Well, I would say this is a nice looking rug. But certainly not so nice to receive something other than what you were expecting. I know it sounds odd, and of course, a big, big pain in the behind.... what I sometimes do with images that look a little funny is try and gauge some of the other elements in the picture. Some of the images of rugs I work with here, even if I've never seen the rug in person (this sounds bad to admit) I can actually get a fairly accurate color balance in Photoshop by using indicators such as what I know the floor color to be, or sometimes if the rug has a tag, more often than not these are a stark white with maybe a hint of a blueish gray. I usually can just due a simple color balance to reveal the true coloring.
It seems so silly to me though. It is tough sometimes to get a proper image without an overcast color. But my inclination is to question why these rugs are photographed with this heavy overtone of gold and fuzziness. You can look at this rug and see that there is something up with the color shades, but you want to believe what is in front of you is a proper, well intended representation of what you will be receiving. I'm not sure if it's laziness, or possibly the stigma attached to altering an image as it is seen by the camera. And the other thing is a lot of these sellers sometimes only use one photograph to show a rug. I wonder if the intention is to let the mind wander and see in the rug what they want to believe may be there, therefore use a low resolution image in conjunction with one photo. Ahhh, the psychiatry of selling on eBay....
If I recall, this was a rug you linked to a little while back, no? To me, it actually looks like a really nice little piece - I wouldn't be too upset about it. In fact, I think it looks better as you took the images - although the colors show a little lighter this could be due in part to a flash being used? Hey, worst comes to worst, you can always give it a good tea wash!
By the way, the link you did on the top of the posting, I think the best representation of colors would be the two photographs on the absolute bottom of the eBay listing. There's a significant amount of green in the rug too.
