Photography and Ebay - How to make more money

[Tony]

I've been dealing on ebay for a while, and the one thing I've found is that people pay for photographs.

Most of the stuff I sell, I buy off ebay, clean it up if it needs it, photograph it then relist it. The difference in price can be amazing.

Take two identical items, both good condition, one has a crap photo and needs a dust, the other is clean and has well lit photos.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=003&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=130128170342&rd=1&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280120686602

I'm a bit miffed that I missed the first one, but I was busy at the death.

So, if you are an ebay user or thinking of flogging stuff on there, think about your photographs - the small investment in a light tent or something similar could pay you back in one sale.

You heard it here first - or maybe you heard it somehwere else, but it's true!

[Chris H]

I use a light tent at work for taking pics of samples to go in reports.

Light tents are the dog's for this type of photography.

[Britman]

Tony, your right a good picture of what your selling work as does a large picture. I've also found that having a montage of pics on one is a cheap way of having multiple pics on one. Like this

No need for a light tent really. Couple of desk lamps and a roll of white paper.
Just get the WB right.

Or use a box.

[Granty]

I agree that people pay more if theres a good photo and have always ensured the picture/s I take are of a fairly decent quality but have never gone as far as a lightbox.

It can go the other way though.  I haven't bought items (second hand) in the past as the picture looks too perfect, as if the seller has nabbed the image from the manufacturer.

So use a lightbox and add a note to state the pictures are of the acutal item.

[Tony]

Britman, if you have a bit of hosting, then you can stick your pics on there and link them into ebay for no extra costs and no limit of the amount you can post - apart from your hosting costs etc. but if you already have that, then it's not an extra cost.

Using a box is great - storing it is a bit of a pain, of cours an alternative use for the box is to stick it over a flash and you have a softbox - great for portraits of your loved ones

Granty, I know what you mean about that, I've had people check with me that it is the actual item, even though the serial number is visible, and listing contains the serial number and the fact that it says 'photos of actual item' but ti's always worth checking!

Just having a quick look on there, and 50cm lightboxes are going for about £11 and 80cm ones for about £15 - they fold flat for storage too - might be worth it for anyone listing a lot of stuff regularly, just work out - as britters says - how to adjust your white balance!

[Chris H]

White balance adjustment is ok if you have a posh camera. I just bought some daylight low energy lamps and mountings and tidy up in Gimp.

And my light tent twice up twice into the size of a tea plate.