Proud Photography Blog

Auctions sites or classifieds are both extremely popular ways of getting rid of the things you have in the house taking up space, as well as unwanted gifts and old antiques.  It’s a great way to raise a little (or a lot!) of money and you have the whole world potentially looking for just what you want to sell. The most popular auction site on the web is eBay, although there are also other options for selling goods, like Yahoo Auctions or Craigslist.

Whichever site you decide to use is entirely up to you – read around, know what the policies are, what the rules are and what back up the site has if things go wrong.

Once you have chosen your site, it’s time to think about taking photographs for the things you want to sell.

Some people are reluctant to take their own photographs for selling online.  Sometimes stock images are available and it can feel easy to just take this image and upload it on to eBay.  The problem with doing this is that the image may be under copyright (some of the bigger branded companies guard their logo and imagery carefully and have people specifically hired to trawl auction sites and report those who steal images).

Additionally it doesn’t give the potential buyer any idea as to what the real item looks like.  Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes – if someone was selling some trainers, only slightly worn, seeing an image of a brand new pair is not going to help you make your mind up!  And if a buyer has to email you personally to ask for a real photograph, they may decide to buy elsewhere to save time.

So as well as clearing up issues regarding the condition of your goods, you are also protecting yourself. Taking clear photographs to document any marks or problems before listing the item means that you are showing the buyer exactly what they are getting.  If they complain about this afterwards even though you had stated the condition before they bought the item, you are protected from potential comebacks.

It’s also proven that a listing with a clear, good photograph is much more likely to sell then one with no image or just a stock picture – people always want to see exactly what they are getting and they want to know you really do have the product, and that you aren’t just pretending to own it (some fraudsters sell items like iPods using stock images but never actually have the item in stock to sell).

So to recap – yes taking your own photographs for selling your goods online may seem time consuming.  It may require a little editing and it may require more than one photo – however, it’s well worth your time so you can sell goods effectively and also protect yourself in the process.

Don’t be afraid to take a few images – you may have to list more than one image and there will be a small fee for extra pictures but once again, this is known to improve the final price you get.