Section 138. About Digital Pictures and eBay

138. About Digital Pictures and eBay

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

134 Add Pictures to Your Auction

SEE ALSO

124 About Selling on eBay

Go to almost any auction page on eBay and you'll find a picture of the item for sale. From jewelry to cards to cars , shoes, toys, and more, almost every auction is accompanied by a picture. There's good reason for thatin an online world, people want to be able to see what they're buying before they bid.

That means you'll be much better off including a picture rather than not including one. But where to get one? There are many ways to get pictures for your auction. The following are the best ways to do it:

• Take a photograph using a digital camera Digital cameras are an excellent way to get pictures into your computer. The cameras store pictures on memory cards. After you take the pictures, you transfer them to your computer. You can save them in a web-friendly graphics format such as GIF or JPEG .

  KEY TERMS

  GIF and JPEG GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and JPEG for Joint Photographic Experts Group. Both are graphics standards that use compression to keep image sizes small but still retain enough detail so the image is of a high quality. JPEG does a better job on photographs and is the format you should generally use when posting pictures to eBay. GIF is better for line art and logos.

  
  

• Take a photograph with a regular camera and put it into your computer with a scanner You can buy a good-quality scanner for less than $100. Perhaps you already have one. Scanners do a good job of converting a normal photograph into a digital image of a high-enough quality that you can put it on your website.

  TIP

  If you have a webcam connected to your PC so you can video chat with others, you can use the webcam like a digital camera to take pictures of items you want to sell. Check the documentation for how to do it. The quality won't be as good as a digital camera, but you'll at least get your picture into your auction.

  
  

• Take a photograph with a regular camera and ask that the photo lab convert the picture to a computer format and give it to you on a disk, on CD-ROM, or over the Web Pretty much any self-respecting photo service will do this for you these days. It's an easy way to get auction pictures without having to spend any money for hardware.

• Use America Online's You've Got Pictures feature If you're an America Online user , it's exceptionally easy to get pictures into your computer from a regular camera. Take your pictures as you normally would and then take the film into a photo developer that participates in the You've Got Pictures plan. (There shouldn't be a problem finding one because tens of thousands of developers participate.)

  When you fill out your envelope for developing the film, check the America Online box and enter your screen name . Pick up your photos as you normally wouldthey'll be normal photos. Within 48 hours, the photos will be delivered to your America Online account. When you log in, you'll hear the familiar America Online voice telling you, "You've got pictures!" Use the keyword Pictures to go to an area that has an album of all your pictures. Follow the directions for saving them to your computer. When saving the pictures, be sure to save them in the .jpg format because that's the format you'll use when posting them on your auction listing.

• Take a photograph with a regular camera and take the print to a printing or scanning service Many printing services, such as Kinko's, will scan photographs and give the digital files to you in any format you want. It's a cheap and easy way to get pictures into your computer without having to buy hardware. Unlike with photo services, you can have single photos scanned this wayyou won't have to pay for putting the whole roll of film onto disc.

Getting Pictures from the Web

Another excellent place to get pictures to put in your auction is from the Web itself. The Web is full of pictures of all kindsand what makes these pictures especially useful for you is that they're already in the proper format you need for posting online. Another bonus is that not only are they in the proper format, often the pictures have been tweaked and manipulated so they'll look best online.

NOTE

Be aware that pictures you find on the Web might be copyrighted , and you might violate those copyrights if you use the picture without first asking the site for permission. So check before using the picture for your eBay auction.

There are many sources for pictures on the Web, but the best is the Google search engine. To use its picture search feature, go to www.google.com and click the Images tab. In 140 Use the Web to Get a Digital Picture you learn how to download and use pictures from there.

Another way to find pictures of an item you're selling is to go to the manufacturer's website. Many manufacturers include pictures of their products right on the web page. Many online shopping sites, such as www.buy.com, also include pictures of products. If you find a picture on a web page, downloading and saving it to your computer is easy, as outlined in 140 Use the Web to Get a Digital Picture .