eBay New Picture Policies --Spring Seller Update

Auctiva please let us know what the plans are on the auctiva end of helping us implement these changes so that we can go forward with what we need to do to be ready.

As LCD asked, will auctiva settings we use automatically comply with new pixel requirements?

Thanks

Using image management you can crop the borders out of the pictures and you can increase the pixel size to conform with new ebay requirements.

the issue is that once you crop the picture the closed listing still look like they have the borders. perhaps when they relist and then close again they will show the revised picture???? this is a huge issue because it takes so much time to go into image management and then click on the picture to see if it is cropped.

this is a huge undertaking for me, with approximately 1800 listings with multiple pics.

quote:

this is a huge undertaking for me, with approximately 1800 listings with multiple pics.

Well, existing listings will be permitted to remain, even if they do not comply with their requested changes on that Seller Update. So, if most of these photos you speak of are on GTC listings, it is an undertaking you do not need to make. Come fall however, any new, relisted, or revised listings will need to comply with that pixel requirement.

Personally, I know that the photos I am uploading to Auctiva comply with those sizing requirements, but it has always been my understanding that Auctiva had some automated resizing going on, which optimized the file size of those photos for storage? Hence, my assuption that these are matters Auctiva themselves would make adjustments to on their side.

Auctiva--can you please speak up, and address the concerns of your subscribers.

Auctiva, when responding please let us know what will and will not be done in all areas of the updates not just the photos. Right now photos are concern because they are biggest job, but at some point all changes need to be addressed so we can plan ahead for the changes and how we can implement what auctiva is not going to be doing.

I just have visions of last ebay change on specifics that was total nightmare because ebay had very simple revision system and auctiva did not have that at all meaning we had to go into each and every listing to make the changes required.

Thanks

ldc, thanks for the additional info.

i only have about 100 gtc listings and if i am not mistaken those have to be relisted every so often. lookandbuyme might know the answer.

so most of my listings run for 7 or 30 days. they are fixed price listings and so i will have to remove all those lovely frames. my pics already conform on the sizes but as i was cropping i found the image resize button under image management.

photos must be on 500 pixels on the long end.

i was also changing my listings to one day handling but i read further yesterday that in order to maintain top seller status, one must accept returns with the new guidelines. previously i had understood that 1 day handling and no returns would enable the top seller status but apparently that is not the case.

Good till cancelled stay on forever and ever. I use to have 98% of mine on Good Till Cancelled. I removed and put on 30 day. This is MORE work for sure.

However, if you keep on Good Till Cancelled and someone happens to have that item in their saved notifications. They are only notified once the day of the original listing. (they will not be notified every 30 days as it relists (unless ebay has recently changed system).

If you relist yourself every 30 days they will get notification each time you relist as long as they have not changed their saved preferences and removed the item.

You are paying same relist fee either way, it is just time to do yourself each month.

I hate the extended return policy, as people can wear the item to party or where ever and return it weeks later. Could be done other way but sure limited time. For those who sell for others on consignment, this is huge issue, as their clients will want their cut of their items shortly after item sells.

The one day has something to do with communication and stars too (i thought will relook later today this is a lot to absorb). . so may not be total waste of time.

Hopefully auctiva will shed some light on their plans today so we can ponder it the weekend.

quote:

so most of my listings run for 7 or 30 days. they are fixed price listings and so i will have to remove all those lovely frames. my pics already conform on the sizes but as i was cropping i found the image resize button under image management.

Well, if I were you. I would make the decision based on time involved. It takes a LOT less time to change your listings to a GTC duration, then it would to update all your existing photos.

I run mostly multiple quantity GTC listings, many are variation listings as well, so, relisting every thirty days would eliminate inventory control processes. Not very smart.

On my single quantity items I have relisted every thirty days, and instead use the auto relist feature through Auctiva. However, I will probably change those to GTC. As there is no way I'm going to risk the mass confusion that threatens to ensue at implemention of the mandated policy, affecting my work flow. I'll deal with revisions on my inventory photos once I have some substantive answers on my "branding" watermark. They consistently contradict themselves on this matter. Telling sellers that our "logos" are impermissable, while attribution watermarks are "permitted." Well my present logo serves as both--attribution and branding. And since we all know how ineffectual eBay is at preventing infringement on our copyrighted photos, I don't see how they can legally enforce this policy.

Some of the site upgrades are still not fully operational. Plus there are additional features in "streamline search" which will affect how I choose to market visually. And I don't know when they expect to roll-out those changes.

So, as far as I'm concerned, by photos will remain just as I have them. I'm not going to jump through hoops, based on their fabricated reasons as to why they are mandating their own personal "desires."

This is MY inventory to market. eBay has no investment made in my inventory to dictate how I present my catalog of offerings to the customer. They are free to inform me how to "improve" and I will take such "suggestions" under advisement.

interesting perspectives, LDC.

I think a lot of these changes are not driven by ebay but by Google. Those who don't comply run the risk of not being visible in a google search.

Other changes seem to be so that ebay can more emulate amazon, which supposedly was the top rated online seller.

i have a lot of business reasons for not using gtc so that is not a good choice for me.


>>This is MY inventory to market. eBay has no investment made in my inventory to dictate how I present my catalog of offerings to the customer. They are free to inform me how to "improve" and I will take such "suggestions" under advisement. Wink<<<
Good luck with that one!

Hey folks,

Basically speaking, if it's an eBay hosted image, it needs to be in compliance of their new rules come July.

If you list using a 3rd party tool (such as Auctiva) those images are exempt from most of the new policies, with the exception of the image you use as the "header" image (this is also the thumbnail image that shows up in eBay search results)--those still need to comply with the no borders/text and minimum size requirements. But the images that are down within the template will be fine. You're right itsjustme: these changes are not only to help the "buyer experience" on eBay, it is to help with google search.

One area that you'll need to consider are those optional eBay gallery images that many sellers use (those are the extra 12 images that you can have that appear as small thumbnails below the main header image on the eBay listing.) Those images ARE hosted by eBay (even though they are originally uploaded and hosted here on Auctiva,) so if you use those, they will need to be in compliance of the new rules.

We have no tools that will help users identify whether or not they've added borders to their images or watermarks before uploading them. As for the size requirement--since this is only for the header/gallery image(s) you can check the size by going to your Manage Images page and look at the dimensions of the photo you want to use at the top. The photo only has to be 500 pixels on the longest side, so if your image is 350x500, it will be in compliance. Again, this is only for the top image--not the ones you have down in the listing template.

Current GTC listings aren't being affected by these changes, so don't make any extra work for yourselves by replacing those just yet.

I wish I could offer up more advice, but we weren't given much info on this particular matter before it was announced either. Hopefully I will have some more definitive answers for you by Monday.

Check out The Online Seller for more updates on all the upcoming changes.

I went into Image Management, selected the image and used the crop feature to eliminate the border and i saved it.

i relisted the item (after doing literally one hundred edits as above) and of course the revised picture does not upload. The old picture which shouldn't even exist is what is showing on ebay. WHAT A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME. So fyi--the editing features in image management does not work. Thanks Auctiva.

I have my auctiva images automatically set to include my store name as my watermark (which just goes back to eBay) and now need to remove it but can't find that setting. can anyone help? thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by itsjustme:
I went into Image Management, selected the image and used the crop feature to eliminate the border and i saved it.

i relisted the item (after doing literally one hundred edits as above) and of course the revised picture does not upload. The old picture which shouldn't even exist is what is showing on ebay. WHAT A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME. So fyi--the editing features in image management does not work. Thanks Auctiva.

no, thank EBAY!!!!! I am pretty sure Ebay saves the thumbnails on their side, even if you delete them from whoever hosts the images. So it wouldn't matter if you updated the photo on a closed listing that you are just relisting again. This method would work on a new listing though since Ebay won't have a copy of the image saved for it. I know when I've deleted images that were used as thumbnails on things I've already sold, that the thumbnails still lives on in the completed listing on Ebay. Could you confirm this is how they work, Auctiva?

Auctiva can you give us information on this?????

I edited a couple of my photos in auctiva today and before re-doing more of them would like to know what is going on. Obviously I do not want to change them in auctiva images to have them not post onto ebay correctly. I will not be doing as a a revision of active listing, but as a total new relist with new auction number.

We need to know how this is going to work in order to know how to fix our images.

Also, anyone know if images are too small if ebay will block the listings from posting to ebay??? Figure someone may have talked to ebay so will ask here first.

Thanks.

Hi- just wondering if anyone had written support to ask about the image part of change. IF so please post it on here if you do not mind.

Update was mentioned for this past Monday but nothing on this thread, not even an update saying, we need more time to access the situation? Does anyone know if auctiva started new announcement thread on this as has been done couple of times in the past???

Thanks all.

Just wondering.. last update March 2rd by auctiva mentioned the following Monday (March 5th) hoping to update and nothing yet unless it is on another thread that I have missed?

Has anyone heard/seen anything about these updates from auctiva? Guess am trying to see what kind of load this puts on us to re-do things and fix what we have and best way for us to execute the changes in the least painful way???

Thanks

Auctiva, how about the courtesy of an update here. Last update March 2nd (26 days now without update) mentioning March 5 update (23 days). No news is NOT good news in my book. We need to be scouts and BE PREPARED!! We can't prepare if we have no idea what auctiva is doing on the updates to help us execute changes coming up.. some in May??? That is one month which is not long. Please give us news on updates not just photos.

If you have made changes and not advertised them then please tell us what they are, as frankly I am not going to play hide and seek looking for them.

If you are going to ignore the changes tell us that to so we can be prepared. I do not think it is fair to your customers to leave us hanging...just my thought.

Anyone else like to know if changes are being made to help execute these changes. . if so the time to speak up is NOW not after they have no time left to make changes needed.

Again, just my thought and others may not be concerned.

I can tell you that I have been working on removing borders from my pics. All the borders show up in the thumbnails on auctiva. I can't tell which ones are done until I click on the ad and look at ebay.

everyday i spend a lot of time just clicking so I know which ones to edit.

any updates on the changes being made would be helpful.

Hi all,
Sorry for taking so long to reply, but there has been no new updates from eBay on the subject. So as it stands now, the rules are still the same that I mentioned in the previous post. The no border/text rule for header images won't start until the fall, so hopefully that will give everyone plenty of time to update those particular images.

Since I dont use alot of these features I guess I should ask what is changing? I read ebays new policy when it first came out.
No borders? meaning?. I dont think I use borders on my pictures.
Watermarking the picture according to ebays newletter would not be effected?
As for size of picture that goes onto ebay. The one you see when you are doing a search. Size limit? I would assume auctiva will be making sure when these changes go into effect that it automatically makes sure the size is correct for that area of listing? and resize it for us.

quote:

The photo only has to be 500 pixels on the longest side, so if your image is 350x500, it will be in compliance. Again, this is only for the top image--not the ones you have down in the listing template.

It should be noted that the 500 pixel requirement is the "minimum," whereas, when you upload directly to eBay picture hosting, the recommended pixel dimensions are 1600 pixels.

Unfortunately, eBay did a very lousy job communicating to sellers, as to their "reasoning" for disallowing text and borders. Though I suspect it has more to do with persons artificially inflating the pixel size of their photographs with computer imposed objects, such as text and borders. In order to sneak pass their bots, which will be disallowing uploads of photos which do not meet those minumums.

Of course, that would defeat their purpose for "better quality" images. So, they manufactured all kinds of ridiculous fabrications like, borders have relevence to google searches, etc.to justify their "technical" desires.

While it is true that text and borders do inflate the pixel dimensions of your photos. As long as you have clear sharp pictures, which also happen to have borders and text on them, then there really should not be an issue with technical compliance with their desires.

There are those who actually believe that eBay will have the pixel police out, to enforce these "no borders and text" rules. I just don't happen to be one of them. So, I guess I'm gonna be an outlaw.

My photos are my intellectual property, they serve the purpose of marketing my catalogue of inventory to buyers. As long as I'm not purveying pornography on eBay, I don't see they have any legitimate, or more importantly LEGAL reason to instruct me how to format my marketing photos, aside from technical compliance with their software.

In essence...computer screen resolutions have improved. And eBay has upgraded their photographic capabilities to meet these technological upgrades of internet commerce.

As long as you are using the best quality output on your digital imaging device, whether a scanner or camera, and not editing those photos down, below their mimumum pixel requirements, then you should be okay.

There is some good information on the Photo & HTML Discussion Board on eBay, if you are confused on the technical matters.

I'm not quite understanding this new "no borders" part of the new photo policy.

"Borders around pictures, and text added to pictures, will no longer be allowed. Watermarks for attribution purposes only will continue to be allowed."

What's the difference between a border and a template? I spoke with an eBay Customer Service representative a few minutes ago and he was very wishy-washy with his response. All he could tell me is that the reason for this new policy is so that Buyers have less reason to use the "Not As Described" excuse. He also said that the "no borders" policy only applied to the thumbnail photo to the left-hand side of the "Buy It Now" button. I explained it does not say that anywhere in their announcement nor does it say that in the Photo section of the eBay Help Center. So will I be violating the new policy by using templates?

THANKS!!

The template is the border/design that is down in your listing description. They are referring to borders around the actual image (as part of the actual image.) Many users have borders around the image to make it stand out better on the eBay search results page.

The header/gallery image that is at the top of the eBay listing is an eBay-hosted image, and therefore has to conform to their new "no borders/text" rules. However, images that are down in the listing description are hosted by Auctiva, and do not need to meet the no borders or text rule.

I hope that clears up any confusion

You can check the size of your photo by going into Image management and enter the name of the photo. it shows the pixels and you can modify it there.

You can also use image management to crop the photo if there is a border.

For me, I have or had 1500 photos to edit. I started when i heard the announcement so that doing ten per day, I would be done in 150 days, approximately 5 months.

So clearly if listings need to be modified in terms of size or borders, it is prudent to start now to meet the fall deadline.

The new border rule and picture size seems to be what everyone is talking about and I agree they are a pain but it is this statement that has me really worried:-

"Be sure you upload your pictures to eBay picture services, to give shoppers the best view of your item—no matter how they shop. It’s the only way to have your item pictures show at the top of the item page and be optimized for mobile shoppers "

Does this mean that if I use Auctiva to host my images then I won't have an image at the top of my item page and my images won't display correctly for mobile users?

Could do with some clarification on this asap??

Messaged Ebay and got this response:-

"I checked this for you and found that you can list the item with Auctiva and images will appear normal and there wil be no isues with it."

Panic over.