How to photograph a card so a buyer trusts it

Most listing photos are taken to make a card look good. The photos that sell a card are taken to make it look true. A buyer who can see the corners, the back, and the edge in honest light has nothing left to wonder about, and a buyer with nothing to wonder about pays the asking price.

The five photos

• Front, straight on, filling the frame, on a plain dark background.
• Back, the same way. The back is where fakes show and where buyers look first.
• Each corner, close, so the layers of the card stock are visible. One photo can hold all four if the card is small in the frame.
• The edge, with the card tilted so light rakes across it. Dents, creases, and surface scratches show here and nowhere else.
• The label, if it is graded: grade, certificate number, and the grader's security marks, sharp enough to read.

One light, from the side

Daylight from a window or a single lamp, placed to the side of the card rather than behind the camera. Light from the side reveals texture; light from the front hides it, which is why a flash makes every card look mint. Turn the flash off and never use a filter. If the card has a holographic foil, take one extra photo with the card tilted so the pattern catches the light; it is the photo most buyers of foils want.

The habit that pays twice

Take these five photos the day a card arrives, not the day you sell it. They become the card's record: what it looked like when you got it, which settles a dispute with the seller now and proves condition to a buyer later. In SlabX the photos sit on the item's history with the date, so the listing writes itself when the time comes.

A phone from the last few years is plenty. Wipe the lens, hold still, and let the light do the work.