Proxibid has many things right, and we praise the portal whenever we get a chance to do so. In particular, we admire the company’s quality control officer who is taking steps (gingerly, to be sure, but he is doing it), to make the portal more transparent and a model for online auction security and fairness.

We wrote about the badge system before in this post. There are badges for APN Clearance, Shipping Policies, Low Buyer’s Premium, Lot Description Accuracy, and Complaint Rate.

These badges, along with transparency notices about ghost-bidding and maximum-bid viewing, are essential to promote the Omaha-based company’s brand: TRUST.

Respectfully, we make one more suggestion equally as important as “Lot Description Accuracy,” especially to Internet bidders, and that is, quality of photographs–a topic we have written about regularly (most recently in this post).

Auction houses are known for their glossy catalogs and superb photography. We receive such wonderful brochures regularly from Manor Auctions and Affiliated Auctions, for instance. Somehow, when it comes to Internet, the majority of coin auctions on Proxibid neglect to make digital photography a priority, even though service terms of these houses often state that bidders acknowledge that buying online may be riskier than onsite because of the inability to see a lot fully and clearly.

Our advice? Proxibid should inform us about houses with superior photography and make this a badge consideration.

Why? An uncirculated coin depicted accurately will bring ever higher bids, meaning more profit for Proxibid and more trust for Proxibidders.

Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.