I am not writing this in defense of the silver strike sellers who do a lousey job with the pictures and descriptions of thier strikes. I am writing this just to give all of you an idea of what it takes to put a silver strike up for auction. It all started when Sharon had a bunch of duplicates in her collection she wanted to get rid of so she had money to buy ones she needed.. Now you all have to know that I am a coin collector and love coins. Sharon and I have been selling silver strikes and some coins on ebay for over 3 years and have tried to help the hobby by doing so. But let me run through the process. It starts with the picture. Now I have tried 5 different scanners to get a good picture. From makes such as Epson, Cannon, Hp, Etc. The best one so far is the HP 5200C. It scans fairly well but the software at time decides to do it's own thing and you wind up with a horrible scan but if everything is working right you can scan both sides of a strike in about 10 min. I have tried a couple of digital cameras and the best one is the Nicon. They do not do as good as the scanner. After you have the picture scanned you have to transfer it to a website or use ebay pictures. We have a website so I use that. You have to identify each scan and keep a record so you do not have the wrong picture up. After that comes the listing. The listing takes some time because you have to type in the description which should be complete. This is were it is easy to get lazy because you know what it is but the bidder may not have any idea so you try and be complete. Between scanning and listing you know have about 25 minutes of time taken up. After the auction now comes the emailing. You have to email each winning bidder with the cost and the address etc. Many of the bidders are now paying with PayPal which cuts into the profit. You have to figure between 10 and 15 percent for ebay costs and Paypal costs. After payment is made and invoice has to be written and you have to wrap the strike carefully and ship it in a bubble envelope. You also have to fill out the insurance form. (Sharon takes care of most of the shipping and sends applications to individuals who are not in the club and hand writes them all a little note urging them to join.) This year the post office lost 5 of our shipments. That is another bunch of paper work you have to go through and also a pile of emails to the customer who is upset he did not get his order. We are not complaining because we feel we are doing a service for the hobby but when you see a strike go for 9.99 that we may have paid $10-11 you know what went into the process. Thanks for reading this and if you want to start selling call us or email us and we will tell you how. Thanks to you all and have a very Happy Holiday Season. Sharon and I are not going to be running any auctions for awhile because we are getting ready to winter in Laughlin. Sharon and Ted Pamperin SS170 ASHPREZ