Echo40
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Forgive me in advance if I ramble on a bit in the following post, but I have a pet peeve that I need to vent about...
One would think that online sellers of firearms would wish to represent their products as favorably as possible in order to attract more customers, and thus that they would take great care when photographing their guns, perhaps even going to great pains to show them at their absolute best even if it was actually misrepresenting them by showing them under their absolute most photogenic angles and lighting conditions, really gun porning it up, but evidently this is not the case, because more often than not, firearms are photographed so carelessly that unless you're looking at something particularly rare, you'll just scroll right past them in favor of a listing with better pics.
It really is rather baffling just how many blurry, out-of-focus, overexposed, or downright dirty pics are carelessly posted of firearms up for sale online...
Honestly, if I didn't know better, then I would think that it was done deliberately... Like, really... I would assume that the seller didn't actually want to sell the gun at all, like he was being pressured by some shrew of a wife to sell his gun, but deliberately sabotaged it with pictures intended to make the gun look as unattractive or visually obscured as possible so that nobody would so much as bid on it so that he could come back to his wife saying; "Forgive me, my mistress... But I was unsuccessful selling my firearm as you so rightly ordered me to do. Evidently, the entirety of the internet finds it every bit as undesirable as you do, so how about I just throw it in my tacklebox in the garage and we forget all about it?"
It would seem like the only logical explanation for why a seller would so poorly represent the gun they were intending to sell, but the reality is just that they're so lazy that they just pull out their cell phone, snap a couple pics, then post them on the page where the item is listed, then call it a day. "Who cares if it's too blurry to see clearly? What difference does it make if it's covered in pocket lint, pet hairs, oil, smudges, or even straight up surface rust? Surely someone will buy it regardless, and I'm much too busy to make sure that the pictures are clear, much less that the gun is clean!" or so the seller would seem to think.
Yeah, I know I could contact the seller requesting better pics, but the fact that they put in so little effort to begin with just doesn't inspire confidence that they'll be willing to comply, much less to actually clean up the gun so that you don't have to question whether what you're seeing is a hair or a crack in the first place. And frankly, I really shouldn't have to ask the seller to do something that they should have done in the first place if they wanted to make the sale.
If there's any point whatsoever to my rant, then it ought to be this... If any of you ever plan to attempt to sell a firearm online, then please, take your time when photographing the firearm, and clean it up a bit first, okay? Trust me, it doesn't require that much effort, and it makes all the difference to prospective buyers between purchasing your firearm and just scrolling right past it in favor of a seller who actually put in the effort to properly photograph the gun in the first place.
Specifically, you want the pictures to be clear, well lit, and in focus so that all markings are visible/legible. In addition, you want the gun to be as clean as possible, with no pocket lint, hairs, grease/oil, or smudges on the surface. What's more, if the gun has surface rust on it, then you should clean it off as it shows signs of neglect that may leave the seller wondering; "If it looks that bad on the outside, then how is going to look on the inside?"
Which leads me to my next point. Take as many pictures as possible, even going so far as to show it field stripped so that buyers can see how it looks inside the slide/cylinder, feedramp/forcing cone, bore, frame, etc. The more pics the merrier, and the more likely you are to land a sale quickly.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: Since a few folks have misunderstood what I'm talking about, I'm going to provide an example, and just to show that I'm not faulting others who just aren't very good at taking photos, I'm going to use one of my own...
EXAMPLE: Here is a pic taken by yours truly back in 2019 immediately after I took it home.
As you can see, the firearm featured in the pic is blurry, out of focus, and taken under dim lighting conditions, so you really cannot tell what condition it's in.
Granted, the pic was taken to share with others online rather than to sell the firearm, but the point is that it's terrible, and this actually makes for a good example of what I'm talking about.
One would think that online sellers of firearms would wish to represent their products as favorably as possible in order to attract more customers, and thus that they would take great care when photographing their guns, perhaps even going to great pains to show them at their absolute best even if it was actually misrepresenting them by showing them under their absolute most photogenic angles and lighting conditions, really gun porning it up, but evidently this is not the case, because more often than not, firearms are photographed so carelessly that unless you're looking at something particularly rare, you'll just scroll right past them in favor of a listing with better pics.
It really is rather baffling just how many blurry, out-of-focus, overexposed, or downright dirty pics are carelessly posted of firearms up for sale online...
Honestly, if I didn't know better, then I would think that it was done deliberately... Like, really... I would assume that the seller didn't actually want to sell the gun at all, like he was being pressured by some shrew of a wife to sell his gun, but deliberately sabotaged it with pictures intended to make the gun look as unattractive or visually obscured as possible so that nobody would so much as bid on it so that he could come back to his wife saying; "Forgive me, my mistress... But I was unsuccessful selling my firearm as you so rightly ordered me to do. Evidently, the entirety of the internet finds it every bit as undesirable as you do, so how about I just throw it in my tacklebox in the garage and we forget all about it?"
It would seem like the only logical explanation for why a seller would so poorly represent the gun they were intending to sell, but the reality is just that they're so lazy that they just pull out their cell phone, snap a couple pics, then post them on the page where the item is listed, then call it a day. "Who cares if it's too blurry to see clearly? What difference does it make if it's covered in pocket lint, pet hairs, oil, smudges, or even straight up surface rust? Surely someone will buy it regardless, and I'm much too busy to make sure that the pictures are clear, much less that the gun is clean!" or so the seller would seem to think.
Yeah, I know I could contact the seller requesting better pics, but the fact that they put in so little effort to begin with just doesn't inspire confidence that they'll be willing to comply, much less to actually clean up the gun so that you don't have to question whether what you're seeing is a hair or a crack in the first place. And frankly, I really shouldn't have to ask the seller to do something that they should have done in the first place if they wanted to make the sale.
If there's any point whatsoever to my rant, then it ought to be this... If any of you ever plan to attempt to sell a firearm online, then please, take your time when photographing the firearm, and clean it up a bit first, okay? Trust me, it doesn't require that much effort, and it makes all the difference to prospective buyers between purchasing your firearm and just scrolling right past it in favor of a seller who actually put in the effort to properly photograph the gun in the first place.
Specifically, you want the pictures to be clear, well lit, and in focus so that all markings are visible/legible. In addition, you want the gun to be as clean as possible, with no pocket lint, hairs, grease/oil, or smudges on the surface. What's more, if the gun has surface rust on it, then you should clean it off as it shows signs of neglect that may leave the seller wondering; "If it looks that bad on the outside, then how is going to look on the inside?"
Which leads me to my next point. Take as many pictures as possible, even going so far as to show it field stripped so that buyers can see how it looks inside the slide/cylinder, feedramp/forcing cone, bore, frame, etc. The more pics the merrier, and the more likely you are to land a sale quickly.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: Since a few folks have misunderstood what I'm talking about, I'm going to provide an example, and just to show that I'm not faulting others who just aren't very good at taking photos, I'm going to use one of my own...
EXAMPLE: Here is a pic taken by yours truly back in 2019 immediately after I took it home.
As you can see, the firearm featured in the pic is blurry, out of focus, and taken under dim lighting conditions, so you really cannot tell what condition it's in.
Granted, the pic was taken to share with others online rather than to sell the firearm, but the point is that it's terrible, and this actually makes for a good example of what I'm talking about.
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You only have to look at the number of sideways pictures posted on this forum to know that taking pictures and presenting them well on the Internet is a skill not everyone has.
