Dealers/auctioneers mission is to extract the most possible money from you. With nearly all transactions where you dont see the item in person, what you get is not 100% what you expected due to lack of image detail or description (especially with ebay transactions). That leads to some disapointment. Unlike when you buy an ipod or new book, where you get what you expect, you dont with with posters. Dealers need to mitigate this disapointment with providing enough details to avoid this. Dealers instead of providing all the info, may instead relying on a policy of send it back for a refund, this gives me the shits, because it leads to disapointment and wasted time for the buyer and possibly additionally also foot the return shipping. I have missed out on another sale at the same time caught up in such a mess (budget didn't stretch to buy both so ended up with none - thanks for nothing shitty seller). So to me sellers as a whole have earnt and deserve the reputation they have. In life, we can only make sense of the world by categorising things. It is not possible to make an accurate judgement on every person, thing.
There are good sellers and I would put Bruce up amongst the top as I pretty much get what I expect. Maybe a newb may have different expectations though, not knowing exactly what to look for in a photo, or what good or fine means.
As much as I like Bruces descriptions I have to say, there is no reverse side image, which is half the poster, maybe just a description of some darkening. But what matters most to me on the reverse is the writing - if it can be sanded off. Ink on the reverse side opposite a light part of the poster can cause big problems when linen backed (ink bleed thru) - can ruin a poster. The reverse side needs sufficient details too, at the moment buying from Bruce is still a crapshoot no matter how good the description is at present. For instance,
this poster, is mostly white and bleed through potentially could be big problem. I would want to be sure I understood what was on the back. Because I don't know, I am not going any where near this one, nor any posters with white on them without clear detail of what is on the back. Most older posters have writing on the back. Not showing the back is a calculated decision. Maybe loses me as a bidder, but gains the naive? Who knows. Bruce, a reverse side image, would be an improvement to your descriptions, even if available just only on request, or even just detailing if the writing can be removed or not would be a great added piece of information.
(2) Every "elite" collector must have at least one "unicorn" poster that nobody else has.
signed
'elite' collector
please don't feel inadequate if you are non elite, you can still reply