selling on eBay | part 2: how to take great pictures

If you're interested in buying and reselling your items for a profit, it's important to know your item before you list it. Knowing how to list your item is the next crucial step to selling on eBay.

Taking great photos is the first part of knowing how to craft your online listing to sell. Here are three things you need to do to take pictures that sell:

1. Take high quality pictures.

This is a big deal. The better your pictures, the better the buyer feels about purchasing your item. Providing them with clear, well lit pictures will give them confidence in what they are buying.

This is a really important step. I've used a cell phone to list my items before and I ended up fielding more questions, I had less watchers, and it took longer to sell my items. A few times I even ended up having to reduce the price.

You don't have to have the best camera on the market, just use natural lighting if possible, and make sure you capture the whole item in the picture.

Here is a pair of Citizens of Humanity trouser jeans that I'm about to list on eBay for my $10 business. Based on what I know about these pants from studying them, I'm going to list these at $20 plus shipping. They were originally $202!

It's not an amazing picture, but it shows the entire pair of pants, and it's bright and crisp enough to see lots of details. :)

2. Take lots of pictures.

Not only is it very important to take high quality pictures, it's also very important to have plenty of them.
eBay charges a fee for adding more than one picture; right now it's $0.15 each or $0.75 for up to 6 pictures or $1.00 for 7 to 12 pictures, but the return is well worth the cost. Unless you have a very straightforward item like a sealed box, you will need to have lots of pictures.

Generally, a rule of thumb is the more expensive the item, the more pictures you need to have.

Especially when you're listing clothing or accessories, you will need a picture of at least the front and back of the item.

3. Take pictures of multiple angles of your item.

Again, this is very important to selling a high quality item. Taking multiple angles and shots helps the buyer feel they are investing their money wisely.

If I'm buying a pair of $150 jeans {new or used}, I want to know they are authentic. I study every picture to make sure the details match with what I know of the brand.

This is a pair of Citizens of Humanity trouser jeans in size 29. I'm going to do my best to prove that they are what I say they are:

A shot of the front shows the "h" on the button, the jean color, and the high quality stitching:

The tag even shows the quality of the jeans:

The style tag:

And the back pocket detailing:

And of course, the size tag and inner pockets:

Pictures can make or break your online listing, especially in personal items like clothing, accessories, shoes, and jewelry. The better the pictures, the better your chance of getting your item's asking price.


Experienced eBay sellers- would you agree? Or eBay buyers, tell me what you think: how important do you feel pictures are to buying an item?

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