Pictures - Probably the MOST important element in your Ebay listing

Put yourself in the seat of your buyers. Lets say today we are looking for a formal dress to wear to holiday parties this season. Here are some examples of pictures that I've run across in this pretend search.


Really, would you spend good money on a dress that you can't even see? As sellers we are already crippled by the fact that our buyers can't try on our clothes or feel the fabric, so we must make sure that they can at least see what it looks like! That wedding dress up there has a $600 starting bid and that was the BEST of all the pics that seller posted. Do you think it will sell?

I've read some debates in the discussion boards about whether or not a model should be used. Some say no and I agree in some cases (like underware), however, I think seeing how something fits on a regular human being versus hanging on a hanger can be very effective. So, when possible, I use both. I have some listings that have a picture of a shirt laying flat on a table, on a mannequin AND on a model. I figure, what can it hurt?

I don't really get the controversy about the models. What exactly is it that folks assume? When you go to a store and try something on then buy it, wouldn't it be safe to assume that you probably were not the first one to put your body in that garment?

Any-hoo.

The fact is, no matter what it is that you are selling, pictures are important. If you sell clothes, invest in a mannequin (you can get them on ebay for cheap!), if you sell small items where detail is important you should get a light box and some lighting. Something like this would be great.

I just found this on ebay and borrowed the pic from seller id: time_4_bidding

The one I have is not as fancy as this because I rarely have small items to sell, but because I am a trading assistant and you never quite know what you're gonna get next, it is good to have. You'll obviously need to choose whatever is appropriate for you.

Photo editor - You need a photo editor. If it is just the one that came with your camera, fine. Just learn to use it! Even the lower level editors have many functions that can do some amazing things. 2 seconds would be all that it would take for those sideways pics up there to be right side up again. Photoshop is very well known but also very very expensive. Maybe if you are in the photography or design business, but for everyone else....I think it is unnecessary. I've got adobe's lower level software called Elements. It is about a hundred dollars but has saved me hours and hours of manual editing time. It does so much that I really just can't imagine how much extra stuff photoshop would have to have in order to justify the price being over ten times higher!
I've got this weird thing about backgrounds. For some reason I can't stand them so I go in and take them out. This took some time back when I was using the software that came with the camera, but now it only takes seconds. Here is an example of what I'm talking about.


I know, it is a little silly, but I just prefer to have the background in all my photos match. Just my personal thing.
It also will give you the ability to put more than one picture into a single picture therefore getting the most for your money when it comes to gallery. Take this on for example:


I got the model and the shirt all in one pic!
And you can use it to watermark your stuff too if you like. I don't bother, but my competitor does. (Ya always gotta know what they are up to!)


As you can see, my competition takes some really GREAT photos so I need to quit blogging and get to work on my photos!