Poor image quality

Do you use AOL?

No, I don't use AOL, just Internet Explorer 6.0.

I just posted one of the GIF images below to see if it will look the same that it does on my saved listing. I don't know if it will show up on this post, but I guess it's worth a try and may give some hint as to why it looks that way.

Amy

Looks like it showed up just fine, only when in a thumbnail format does it look grainy with too many pixels. (sigh)

Can you link to the thumbnail too? My guess is that the artifacting in the gif is due to the compression in the grains of the woods.

AOL has a image compression function built in to help speed downloads and sometimes images look really bad which is why I asked. There is a setting AOL users can turn off which makes their images look normal. It should also be noted that only those using AOL see the ugly images, not their buyers or others not using AOL.

I am hoping this image shows up. I believe this is one of the thumbnails. Knowing my luck, it will show up just fine.

Jeff, it looks like it posted the way I've been seeing it, so maybe it will give some kind of indication as to why it looks this way. My gallery pics look this way, and I am worried that I won't make sales unless it is better resolution. Any ideas?

Thanks for you help. I truly do appreciate it.

Amy

Gallery images are made by eBay from your full size images. They aren't made by us.

We pad our thumbnails so I'm pretty sure this is not a thumbnail generated by Auctiva. This image to a different item.

I doubt there will be anything you can do if it is an image made by eBay. One thing I'd try though is only including the top of the box in the picture, not both the base and top as you've done. That would give eBays image cruncher more space to work with and maybe it would do a better job.

I just want to make sure -- where did you pull that thumbnail from? Was it from Auctiva or from the actual listing at eBay?

I ask because if you've only seen the thumbnails here at Auctiva in the Preview window then those never look like they should (and will) at eBay.

Hi Rick. Yes, I did pull it from Auctiva. I haven't listed it at ebay just yet. Trying to get the listing looking good before I post it. That's good to know that it will probably look ok once I post it. Thanks for informing me and have a great day!

Amy

I would perhaps convert the image to a JPG before uploading it to us. I think that will lead to a better thumbnail image.

I'm not sure eBay can make gallery images for GIF images. In the past they could not because they had not licensed the GIF format from it's owner. This may have changed since it's been a few years.

I do think there is a greater chance of the thumbnail looking better as a JPG since I know for sure we put in a lot of side by side comparisons on image quality for thumbnails as JPG's. I didn't even know we did GIF thummbnails if that tells you how much comparing went into those.

eBays thumbnail I would assume would look better since perhaps they have optimzed their gallery image code for GIFs though.