Should I be suspicious of listings where photos at an angle to the camera?
 

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I'm looking to spend what for me is proper money to purchase a PSA 9 card from the 1970s. One listing looks particularly interesting, but I can't help but notice that the listing photo is slightly tilted such that the left side of the card is slightly closer to the camera than the right side of the card. I wonder if this is being done to mask a tilt?

Most listing photos are done straight on so that any tilt in the centering is obvious.

Am I being a handwringer, or is it more likely that the camera angle is done to, uh, market the card in a better light? I should note that the seller appears to be someone who sells a high volume of graded cards.

I'll never understand why sellers can't take the time to buy a $200 scanner and present their cards in the best light possible, especially high grade cards.
I don't know if your seller is trying to hide something but it never hurts to ask him for scans or better pictures.

Always be wary of non-standard picture and scan practices. There is very often a reason behind it.

And there's this...

630. Farced Perspective
A seller taking a picture of an off-centered card at an angle with the ‘very close to the border’ side in the foreground, giving the illusion that there’s a lot more room there than there actually is.

I can't imagine a PSA9 of anything being tilted, but I guess you never know.

Yes, this is what I would have thought as well, but then you wonder why the seller doesn't just take the photo head on the way most sellers do.

Luckily, I was able to find a head on photo from the PSA cert site, so now I know what I'm looking at....sure enough -- there is a tilt in the centering. Presumably not enough to kick it out of the 9 grade, but it's there for sure.

In a word, yes.

I have purchased cards based off of scans that unfortunately did not show the creases.

So it can cut both ways.

If somebody is taking a photo with a digital camera instead of a scanner and they have the wrong lighting, it's almost impossible to take a good picture of a slab without tilting it, or angling it in one way or another.

Not knowing the seller or the listing, that would be my first inclination. It wouldn't even cross my mind that there would be some way to manipulate a tilt on a PSA 9 of any sort...other then un-intentional.

Are the rest of their listings shot the same way, or did they for some reason change their M.O. for just this one card?

Good question -- it's an active seller, and he or she shoots about 95% of the PSA 9s straight on. The card in question has a relatively high PSA 9 population and a relatively low PSA 10 population, so I am guessing there is value in presenting the card as a higher end "9". But I am loathe to cast aspersions on people.

Without question. If the card presented well, the seller would have presented it well. That he did not speaks volumes. Maybe he's just lazy but even so... go spend your money with someone that takes the time to do things the right way.