The meeting was opened by our club facilitator Shelley.
ATTENDANCE:
Our attendance for this meeting was 22 Members and 5 Guests.
NEW MEMBERS:
The fox valley eBay sellers club want to welcome three new members: David, from Morris, IL. Arte from Sandwich, IL. and Kathy from Oswego, IL.
David from Morris, IL.
Atre from Sandwich, IL.
Kathy from Oswego, IL.
SECRETARY’S REPORT:
The secretaries report given by Jerry who asked for a motion to accept the club minutes as posted to the club website without any corrections or additions. Motion to accept made by Sheri. Seconded by Don. Motion carried.
TREASURE’S REPORT:
Also given by Jerry, Reported that at our last meeting we had a balance of xxx since then we have had two new members join, with the additional membership dues our new club treasury balance is xxx
PROGRAM:
Our presentation tonight was given by Shannon Range of Shannon Range Photography. Shannon gave a hands on training class on Maximizing Your eBay sales with photos.
There was also a hand out with all the information that was covered.
Maximizing Your eBay Sales with Photos
Do you think having a photograph help sells your product? Yes.
Do you think having really good photograph (accurate lighting, color, details) helps sell your product? ABSOLUTELY!
A good photograph of your product can MAKE or BREAK your sale AND you could get MORE for your MONEY with a good photograph. Even though it’s the exact same product but a different “image,” your product will appear nice, have better color and be more “professional” with a good photo.
You do NOT need a professional camera. The images below were taken with my iPhone.
Points to remember when selling items on eBay or any other online auction.
- LIGHTING – DO NOT USE FLASH unless you have to. It’s the worst thing you can do. Use window light. If it’s nice out, go outside. The best time is early evening in the open shade.
- BACKGROUND – Use a solid color, non-busy background. Your focus is on the product, not your room, house, landscaping, etc. Crop out any extra space so you focus on the subject. eBay has a cropping tool built in.
- EXPOSURE – Make sure the image isn’t too bright or too dark. Most point & shoots have exposure correction controls. If yours doesn’t, eBay has basic exposure controls after you upload your image.
- FOCUS – Get in close to eliminate background noise and show the detail of the product. But not too close as it’ll likely be distorted.
- SHARPNESS – The brighter the light, the greater chance it’ll be in focus. The darker the light, the more likely there will be blurriness due to hand-shake. If need be, put your camera on a tripod and use your self-timer.
- WHITE BALANCE (a/k/a COLOR) – The actual color of your product is very important in certain items such as jewelry, clothes, flowers, etc. Do NOT use tungsten indoor lights as they will make the items orange. LED / fluorescent lights make it appear bluish. The best light (either need little or no editing) is outside in the evening on a cloudy day or in the shade. This is the most natural. Most point and shoots have the capability to adjust your white balance before you shoot the image. If your doesn’t, you can do it with any number of free photo editing software programs you can download online. A simple, free program worth it’s weight in gold is Picasa from Google. www.picasa.google.com
- DETAILS – It’s important to show the details of a product – especially if there’s a defect. You don’t want someone to buy a product then give you a bad review because you didn’t show the defect. NOT good.
- MULTIPLE ANGLES – If your product has important details that aren’t shown in one photograph, be sure to capture those as well. You want to show as much detail as you can to maximize your profits.
- MULTIPLE IMAGES – Your first image is free. Each additional is $.15. But there’s a way to get around paying for extra image uploads… Make a montage of images into one image! The collage on my eBay listing (item 180878023816) took me less than 5 minutes to do in Picasa 3 (a free downloadable image editing program from Google).
- STOCK IMAGES – Do NOT use them! Take photos of your product. Buyers want to see what they are getting, not what they can buy brand new elsewhere.
- EVERY DETAIL – In a good photograph, dirt, scratches or dust will probably show up. Clean it up before you take the photos and post them online.
- IMAGE SIZE – Take the photo using the highest resolution possible if using a point and shoot or iPhone/Android. This will make the image as clear as possible.
If you are taking a picture of jewelry or other clear products place them on a mirror.Our next meeting will be on July 10, 2012 see all of you there.