Ebay Singapore Seller - Scanning Issue / Scam?

This item looked interesting, but upon closer inspection, I'm confused. Does anyone else see the problem?




Note. A few of his other items have the same, "problem".

The perforations are exactly the same on the front and the back.

It's like they're the same stamps, one with gum showing and the other with the stamp image showing. Instead of the perforations being "flipped."

Something fishy going on here...

Jim

Tone spot on same position (left of center) on both front and back views of 1 pound stamp?

I see the perforation problem but there has to be a logical explanation. Perhaps the printer setting was set to reverse?

Jack Kelley

You can also see the Specimen text on the reverse scan, and it's as if read from the front. Looks to me like the seller scanned the reverse to show the condition and watermark, but wanted to show the watermark as it appears from the front, so reversed the image in the X axis.

For example, here's a front/reversed back/back:

I think you're right, Jack. Note that "SPECIMEN" isn't reversed, either.

If you scanned from the back, the perforations would be reversed, Specimen would be reversed, and the watermark would be reversed. For some reason, they scanned it from the back, then reversed it to look like the front. We know they did this because the hinge remnant would only be visible from the back. Why? Very strange thing to do when trying to sell stamps.

For some unknown reason the seller has flipped the images of the back 180 degrees horizontally, so the perfs look like they are in the same position front and back.

The 'flipping' can be clearly seen by the fact that 'SPECIMEN' reads left to right on the scans of the back.

Most graphics apps have a 'mirror' function. Few people, even in this community, have any issues with 'playing' with the images they post. Many times it is unintentional, an app which straightens a stamp make significant changes to a image file. Other times it is intentional deception. Of course speculating on a person's intention is very thin ice. I wish image file formats automatically logged every change that had been done to the file in its metadata.
Don

The perforations are not in reverse, as would all stamps if flipped over. And what I see of the word "SPECIMEN" on the back of the 10/- roo, it should also be in reverse, the "SPECIMEN" on the reverse of the 10/- roo is normal, which is impossible.

Fairdinkumstamps has a good point.

Rob041256,

This is a simulation of what the seller has done:

Normal scan of the front:


Normal scan of the back:


Using a graphics editor or some other basic image processing software, this normal scan of the back has been flipped 180 degrees about the vertical axis to make this:

Hi fairdinkumstamps.

I recall a few years ago when I mistakenly flipped the stamp the wrong way. Here is the back view of one of my £2 Coat-of-Arms on thin paper, the thin paper gives a better insight into what you are saying.




Normal view, design and lettering reversed.


Flipped to align the reverse in the same direction as the front.

Also notice that the perfs are also aligned on the same side as the front in the flipped version.

It now looks like an honest mistake. Still, a bad one to make when selling stamps.

A mistake that can impact negatively on his sale. And now after a little detective work, it now seems to be an honest mistake.

Rob

If the seller had not flipped the image most buyers would think the heavy hinge remnant was on the £1 stamp not the 10/ one. The seller probably doesn't realize the best practice would be to switch the placement of the stamps on the scanner.