eBay® PowerSeller Business Practices FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter 22. Photographing Specialty Items

Wouldn't it be great if every item you needed to photograph would fit in a small place and use the same light setup? As an eBay PowerSeller, you have a challenge: Often the items you put up for sale are different in size, shape, and materials — and they don't appear the same under the lights. You have to make special accommodations hen you photograph certain types of items.

It's especially a drag for the seller whose eBay career involves selling anything and everything. This type of seller (sigh) needs a bit more knowledge (and a few more tools) to keep ahead of the competitors who sell exclusively in each category. In this practice, I go over a few of the photo tricks of the trade.

I've been selling on eBay since 1996 — and thought I was pretty good at showing off and selling my wares. But when I purchased a small lot ofMorgan silver dollars to resell, I figured I'd just take a standard digital picture and sell away. Oops, not so fast. Coins are small, and the detail that remains on the coins is what brings a higher price. The first pictures I took bore only the slightest resemblance to the actual coins. Not only were the details either enhanced or fuzzy, but also the pictures made the beautiful silver coins look gold! Yikes — this would never do!

My next challenge was to photograph some stunning silver- and gold-tone costume jewelry. The setup — with its perfect positioning, beautiful lighting, and black velvet jewelry pads — looked exquisite, ...