By the way, others have already mentioned this, but I just compared images of this fake stamp (zoomed in as much as I could) to images of the real stamp, and it’s actually *quite* obvious that the stamp is fraudulent when you do that. The stamp really only looks like it might be legit from a distance.
Perhaps some other scumbag will be able to make a fake stamp that looks better up close, but this one honestly wasn’t even that great of an attempt.
Anyway, I think the moral of the story is this:
DON’T BUY unless the seller posts high definition, close up photos of the cards they are selling, for both the front and the back of the cards.
There is NO EXCUSE for a seller not to have high quality close up images in 2016. Any standard smartphone made within the last few years has a sufficient camera. Any seller should be able to take close up photos in the proper lighting. Buyers DESERVE to know exactly what they are purchasing. Otherwise the seller doesn’t deserve to make the sale.
I hate to say this, but frankly, even many reputable sellers take crap pictures - often they are out of focus, have poor lighting, and often they don’t even bother to take photos of the back of the card. In my opinion, this is simply unacceptable. In the last couple of weeks I’ve had to request sellers to take better photos, telling them that I wouldn’t bid on their item unless they did, and some of them have abided by my request (at least for taking photos of the back of the card, but the quality is often still terrible)… Frankly, I shouldn’t even have to say this.
But if you want to buy from a reputable seller who posts poor pictures, that’s one thing. However, I *certainly* wouldn’t spend a lot of money for big money cards from a seller without an established reputation unless the photos were VERY high quality, so that one can check to make sure the card is genuine, and also to see the true condition of the card.
The bottom line is that buyers need to start demanding higher quality photos from sellers.