Picture Hosting ~ My site or eBay's?

[z50com]

I've been hosting my own pictures for years.

But when I look at my listings on mobile you have to click on the description to see my other pictures besides the one in gallery. I'm not howmany people do that.

If I have eBay host my pictures I do believe they show up in the main body of thelisting on mobile.

Is this the only way to get my pictures to show up without clicking on something?

[slippinjimmy]

Not many sellers host their own images anymore, buyers expect the images to be in the "usual" place which would be the eBay provided gallery. It's critical for mobile users.

You can do both, use eBay Picture Services and also host your own to embed in the description area.

I gave up hosting my own years ago but I have a few listings where I also embed in the Description area.

[emerald40]

I agree that most now use ebay.

But remember the good ole days when you hosted your own and someone stole one of your pictures and you could replace it with a pile of poop.

[copper.boom]

Oh gosh I definitely remember that. I had a friend who used to replace it with one of two things: porn or a text image disparaging the username of the person who stole it.

[copper.boom]

@z50com Hosting on eBay is more user-friendly in general, but especially for mobile. It streamlines the experience.

That said, remember that all images uploaded to eBay are now eligible for the eBay catalogue and to be used by any other seller. 

[slippinjimmy]

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@copper.boom wrote:

@z50com Hosting on eBay is more user-friendly in general, but especially for mobile. It streamlines the experience.

That said, remember that all images uploaded to eBay are now eligible for the eBay catalogue and to be used by any other seller. 

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Do you think eBay will be including images of used, NOS or vintage items in the product catalogue?

[copper.boom]

If the items have a product identifier added then I'd say yes.

[pinkrose442savings2018]

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@copper.boom wrote:

@z50com Hosting on eBay is more user-friendly in general, but especially for mobile. It streamlines the experience.

That said, remember that all images uploaded to eBay are now eligible for the eBay catalogue and to be used by any other seller. 

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Even our user name photo...picture or our collections?  Is that o.k.?  Then it's not of the original item being listed...that mean's a lot to me that buyer's actually see the real mick-koy!

[copper.boom]

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@pinkrose442 wrote:

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@copper.boom wrote:

@z50com Hosting on eBay is more user-friendly in general, but especially for mobile. It streamlines the experience.

That said, remember that all images uploaded to eBay are now eligible for the eBay catalogue and to be used by any other seller. 

---

Even our user name photo...picture or our collections?  Is that o.k.?  Then it's not of the original item being listed...that mean's a lot to me that buyer's actually see the real mick-koy!

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Okay, editing my reply above to say all images uploaded to eBay listings....

I don't think they care about your userid photo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_real_McCoy

[emerald40]

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@pinkrose442 wrote:

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@copper.boom wrote:

@z50com Hosting on eBay is more user-friendly in general, but especially for mobile. It streamlines the experience.

That said, remember that all images uploaded to eBay are now eligible for the eBay catalogue and to be used by any other seller. 

---

Even our user name photo...picture or our collections?  Is that o.k.?  Then it's not of the original item being listed...that mean's a lot to me that buyer's actually see the real mick-koy!

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Being able to steal pictures is why the hackers have been so prevelant in the fine diamond and jewelry categories.  Great photos of the jewelry and the GIA report  make their listings look more legit.

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

I upload images to eBay but I also cite them within the description area and designate a height or width appropriate to the space. I treat it as a magazine page layout -- viewers see text and photos side by side and the images are larger than what is visible in the eBay gallery.  In case of server failure, the other set of images serves as back-up.

That said, it helps to know that the description area is 900 pixels wide but a mobile screen is about 320 pixels wide -- a severe reduction!  I am starting to adjust my template to fill only 95% of the width to compensate just a bit.  I don't know exactly how this affects mobile devices but at least the template will not be "chopped off" on the right margin.

In addition, for mobile devices,  eBay truncates the text content to 250 characters and then provides a "See more description" link.  Any content that follows a few lines of text is hidden until the user clicks that link.  I believe the seller can add HTML to specify 800 characters to be visible before the link. Either way, photos may not be available "above the fold," to use a newspaper term.

Bottom line: Use both options for your photos.  Mobile users can rely on the gallery; desktop users get larger, easily compared images and don't have to click individual thumbnail images that are nowhere near the text and often don't load anyway.

~~C~~

[z50com]

Thank You for all the responses.

I'm going to do a few listings with eBay hosting my pictures and see how it looks.

I guess being more mobile friendly is the way to go...... i guess

[electrola_man]

Ebay's picture service is so much better than it used to be years ago.  The image quality is really good, and it is nice to have the photos in the usual location.  Only once in a great while, when I think an item requires more than 12 photos to adequately show an item, will I add a few more using a different hosting service.  Maybe someday they'll open that up to 15-20 photos.  Usually 12 is plenty, though.