posted on July 29, 2001 05:25:58 PM new
This is making me nuts! I've got three auctions out there ... and when I do a search on "gel candle" ... my stuff says no photo" ... but I DO have photos!!! The photos show up just fine if someone actually clicks on it ... but if it says "no photo" a lot of people won't even bother looking.
What am I doing wrong in the listing of these auctions that's not accepting the thumbnail photo?
posted on July 29, 2001 06:55:40 PM new
Where did you launch your auctions from? AW or Yahoo direct?
It is my understanding that if you do not launch OR more importantly upload your photo directly to Yahoo (I use Yahoo's Seller's Manager which I downloaded from Yahoo), you will not get the photo icon.
If I am wrong, someone will correct me.
As to how to fix it after it's been loaded? I do not know. In the olden days (before listing fees) I'd advise just cancelling and uploading the auction directly from Yahoo. Since the fees, I don't know if Yahoo would cancel the fee or not or how that is done IF they do refund.
Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable will come along before too much longer!
[ edited by sulyn1950 on Jul 29, 2001 07:00 PM ]
posted on July 29, 2001 07:08:20 PM new
Hi ... thanks for your response ... I posted the auction with Auction Watch ... and I have since figured out that the first photo HAS to be hosted by Yahoo in order to have the thumbnail appear.
Luckily ... I was able to go into the auction and revise it ... alas, maybe a little too late to do much good ... there's only one day left. Live and Learn!!!
The way I figured it out was totally by accident. I wanted to get in on that 99 cent thing because that stuff is selling like hotcakes! Bidders and lookers are roaming around in that category with abandon!
To participate in the 99 cent thingy, you have to list the auction directly with Yahoo, one at a time ... and it was there that the details about the thumbnail being uploaded there came to light!!! AAAACCCCKKKK!!!!
AW should be more specific about that. In fact ... it should be spelled out for dummies like me!!!!
Thanks again for taking the time to help. I really appreciate it!
posted on July 29, 2001 10:16:22 PM new
Also, I believe the images won't appear if you upload ones that are too "long and narrow" as opposed to deeper or "more square."
posted on July 30, 2001 06:36:21 PM new
Mine turn out long and narrow so the thumbnails don't show up in category search either. I guess Yahoo uses jpeg and it makes my photos look pretty lousy & compressed. I can get by because the photos aren't real important for what I sell, but I'd sure like to be able to have the thumbnails.
posted on July 30, 2001 08:43:09 PM new
I brought up this problem here several months ago. With group input we figured out how to get thumbnails for the small pics.
Instead of cropping the photo to the size of the item leave in enough background to produce a thumbnail. I'm on a 15 inch monitor, my pics need to be at least 3 inches high and wide on my screen to get me a thumbnail. Instead of having a big blank background I write text about the item and place it inside the photo to fill up the background.
If you're scanning you can reset to 200% instead of the 100% default to get a larger pic.
posted on July 31, 2001 09:35:03 AM new
I sometimes upload very small images (small as in 1"x1" on my screen, although that's at maybe 1:4 or 1:5 magnification) and don't have any problems. I think the key is, if your graphics/scanning program will let you, to increase the scanning density as you do smaller items. I do at least 200 dpi (dot per inch) scans, sometimes upwards to 1000 dpi to get all the detail and color I can. Even compressed at my end with a .jpg, then compressed and sized further by Yahoo, I easily have images that were quite small on my screen expanded out in the auctions listings to cover the screen... and with very nice detail.
A good idea is to experiment around, look at your scanning and graphics settings and try different dpi settings, try different percent compression into a .jpg file, then LOOK at what size file you're saving onto your hard drive; since Yahoo compresses downwards, sending them a BIG (500K+) file as an upload is rather a waste, especially if your images would look just as good as a 25K .jpg once displayed in the auction.
Experiment! Scan or manipulate a series of images, save them, then go to a listing and substitute them in and out to see which is optimal. Then, use those settings routinely, whether for a digital camera, or a scanner. Just don't forget to delete big files occasionally later on, and maybe do a defrag if your system doesn't do it automatically for you.
[ edited by sulyn1950 on Jul 29, 2001 07:00 PM ]
Live and Learn!!!
