Hi Shipscript,

Thanks for the quesion. The fall picture policies applies to all pictures, not simply the gallery photo.

-Jess

To see how your listing will perform in the smaller mobile phone window, go to:

http://m.ebay.com/

and type your item number in the search bar.

There are three tabs, and your description will be rearranged to fit on the third tab, using multiple pages if necessary. Only the text will be displayed there.

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jess@ebay.com, thanks for clarification that the new policy will apply to all 12 eBay photos, not just the main gallery photo that appears in searches. The latter had been erroneously reported by Griff and others in forum posts, and this clarification is appreciated.

[note: Jess's post is in answer to a direct question about all 12 photos and does not refer to self-hosted photos down in the description, which are excluded from the policy.]

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Photo restrictions have been postponed until 2013

July 2012 - Fall Seller Update Announcement

Fall Seller Update

The important details regarding image hosting are:

• Starting in October, new listings and relistings will be required to include a picture.
• The other requirements for photos (size, no-text, no-borders, etc) are postponed until 2013, after the holiday season.

July 24, 2012 - Fall Seller Update Forum

2012 Photo Policy - Where did eBay say:

[ed. I have added some clarification in brackets]

#2 We are exploring solutions to help sellers call out details in pictures in the gallery.

#1 In addition, we are exploring ways for sellers to annotate pictures in the gallery.

#1 watermark rules

#3 Yes, inclusion of your logo [a slip of paper at right] in the picture will be considered text on picture [and will not be allowed].

#2 Your [solid text] watermark [across entire bottom of photo]: the good news is the watermark does not obstruct your item, but it is bigger than the 5% of total picture area size policy [image at right].

#2 Currently, there are no tools on eBay to determine the opacity of your watermark.

#3 The new picture policy regarding text will go into effect in 2013.

#9 Yes, there is a team here at eBay working on OCR solutions: optical character recognition. This technology can distringuish letters and whether they are on an object that has been photographed or have been added to the picture.

#1 The policy is detailed in order to provide sufficient guidance to folks looking to develop watermarks, not to punish sellers with existing listings.

#1 Our photo best practices suggest shooting items against a solid background to keep the attention on the item... which appears in many of your listings, i.e. the green astroturf background. We don't suggest using some of the busier, graphic-intensive backdrops.

#2 The best practice is to photograph items against a solid background. The [blue and gold starburst rays] background shown in the Age of Empires example [right] isn't prohibited, per se, if you're placing the item on that background. However, if you are adding that background as a border, after you shot the item, it could be prohibited under the no borders requirement. Ultimately, we want the focus to be on the item.

#1 The 500 pixels [minimum requirement] on longest side of image requirement will go in to effect sometime in 2013. The requirement will apply to new, relisted, and revised listings...so if you have current listings that include pictures that don't meet the new size requirement they won't be removed.

#7 Pictures in the main gallery [top left of listing] - whether uploaded to eBay picture hosting or hosted by a third party like PHOTOBUCKET [or by a listing service] - can not have added text.

#4 Rules apply only to photos in eBay picture gallery

• "no text on pictures" applies to pictures uploaded to eBay picture hosting, meaning the primary photo and those in the gallery
• pictures with text are still allowed when placed in the Item Description

#1 [Used media in] Books, Movies, Music, and Video Game categories ... can use a stock photo.

#1 If you are selling in the Motors Parts & Accessories category, you're exempt from the new policy.

#4 Pictures with text [or borders and hosted on another service] are still allowed when placed in the Item Description .

#15 TurboLister, it does support HTML text in item description. Seller can use HTML to embed multiple pictures. Meaning, if your pictures are hosted on a third party site, you can include the links to those images within TurboLister for appearance in the item description

#2 One reason for the new policy is that external search engines give pictures with text on them a lower ranking.

#1 The reasons for the new rule:

• many sellers are adding text and graphics for things like shipping origin or sizes available, or colors, that are better accommodated in other areas of a listing
• buyers tell us that clean images (without lots of text) are a key part of their buying process
• images with text can receive lower rankings by external search engines

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GTC listings are already grandfathered.

See the "Good til cancelled listings are not affected by new picture policy until relisted or revised" topic above, or see these specific posts by eBay staff:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/February-28-2012/How-Long-Will/5100052695

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/February-28-2012/New-Photo-Size/5200071339

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I don't know where the February start date came from because eBay is removing pictures that we have had posted for over a year in some cases--two or three a day and have been for a month.  Additionally, our photoshop photos that are uploaded to eBay are the correct size or larger--when they're uploaded, they are smaller.  How can that be fixed?  I'm at my wits end since we have four to six photos of over 670 unique items.  Once the photos are removed, we are having trouble identifying from the description, what the item actually is.  Did you every get any suggestions.  Retaking pictures won't solve the problem we have.  I don't have a clue what to do and starting this in December during one of the busiest times of the year is a crock!

rr-pots

This thread deals with eBay Picture Policy.

The policies quoted above came directly from eBay policy  management, so they reflect the intention of the policy.

If you are experiencing anything to the contrary, then you are seeing a technical problem, not a change in policy. The policies have not been changed.

I would recommend starting a new thread to deal with the technical problems outlined in your three posts. It would also be helpful if you would remove your technical-issue posts from this policy thread to avoid confusion and deter similarly unrelated posts.

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i can't find anywhere in the current/new policy that it says the new standards only apply to eBay hosted pics and that self-hosted pics in the listing description are exempt from the new picture standards.   

 I see the links to posted comments that the new standards will only apply to eBay hosted pics.  Does that mean the pics in descriptions can have watermarks, graphics/texts, borders, be smaller than 500 pixels longest length?

Also, the example of the  faded feathered bordered picture with the smaller picture imposed.  Wouldn't the background picture there be considered to have a frame?  Or is a ruffled border not considered a frame? 

Wouldn't the shadow be a frame, so to speak too?  I would have thought so, but those are nice touches if they would be permitted in the eBay picture hosted photogallery pics...

Hi

http://www.exportyourstore.com can easily help and change all of your products picture and upload to eBay.

They can also handle huge amount of products.

Thank you.

We also have 100s of listings affected. Ebay just sent us a list and its all of our listings. If buyers don't like the pics buy elsewhere. We have no idea what is wrong with the pics as many are over 500 pixels so how do we fix something when ebay doesn't say whats wrong with it. They need to worry about the listings with ads over the pics such as quantities and free shipping and colored borders. First ebay keeps saying add pics and when we do they say change them. Hopefully we can pick one and delete all the extras from each listing which again will hurt sales. we are getting really frustrated with constant changes against the sellers. It might be a good time to look for other online marketplaces. Its hard enough to make a profit now and then spend weeks and weeks trying to figure out why our pics don't comply.

discount60

I checked your current listings using this tool:

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ListingPhotoSizes.htm

You have scads of undersized photos and it looks like all of them are in good-til-cancelled (GTC) listings. Any GTC listings that already exist on the July 1 deadline, are exempt from the new photo policy until you edit those listings or until you end and relist them.

So you will have plenty of time to improve the photo size after the deadline, which you will want to do as monitors increase in resolution and undersized photos begin to look like thumbnails.

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