My EBay Life
(A series of essays about what it is like to sell stuff on EBay)
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You may think that you have to be a great photographer and have all kinds of expensive equipment to take photos for your Ebay listings. If you don't feel that way you can watch this video from Ebay on Location in Denver and then you may understand what I am talking about. I just finished watching and it gave me a little bit of an inferiority complex.
I already knew that I didn't posses any fancy lights or backgrounds or cameras. And I am well aware that I am not a professional photographer. But the good news is that over the years my pictures have gotten better and more importantly I do actually sell items with my inferior photos. Not that I wouldn't like to have some of the stuff that they talk about but that is not going to be in my immediate future.
Here is what I do and don't have.
1) I don't have a fancy camera. Technically I don't even have a camera. I use the camera on my phone.
2) I don't have any special lights. I use mostly natural light.
3) I don't have any backdrops or the space for a photo studio. But I do have white walls.
4) I don't have a tripod.
5) I don't know anything about white balance.
6) I do try to frame my shots so that no cropping is required.
7) I do have a mannequin that I use for some items and a white formica board that I found in the garage that I use for other items.
8) I do have Adobe Photoshop to edit my photos but I don't use it very much and there are plenty of other photo editing software choices.
It is all pretty low tech. Anyway my point is that even with Ebays new photo requirements my minimal photography skills and equipment are sufficient.
So watch the video and work toward getting better equipment and skills but don't wait to get started listing. You probably already have everything you need to take a decent photo for your listing.
Happy Ebaying,
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