Backlit house numbers are easy to copy in a photo and hard to copy on a wall. Search for them and you will see the same few pictures across dozens of listings, some of them generated rather than photographed. Six checks tell you what you are actually buying.
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Search the photos
Run the main listing photo through a reverse image search, such as Google Lens. If the same house turns up under several sellers, sometimes with the digits changed, the photo was copied and tells you nothing about the product you will receive.
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Look for the tells of a generated image
Digits that do not match each other in shape or thickness, light glowing from the face of the numbers instead of from behind them, lettering that warps at the edges, shadows that point different ways, and walls too clean to be real. A real install photo has a real street, real weather and a slightly imperfect wall.
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Ask for customer photos
A seller with real customers can show their homes, at night, in more than one style of house. If every picture is a render or the same doorway, ask why.
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Read the power section
Backlit numbers need a low-voltage supply. A good listing says the voltage, whether a driver is included, how many digits one driver runs and what happens past that. If it is missing, you find out after the numbers arrive.
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Check the size of the digit, not the sign
Fire codes ask for address numbers at least 4 inches tall. On a plaque or a multi-digit sign, the listed size is often the panel; look for the height of the digits themselves.
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Find out who stands behind it
Look for a warranty with a length in years, a return address you could actually ship to, and a way to reach a person before you buy. Install instructions you can read before ordering are a good sign too.
How we answer these.
- Every home in our photos is real, sent in by customers or photographed by us. See them.
- Specifications, prices and limits are on one public page: specifications.
- Power is spelled out: 12V DC drivers, and one runs up to 7 four inch, 6 six or eight inch, or 4 twelve inch digits.
- Three year warranty on every digit and driver; 30 day returns with a prepaid label.
- Managed and shipped from Denver, Colorado, within two business days. Email info@jelsco.com and the person who answers knows the product.
- The full install guide is open to read before you buy.
Why we wrote this: our story, and the photo that started a flurry of knockoffs.