Changes acomin' to eBay....

Actually, the first hint was Feb. 28, 2012, when there was mention of the new picture quality requirements. But who really reads these anyway (but I know we all should).

http://announcements.ebay.com/2012/02/2012-spring-seller-update/

Buried in this lengthy blurb is the following:

New listing guidelines •Quality pictures can make all the difference in enticing a buyer to choose your item over the rest. Starting this fall, all listings will be required to have a picture, and all photos must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side with no added borders or text (watermarks okay).

The change was postponed until this July 1st.

 

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I changed it to 2500x2400. at least that's what photoscape say it is. I don't see a difference. what am I missing

 

Well, I missed that, but it did not become effective until Feb, 2013.

 

You nailed it. Pics will now just need to be resized in a photoeditor before uploading on eBay, unless your camera has a setting in place that presets dimensions like mine.

 

And now sellers are scrambling around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, looking for answers. Well, they better get help quick, eBay effectively shuts down ALL discussion and answer forums on July 1st for three days. Sometimes I sit back and shake my head at the stupidity of it all.

 

Did they take end time off buy it nows?

 

If you are viewing it on CT, you need to let the image pop up, click on it to open its own window and the click on it again. When I do all of that. it is easily twice the size of my screen. BTW, over 1600, you are only wasting you memory so far as I am concerned.

 

Or you can use the auto-resizer that I linked earlier. Again, easy for the casual seller, but I was surprised by the number of sellers with multiple thousands of listings that have complained (on the boards) that this is a major problem. I guess we have to see how it plays out.

If anyone is interested, just scroll through this discussion board and look at the mess eBay has created:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/Photos-Html/99

 

Here is an example of how the new policy helps. I bought from this seller once about 1.5 years ago. The pic was not big and he used a ton of background space. All his pics were like this, and I was disappointed with the coin when I got it. (Plenty of people didn't mind, though, because he's got 4000 positives & 100%) I never bought from him again, however. He hasn't changed his set-up, but his pic size is now up to standards and this will probably mean more buyers for him or at least more satisfied buyers. Here's a before and after of his auctions...

BEFORE: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1812-Large-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

AFTER: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1830-N11-R5...95?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item4d0dfbf973

 

I'm unsure of why the seller insists on sticking a grey sock in their photos. Also, I'm pretty sure that listing would violate the "Certified coins" guidelines, since it shows a coin not in a slab that says PCGS.

 

Oh, this shouldn't be too bad. We just have to increase the photo sizes and not use text then right?

 

Yes

 

The bottom line on this fiasco is that you will see a dramatic increase in BAD pics, as sellers increase photo size of their already lousy photos. Look, there are many sellers that know the proper way to image coins, and they do it correctly. Sharp, clear photos that can be zoomed to large magnification. But for every good listing, there's a bad one. In my opinion, you will initially see a drop in the number of auctions; then an increase as sellers figure out how to increase size to meet requirements. A tiny little coin in the middle of a huge background meets requirements... but makin' it big don't make it right.

 

FWIW, I just went through 1 page of my searches and found absolutely EVERY listing complied with the new standards. A couple were obviously pushing it (500 x 500 and 490 x 500), but all met the standard.

 

If you use a windows pc I have a simple solution. There is a tool called photoscape

http://photoscape.org/ps/main/download.php (I recommend to avoid the cnet download.com mirror)

install it and go to the "editor" tab. Then drag your pic into that grey box and click "resize" it will open the pic and you can type the number of pixels you want your image to be. Then save the pic with the save button to the right. Hope this helps!

 

What is the issue with cnet? Thanks.

 

I find it hard to believe sellers are going to leave ebay rather than use larger sized photos.

 

Simple enough to comply with, 500 pixels is nothing in todays world.

 

Two identical coins

Before the new Ebay rules...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121132249084

After the new Ebay rules...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121136058814

(The 'new' one will be live in less than an hour!)

 

My first thought would be for use as a color reference, but it certainly doesn't look like they did any color correction to me.