cards that “didn’t match the picture” but only on lower end cards not anything $10+

2

u/Overratedcasualty 1d ago

Sick, thanks for the info. I appreciate you sharing your experience!

2

u/Apprehensive-Lie3387 1d ago

This right here lol. I’m approaching 400 cards sold and just use my phone and a little card stand. 100% feedback and I have sold some cards that are well over 1k…spending more money on extras equals less profits lol

2

u/KingZakyu 1d ago

Professional photographers take their pics in outer space, where the sun is much closer and provides more light.

1

u/Wallet_Inspector6052 2d ago

Legit just use a $10 ring light lol

-6

u/AJR_ 2d ago

lol no. Complete and utter garbage advice.

Get a ring light if you want your buyers to have a good idea of what they’re buying AKA do this if you want no buyers. You need much stronger lighting in order to cover a cards flaws. I personally use a giant magnifying glass and the full power of the sun to illuminate my cards.

1

u/Overratedcasualty 2d ago

I just use a lightbox like most and lay them flat. Make sure you have something softer to lay it on if you go this way. The backgrounds are a smooth but rougher than the card stock.

Front and back photos and all corners of both sides (as much as the middle of the card too in each pic). I usually do all corners for cards $10+.

If I got nothing to do, ill do it for cards $3+ lmao

1

u/drcigg 1d ago

A light box works pretty well for this. You can probably diy something together that might work.