eBay picture taking equipment

TAKE GREAT PICTURES FOR eBay ~ PHOTO TAKING EQUIPMENT


ended - Friday, April 4, 2008

Auction grade: C-

Starting bid: $85.00

Final selling price: $88.95 (Buy It Now)


Up for sale in this eBay auction is some equipment to help take better, more professional pictures for online auctions. This includes a camera stand, two external lights, and an "item box".

The title that the seller is using is interesting, but it would still benefit from adding another key word or two. "pictures" and "photo" are fine, but the seller could still mention "digital camera" or just "camera" even though a camera is not included in this auction. A camera is required to use the equipment, so it's valid mentioning it in the title to help with the search engine results.

The item's description is neat, orderly, and easy to read, as you would expect from an eBay PowerSeller. Each item is described by itself, and the different colors give this auction flair. It's the seller's personal comments where I have my problems.

"Increase your sales, and your dollar amounts by taking better pictures - gair-on-teed!"

So if I write crappy titles, have horrible descriptions, and set unreasonable starting bids and shipping costs, I'll still increase my sales and dollar amounts by taking pictures with this equipment? If so, can I have that "gair-on-tee" in writing?

"Lighting is one of the main keys to success - background is the other. This unit provides professional results with minimal effort!"

Not exactly.

One of the real keys to success is to be able to find and capture the best angle(s). By the usage of forced perspective you can make items look larger than life and more exciting than just by using standard angles. Being able to properly present the item in the picture is more important than the lighting or background.

Check out more photography tips here.

"This unit will become a useful tool for all your auctions or online endeavors."

It probably is useful, but not if you are trying to sell items larger than 16x16x16 inches. Anything roughly larger than a pair of shoes (excluding the box) will need to be photographed some other way.

If such a tool is so powerful and critical for selling anything on eBay, I wonder how the seller managed to get a picture of the display model for this auction. When opened and spread apart, the entire display and additional lights and tripod is certainly a lot larger than 16x16x16 inches.

On a side note, the seller should mention that the camera in the picture is not included in this auction. Buyers can and will legally complain and demand a full refund if they don't receive a camera with the rest of the items. The same is true for the car in the picture.

Any time you include extra items in the picture and they are not included in the auction, you need to make it clear in the description that it's not included. It's considered fraud if you don't.

"Place your bid now before you forget, then set it on auto pilot until auction end - then check back to be sure you win t.he item."

A) Why place a bid and go through that process when the Buy It Now is only $4 more?

B) I'm sure other sellers would also like you to immediately place a bid before doing any external research.

C) Nice grammar.

Along with the seller's over-hyping of the photo equipment and the fact that not even a basic (a.k.a. cheap) digital camera is not included, I'll be very surprised if anybody places a bid for this auction. $85 + $14.95 is a lot of money considering you still need a camera and know how to take good pictures and write auction titles and descriptions that market and sell the item.

I gave this auction a low score because of not providing a disclaimer about the camera and car (very important) and for over-hyping the ability of this equipment. Just by using it you will not instantly become the next PowerSeller and make a fortune selling items on eBay. This is also overpriced considering its size limitations and lack of camera.

2MP DSC-P51 Sony digital camera

Great Deal! Sony DSC-P51- See It's Pictures- Extras!


ended - Thursday, March 20, 2008

Auction grade: C-

Starting bid: $48.75

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a Sony DSC-P51 digital camera. This is a 2 mega-pixel camera with a 2x optical zoom and a 6x digital zoom. Overall, this is considered a very basic digital camera in today's society. As a comparison, my own Sony Ericsson cell phone has a 2 mega-pixel camera.

For starters, this auction's title needs quite a bit of work. Apart from using the wrong version of "its" (check your grammar), the seller is also leaving out important key words such as "digital camera", "2MP", and even "Cyber-shot". In this case, the seller may want to mention it being a beginner's camera to help entice other bidders.

The auction's description needs a little bit of adjusting, too. For someone who starts their description by saying "Please read this description carefully!", the seller ironically chose a bad typing format. All of the camera, auction, and shipping information is in one giant paragraph. The darkish blue font on the white background looks pretty good, but the general layout needs to be fixed.

All of the camera's technical information needs to be listed separately and with bullet points. There's no point in hiding what little the camera can do, and by suggesting that people check other reviews on the internet means that they will find out the details anyway. You may as well be honest and list everything that you can about the camera right here in the description.

In addition to the camera's information, all of the accessories need to be listed separately and with bullet points, too. Let the buyers know that this comes with a few rechargeable batteries and a charger. Be proud of throwing in the hand strap and those massive memory cards (4mb and 64mb).

The pictures of the camera and all of the included accessories look pretty good. The sample images are where I have my problems. Apart from being very small, they also look like garbage.

This "landscape" shot looks like the seller took a picture of a painting or picture (you can see the flash's reflection on the bottom, tape holding the top of picture against the wall, and the upper edge of the picture in the top right of the image). If you're going to do the trouble of taking a sample image, show us a real full size image of a real landscape shot.

(Next time provide a link to a real landscape picture that you took, not a picture of a picture.)

Overall, this is a basic, used camera trying to compete with today's current cameras. I can't fault the seller for trying to sell the camera and hype up all of its features, but I'll be surprised if it sells. The camera's 2x optical zoom isn't going to make any real difference, and the 6x digital zoom is a complete joke (digital zoom itself is useless unless you like pixelated and low resolution images). The selling point of "Really neat is that the camera driver downloads to your PC from the camera itself!" isn't that special today. Almost all of today's cameras can plug into your computer with a USB cable, and some basic models even include a special "docking port" to do the same thing.

This camera did receive quite a few favorable reviews on different websites. That's true. It's also true that the seller will be lucky to get any bids with a starting bid that high. After encouraging buyers to look at the camera reviews, he is essentially making them educate themselves. How many people are going to want to spend at least $58 (starting bid + shipping) for an old, used, outdated digital camera when that much money can be put to a new one?

I would focus on selling the camera itself as an excellent beginner's camera and cut the starting bid in half. I also wouldn't tell people to research the reviews (keep their attention here at the auction). In addition to that, I would list the common picture resolution sizes and show them real sample images of what the camera can do in various lighting conditions.

The reasons for the auction's lower score are for the title needing a lot of work, the description needing spacing and formatting, and the poor / fake sample images.

Nikon Coolpix S1 digital camera

Nikon Coolpix S1 5.1 Megapixel


ended - Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Auction grade: B+

Starting bid: $0.99

Final selling price: $28.00


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a used Nikon Coolpix S1 compact digital camera. In addition to listing some technical details, the seller also mentions a couple of problems with the camera.

The title of this auction does a good job mentioning the manufacturer and model, but the seller forgets to include key words such as "compact" and the critical "digital camera." The advertisement will receive much more exposure by mentioning the type of item in the title. Key words are critical in the title!

The main body of the auction is neatly laid out and easy to read. Certain details about the camera are easy to find. I appreciate the seller's honesty when he mentions the problems and missing equipment. The malfunctioning flash and mysterious circles in some photos will turn away most bidders. It could be user error like the seller says, but with an instruction manual and with most point-and-shoot cameras being very simple to operate, I would say that this is most likely a more serious problem with the camera.

For this auction, I would have liked to know how long the seller has had the camera and roughly how often it was used. Digital cameras aren't known for having the longest lifespans, especially when people take them on vacation.

Apart from adding key words to the title, the seller also didn't mention any shipping information. There's no mention on how much you'll have to pay to have this camera shipped from Columbus, Ohio.

Overall, this is a nice looking and well organized auction. A few changes will help bring in more potential bidders. I do give this seller credit for trying to sell a possibly damaged camera on eBay, knowing full well that the final price might be next to nothing.

Canon PowerShot A720 Digital Camera

Canon PowerShot A720 IS 8.0 MP Digital Camera New

ended - Sunday, February 3, 2008

Auction grade: A+

Starting bid: $0.95

Final sale price: $185.05


In this digital camera auction, the seller is offering a brand new Canon PowerShot A720 IS 8.0 MegaPixel digital camera.

This guy is a PowerSeller, and the advertisement for this camera is sharp and professional. All of the text is easy to read, and highlights of the camera are clearly pointed out in bullet points. With over 4,300 positive feedback notes within the past 12 months, this is a seller who knows how to do things correctly.

The only part of this auction that bothers me is the stock photo. Personally, I want customers to see a real image of the actual item that they're about to purchase. Stock photos only lead to people questioning the legitimacy of the item. I know that it's common for dealers to sell items on eBay, and most of them use the same stock photos too. If you are a real person selling a real item, try not to use a stock photo.