Another possibility to consider is to reduce it to 320 x 171. Or, I don't know how it is done, but you could reduce it as above and set it with a link to the larger image and let the bidder choose to look at the larger image if they are interested in more detail.

As a buyer I will contribute a little about my browsing habits. Maybe they will help some sellers who might be reading to improve their auctions. First, there are 4 stages to my browsing. Stage 1, You want to catch my attention. I often read Ending Today or Going Going Gone, and New Today. Often with the large numbers of items that are being auctioned I have to do a quick scan of the listings. Certain info like the Casino, Occasion of an LE, or Person whom it commemorates, Price... These items will catch my attention if they are subjects I am interested in. Stage 2 is where you have my attention. I will click on an auction, look at who is auctioning the item to see if it is someone I recognize and look at the discription and picture. If the picture can't load while I am reading the discription than I usually start to loose some interest. A good detailed and accurate discription can buy you some time and keep my attention if I feel it is worth a little wait. The longer I have to wait, though, the more chance I will move on. If I see a picture that is good, clear and accurately shows the chip I may take more interest and want more info. The picture does not have to show every detail. Just enough to let me know what it is. Also, the picture should be clear and in focus. After all, it is part of your first impression. I have seen a couple pictures where they weren't centered and half of the chip was cropped off. also I once saw a picture that was sooooo out of focus you could hardly tell what it was. The seller might just as well not had a picture. Stage 3. If there is a link to view other pictures of the item I will usually click them and browse around other information like bidding history, feedback etc. while I am starting to decide if and what I want to bid. This is where, I might appreciate a more detailed picture and where I am more motivated to wait a little to see a picture. Therefore it would be wiser to put an adequate thumbnail or small picture innitially but have a link to a blow-up, if you feel it necessary, if I might want one. With chips though you usually don't need big pictures. Maybe one that is about the same size as the chip. I think that would be about, and I am guessing, 150x150 for a single chip. If you are showing 1 row 3 chips accross that would be 450x150. 2 rows of 3 chips would be 450x300. Remember also, an average computer screen handles about 750 accross before you need to pan accross. It is best to keep your web formatting under 750 wide and much less that for pictures if you want them to load fast. From my experience about 320 x ??? would be good and 640 starts to push it. By comparison, my compilation below is 320x263. The next stage Stage 4 is where I have decided to actually bid and your ad has done it's job.

I do like the sharing services or whatever they are that allow you to put multiple thumbnails in your auction and allow the viewer to click them to see larger versions. One thing that I really HATE, is when people put together one picture of 20 chips or so and put that on all their auctions. "YOU ARE BIDDING ON #14 IN THE PICTURE BELOW". To put that many chips on a page the images are a.) too small to see much and b.) require such a huge image that it takes forever to load. I understand that some people just don't have time to scan or photograph every chip individually and put them all on their pages but at the same time not all buyers have all day to wait for these photos to load.

Here are a couple of pictures of different sizes that I think have worked well when attached to my Chipboard posts in the past. They seem to me to load pretty quick the first time they are called up. After that, they are already cached and load quicker. Cisco, loaded in a about 10 seconds. Penn and Teller was almost instant.

105x105 342x342

I hope the above information helps people to improve their listings. Bad pictures has always been a turn off to me when scanning eBay. I am sure some people out there know exactly what kinds of pictures I am talking about. Pictures that are too big or slopily done don't do me any good and will be a quick way to make me move on. Like I have said a couple times, I am not talking perfection. Just some basic clear and in focus shots that are reasonably good color and where the whole chip is visible.