EBay for Dummies (59 page)

Make the finished image no larger than 480 pixels wide.
When you size your picture in your image software, it’s best to keep it no larger than 300
×
300 pixels or 4 inches square, even if it’s a snapshot of a classic 4
×
4 monster truck. These dimensions are big enough for people to see without squinting, and the details of your item show up nicely.

Crop any unnecessary areas of the photo.
You need to show your item only; everything else is a waste.

Use your software to darken or change the photo’s contrast.
When the image looks good on your computer screen, the image looks good on your eBay auction page.

Save your image as a .JPG file.
When you finish editing your picture, save it as a .JPG. (To do this, follow the instructions that come with your software.) .JPG is the best format for eBay; it compresses information into a small file that builds fast and reproduces nicely on the Internet.

Check the total size of your image.
After you save the image, check its total size. If the size hovers around 40K (kilobytes) or smaller, eBay users won’t have a hard time seeing the image in a reasonable amount of time.

Reduce the size of your image if it’s larger than 50K.
Small is fast, efficient, and beautiful. Big is slow, sluggish, and dangerous. Impatient eBay users will move on to the next listing if they have to wait to see your image.

The Image Is Perfect — Now What?

Now that your masterpiece is complete, you want to emblazon it on your auction for all the world to see. When most people first get the urge to dazzle prospective buyers with a picture, they poke around the eBay site looking for a place to put it. Trade secret: You’re not actually putting pictures on eBay; you’re telling eBay’s servers where to
find
your picture so that, like a good hunting dog, your auction
points
the buyers’ browsers to the exact corner of the virtual universe where your picture is. That’s why the picture has to load fast — it’s coming in from a different location. (Yeah, it confused me in the beginning too, but now it makes perfect sense. Uh-huh. Sure.)

To help eBay find your image, all you have to do is type its address in the Picture URL box of the Sell Your Item form — so don’t forget to write down the Web address (URL) of your image.

If you use eBay’s Picture Services, your photo will be on eBay’s servers and will upload once, directly from your computer. I talk more about that in just a minute.

You can highlight your image’s URL with your cursor, right-click your mouse, and copy it to your computer’s clipboard. Then go to the auction page you’re filling out on eBay, put your cursor in the Picture URL box, and paste the address into the box.

A typical address (for someone using AOL) looks something like this:

members.aol.com/ebay4dummy/rolexwatch.jpg

Because your image needs an address, you have to find it a good home online. You have several options:

Your ISP (Internet service provider):
All the big ISPs — AOL, Comcast, Road Runner, and Earthlink — give you space to store your Internet stuff. You’re already paying for an ISP, so you can park pictures there at no extra charge.

An image-hosting Web site:
Web sites that specialize in hosting pictures are popping up all over the Internet. Some charge a small fee; others are free. The upside here is that they’re easy to use.

Your server:
If you have your own server (those of you who do know who you are), you can store those images right in your own home.

eBay Picture Services:
You can find out about using eBay’s photo-hosting service later in this chapter.

Using an ISP to store your images

Every ISP has its own rules and procedures. Go to the help area of your ISP for directions on how to
access your personal area
(no, I’m not getting naughty — those are authentic computerese phrases!) and how to
upload your images.

After you’ve uploaded your images to your ISP, get the Web address of your item’s location and type it in the Picture URL box of eBay’s Sell Your Item page. Now the picture appears within the item description whenever someone views your auction page. Figure 14-3 shows you an auction description with a picture.

Using image-hosting Web sitesto store images

Okay, realistically, many people are combing cyberspace looking for the next great thing. eBay’s success has entrepreneurs all over the globe coming up with different kinds of auction-support businesses. As usual, a lot of junk pops up on the Internet in the wake of such trends — but a promising development caught my attention —
image-hosting
Web sites.

Image-hosting Web sites have changed from one-stop shops to mega-markets loaded with tons of services for your auctions. Some image-hosting sites let you post your pictures without requiring you to use their auction-management software. Not that I think such software is a bad thing — it’s great! — I just like to choose what I use. (Flip to Chapter 20 for more about auction-management software.)

Here are a few convenient image-hosting sites that allow you to post a few of your images for
free
:

Auctiva (
www.Auctiva.com
)

FreePictureHosting.com (
www.freepicturehosting.com
)

ImageShack (
www.imageshack.com
)

Photobucket (
www.photobucket.com
)

Using eBay’s Picture Services

eBay hosts a single image per auction for free. Additional pictures cost only $0.15. (You can have a maximum of 12 images per auction item.)

If you use this service, your photos appear on your auction in a predesigned template. If you use more than one photo, the first photo shows up in a400-
×
-300-pixel format. A miniature of the first image appears to the left of the larger image. The prospective bidder clicks the smaller picture, and it magically appears in the larger photo area.

When you prepare to list an item for auction, a page appears, and you’re asked whether you’d like to use the photo service. If you don’t want to use it, click the Your Own Web Hosting tab and input the URL of your picture. If you do want to use the service, follow the directions on-screen.

To post your photo, click the box, and an Open File dialog box appears. Find your image on your computer and click Open, and the image magically appears in the image box. Add more pictures if you want and click Submit Pictures and Continue. Figure 14-4 shows the upload page — which is where you upload your image from the Sell Your Item page. (If your upload on the Sell Your Item page doesn’t look like Figure 14-4, click the link shown on the right to go to Full Featured.)

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

eBay keeps an image online for the duration of your listing and for up to 90 days (as long as you have the link available to access the page). After that, the image disappears (unless you relist the same auction).

You can always post the image again if you need it later; be sure to leave a copy of the image on your computer.

This feature doesn’t support the MSN TV platform.

eBay’s Gallery

Any discussion of images on eBay would be incomplete without a short discussion of eBay’s Gallery pictures. Gallery pictures are the small pictures you see next to items in category listings or in your searches. It’s obvious that using eBay’s Gallery option draws more attention to your sales, but have you ever noticed that not all Gallery images show up crisp and clear? And that some are smaller than others? It’s not by chance; eBay reduces the image you uploaded for the Gallery.

The technology that allows eBay’s Picture Services to do its magic resizes the seller’s picture to fit the allotted space. In the case of the Gallery, a considerable amount of compression is applied to your image. The more compression applied, the fuzzier and more distorted your image gets.

When you use your own photo hosting on eBay, you can use a different photo for your Gallery image. Either use a different picture or reduce your main image to a tiny 110 x 120 pixels. If you reduce the picture yourself, you’ll notice a big improvement in the way the Gallery picture looks.