Some How Tos from Luvjeordie Studios
Ebay
When listing something in Ebay or any other auction site, there are some key things that help in selling your models successfully. This brings me back to the discussion on the last page about LSQ. When I list MY items I never use the words LSQ to advertise my work, because it can set you up for a bad transaction with a potentially dissatisfied customer. When you promise something that is "a varying matter of opinion to many people", sooner or later you will cross the path of someone who has higher standards than you do and winds up disagreeing with the terms used and you run the risk of getting negative feedback or having someone claim you are a fraud or dishonest in your descriptions for your models. So first and foremost never use the term. I've seen an absolutely flawless model that sold as LSQ and the new owner trashed the artist all over the place because there was a tiny pinhead sized drip of paint way down in the ear of the model. I've also had people say my stuff sucks yet I've had models win first in their classes in some live shows. So in my opinion, there is too much grey in the whole topic of LSQ to be guarenteeing anything to potential buyers without really laying it all down on the line. And if you're work repeatedly sells itself, it isn't even nessesary.
The best thing I can say to anyone listing something is;
LET YOUR WORK SELL ITSELF
You remember that and everything else is cream cheese. And the best way to do that?
PICTURES * PICTURES * PICTURES
In
describing my work I started out salespitchin it when I first
started out to. "Painstakingly, added the rich overtones
to accent the dramatic flow of the musculature in this
piece...blah blah" Until finally I saw a model similar
to what I had listed once and the description was very brief.
Something like
"Breyer so and so model measuring so and so CM repainted
done in acrylic paints, spray sealed in matt sealer and signed by
the artist" .
And
that was it. And it sold just like that. And at a higher price
than mine and with far less detail work done to it. So after that
I use the "less is more" approach and it's always
worked better. I break it down like this;
1. Title it.
2. What the model was.
3. What it is now.
4. And bluntly what I did to get it that way.
And leave it alone. You don't need endless adjectives explaining
how something was done or how great it looks. If it looks that
great, the bidders will see that in the photos. You don't need to
tell them. You'll come off looking like one of those women on QVC
trying to sell lonely housewives, the shiniest, piece of genuine,
imitation, faux, like-real, hunk of crap they can find for
$49.95.
Don't
use 10 words when 5 will do. Don't use your auction description
to compliment your own work, or you'll come off looking
conceited. People may wonder, if it's that beautiful, then why
don't you just keep it. Don't trash other artist's/seller's work
in your descriptions even if you don't name names because it just
makes you come off looking like an arrogant jerk. That vibe can
frighten away potential commission customers also. "If
they're this nasty to a competing artist, how are they going to
be when dealing with me?"
It's ALL about the pictures. Take poor photos...no bids. Take
lots of highly detailed photographs at every conceivable angle
and every type of background and it will sell better and higher.
You don't need a high priced digital camera either. I just got a
new one for Xmas but haven't even cracked into it yet as I've
been using my old one and hadn't had the time to mess around with
the new one's settings. So for the moment I'm using a now
obsolete FUJIFILM Finepix 3.2 Mega Pixal A330. Retailed Xmas of
2004 for around $200.00, now found in Ebay for less than $50.00.
I turn the zoom up all the way, then click auto zoom and let it
refocus itself back down, turn on the close-up setting, flash or
no flash and that's it. I leave it on that same close up setting
all the time. Closeup with autozoom on. That's it. I don't even
mess with the other settings. Action, Portrait, Day, Night, etc..
would always turn out blurry, so I simply stick with what works.
But bottom line on the worded descriptions.... Don't over-do it.
Less is more.
I've recently started doing some indoor photographing in my basement on top of the deep freezer near a florescent light with a backdrop of, get this...a winter coat.lol The coat's lining is a soft light beige plushy material and it's pinned down on a shelf by two containers of liquid silicone casting agent and just draped onto the freezer lid. It's fanned open to expose the full lining as much as possible of the back of the coat and that's what you see in the pictures. When we want some frozen chicken we just raise the lid with the coat still in it's place! lol
It really doesn't matter what you use. You don't need a professional studio. The other backdrop I use is a piece of crushed velvet fabric that's champagne and teal blue marble tie-dyed. It was sparkling a bit loudly so I don't use it as much. But sometimes I still do. Depends on the photo subject but light earthy beige colors work best for backgrounds. Beige, light blues, and sometimes greens. Anything that will capture the light and reflect it to lighten the whole area around the model is best.
Outdoor photographing is good. That's sort of become my trademark. Most of my photos have been on an old picnic table in my front yard facing my uncles yard. lol People would always email me about my giant, concrete sea serpent dragon yard statue I bought and painted that always shows up in the background of my picnic table shots. I get more comments and questions about that dragon than I think I do with my horses! I have a little four inch pewter sea serpent sitting on a slab of agate I found on Ebay that I keep on top of my computer monitor because of that now. lol I also have a big pile of rocks in my front yard that has a bit of moss in front of it. It acts as a good backdrop for my stuff. I've also done pasture style shots from my uncle's front yard next door for many recent photos. I plan to start buying some photo backdrops for the models but I don't want to use the same scene for everything and they can get a bit expensive if you're buying a bunch. But it's on my to-do list.
Regardless, the point is to let the photographs speak for the model. You don't need words. You don't need fancy sale pitches and promises of quality that's frankly a matter of personal and highly debatable opinion in the first place. Photos don't lie. Photos when clear and detailed show people every single thing they need to see to let them decide whether or not to bid on your item. Flaws and all. Everything is captured by the camera. That way, when someone buys something you don't have to worry about them coming back and saying "Hey, this is nothing like you said!"
Some
of the key points to photograph on models would be close up head
shots of right and left sides. Full left and right body shots.
The genitals under the stomach and in the rear if needed. The
mane and tail detail. And some side view angles. Over the
shoulder and so fourth. If you're horse has dapples in the coat,
get a close up shot of those to show the quality of the paint
job. If there's a lot of detail on the muzzle pinking, get that.
Anything that depicts the best qualities of that particular
model, focus on those points the most. I try to get a good close
up shot of the eye to show the detail. Sometimes an eye photo
like those you see on the Eye Tutorial page will alone sell a
model. I set the resolution high so all my photos are huge when
the come off the camera. Then using a free-ware [and the ONLY
program I use DAILY on the computer, Irfan_View. If you can get
it, DO SO! It's simple and does it ALL. Resizing, sharpens, even
makes little edge buttons out of photos.] I resize the images
down to half what they were. I can crop the eye photos out of the
full sized original and save that seperately. I also take a black
background and collage several smaller similar photos onto one
big photo to save load time and space. I do that in Adobe
PhotoDelux Business Edition.
So use the photos you take in different lights and settings to show
people whether or not your model is LQS and take realistic photos
of the subject in it's element to show that the model is PSQ
[Photo Show Quality]. Many of my model's photographs have won big
in lots of photo shows. I haven't done but a small handful of
Photo Shows but every one I've entered, I've placed multiple
times in varying classes.
When is the best time to list for the best results? Set your listings to end on a weekday. Not the weekend. Despite many people being off for the weekend and assumably home shopping on their off days there is very little movement on auctions during that time. Which simply means that a lot of people who have computers at work are using them during the weekdays to shop.
Set your listings to end at night. The best results I've gotten is when my auctions are set to end between 9 PM - 12 AM Monday thru Friday. Try at all costs to avoid setting a listing to end on a holiday as that is the absolute slowest time for bidding.
Shipping.. it's a nightmare. The thing about shipping and dealing with the model horse hobby or any model hobby in Ebay is, basically you have to face the fact that sooner or later you may have to accept that you are going to have to eat some shipping charges. I know I have. I don't have postal meter scales. So I can't do the scan and label thing with my stuff at home. I do have a set of basic weight scales and I use the www.usps.com website to calculate shipping charges based on weight. I don't box up my models until they have sold. You want to minimize the amount of time the model has to stay wrapped up in plastic packing and laying on it's side secure in a box. Some people sometimes like to have the item all boxed up and waiting to go so it will not get dusty or broken and want to make sure it's secure. Sometimes when you wrap a model and pack it snug in it's box, the preasure from the surrounding packing can sometimes cause warping to the legs of a model. If it's humid, the sealer may stick to the bubble wrap. This is why for your own models that you keep as well, the Original Finish models that is. When packing them to store for safety, stand the model flat on it's legs if you can and gently surround the model with packing rather than stuffing it with padding in it's box. Store the box so the model is standing with no squeazing or preasure on the legs or any other extremities. That will reduce warping.
But when shipping the models for Ebay, we sellers run into a delima. With the skyrocketing postal rates going up every year to the point of highway robbery, when you put the true cost of postage next to the Ebay bid amount, sometimes it can drive away potential bidders. Just seeing that high shipping amount next to the lower opening bid can cost you bids. On average it costs to ship a traditional sized model from East coast to West coast priority shipping through the USPS anywhere from $15 - $31. And that's without insurence, which on your average $200.00 model is an additional $3.61. And the way the post office is, your box can weigh a little of nothing but if it's half an inch above the size rating, that price can quickly jump from an $18.00 package to a $30 package to ship. It's insane. But the problem with so many Ebay bidders is, they don't understand that the shipping is going to be high. I don't charge box fees, or packing material fees, or handling fees of any kind, because I'm most of the time lucky enough to have recieved a package in the mail where I can immedately reuse the same box for my outgoing stuff. But one thing bidders have to try to grasp is when you see a shipping fee of $19 or $20 next to a model in Ebay chances are that really is what it's going to cost to ship that particular model to you. Sometimes if listing horses with fancy bases or displays, it's actually cheaper to ship them in seperate boxes. Where they each may cost $8.90 to ship bringing the total just under $18 rather than going with a giant box and paying $30-$37 to ship the whole thing. But either way as a seller you eventually will have to bite the bullet and eat some shipping costs yourself, so remember when you list that if you expect to make your shipping cost back you'll have to add it to the model's reserve or Buy It Now amount.
A little trick is to figure up half of your actually shipping amount before listing and add half to the cost of your model and leave the remaining half for what you LIST as shipping charges. That way when customers see that the shipping is what they would call reasonable, ($10 or $12) they wont be driven away from bidding. And you wind up not having to pay for the cost out of pocket. If you're asking $90 for your model and the actually shipping may be $30 to ship in a large enough box cross country, Set the shipping amount at $10 and the reserve price of the model at $120. That way to the bidders the price is fair for the model and the shipping sounds in their eyes, reasonable...
Overseas bidders. This is a difficult thing to deal with. On one hand it's more trouble than it's worth it seems with the forms, the additional costs, the proper packing.
When using the USPS to ship overseas, you can't have any writing or stickers or markings on your box anywhere. And forget using one of those free Priority boxes the PO provides. They wont ship those overseas. You have to sit there burning up a sharpie marker ruining the tip scrubbing and scribbling every sticker and every mark on all sides, top, and bottom of that box just so they'll take it. And the stickers and markings can still be right there plain as day. They just have to have black marks visably showing through them. Ridiculous. If your package is small and uninsured you can use the little green form. If it's bigger and needs insurence you move over to the bigger triplicate forms. The cost can double therefore causing at times for YOU to wind up eating more shipping charges. But, on the other hand, you limit yourself to lose a lot of potential business from overseas customers by choosing not to ship overseas. I know I've done a lot of business overseas. The most important thing to do is remember that when dealing with people overseas, that you need to protect yourself because you are literally stepping over the boundry of this country's legal system as well. If you get taken by someone in another country, there is little that can be done by the USA to help you. Hell, if you get taken advantage of by a scammer here in this country it's hard to get justice. But overseas, the one thing to watch for are Nigerian bank scams, fradulant cashier's checks, and paypal chargebacks. If you have a particularly high priced model and have someone overseas wanting to purchase it and you've not dealt with them before or they have a low feedback rating, check them out. Ask them for references from people they've bought from before. And check them out yourself. There are a number of websites to go to to ask for references about them. Fallen Leaves, MH$P, ModelTradeForums.com and others. Ask some other sellers in Ebay with high feedback ratings indicating they sell alot for their advice on a questionable bidder as well. Most times sellers will help others out when it comes to things like that. But selling to those overseas is hard. What I do is limit the forms of payments I will accept from Overseas bidders to lessen the chances of falling into those internet check scams.
It's wise to only accept wire transfers, Paypal (from direct deposit transfer- not a credit card or Echeck) or an international money order issued by a Post Office. Do NOT under any circumstances accept a cashier's check from someone you've never done business with before. Overseas or not. If accepting Money orders make sure they are issued by the Post Office and not the closest drug store down the street.Those types can be counterfeited most easily. Make sure the currency is correct. If you are selling something to someone that lives in a country where the dollar is lesser in value there than here and they send you their dollar amount for your item, you wont be getting enough money and it can be a huge headache. In Ebay auctions I never give any estimate on Overseas shipping on items because it varies so much. Instead I just have my bidders ask for a quote. Then I go to the usps.com website and get a figure. Most traditional sized models going overseas will come to approxiamtely $30 give or take. Insurence on packages going overseas can be a headache for the bidder that can sometimes wind up paying over $100 American dollars in their own currency just to claim a package they already paid a pretty penny for. That in itself is a travisty. Customs fees. There are a lot of sellers that refuse to sell overseas unless an item is insured for it's full price and that will cost the bidder a fortune just to recieve it. When insuring a $200 package to go overseas if you choose to insure it for $25 - $29 (which is just under the customs fee charges for most countries) if it gets damaged the buyer will just have to accept that they wont get any more for it than the insured amount. If a bidder wants to pay the custom fees (which most do not) then I leave it up to them. But it really doesn't matter because there IS no overseas insurence anyway. The insurence fee is just to get it from the seller to the US border. After it crosses the US border it doesn't really matter if it gets damaged because the insurence wont matter anyway. Now that sucks.
It's supposed to be against the law to insure something going overseas for less than it's true value however .....if it's something sold in Ebay, customs people are not going to look up the sender, find out the Ebay seller Id, look up the item, find out the bidder's high bid, and charge you for not insuring it for the full value they paid you for it. If you want to label value it for $29 to go through customs, that's up to you. Unless the bidder wants to pay ALL customs fees to have it shipped.. I give the bidder overseas the choice to have it insured and valued at only $29 at their discretion. I don't know what customs official is going to open a box and find a plastic model horse toy and say, "This is worth several hundred dollars". It's not the Hope Diamond. It's a plastic toy horse. $29-$30 is realistic for what it is. Just make sure your bidders know if it gets damaged, that's all they can claim it for also. But like I said above. Insuring something going overseas is really pointless.
Ebay settings. When selling on Ebay, I list my items at $10.00 opening bid with a reserve amount and on occasion a Buy It Now if it's something that didn't sell the first one or two listings. I use a second title text line as well. It costs a bit more but it's worth it. It gives you more headline title text and draws more attention to your auction. On occasion when doing dolls a while back I would use the highlighted bar and bold text. One thing to use the second title text for is to list your name as a seller, artist, or studios name. Luvjeordie Studios takes up far too much room or I'd have it on the second line of every item but I use it for the item's brief description instead. So rather than use my studio name in my titles, I use a catch-phrase. All of my auctions begin with the same title line. Breyer Repaint CM Whatever Model STUNNING!!!!!!
The reason for this is to use a phrase in all of your auctions that is unique to YOU as a seller. That way people can spot your items without even opening the auction. I use the same title for everything. When people see the word STUNNING!!!!!! in all caps with exclamation marks, they know it's usually me. I've even had some new sellers copy word for word my title text and use it in their auctions. That's a little aggrivating but it's not like I have the word STUNNING!!!! copyrighted or anything. But it is good to use your own studio or artist name on the second line of title text at the very least to identify your work. The more people see your name in auction titles the more readily they will remember you whether they look through your auctions or not. And becoming recognised is the biggest part of it. I had a person email me through Ebay once a long time ago a really arrogant snotty comment or well, question about that very thing. They said "yeah, are all your items really that STUNNING?" To which I decided to respond in the only attitude they seem to find the most success in communicating with... which was asshole, and replied "They are when I paint them....have a nice day" lol
My work is "ok". I've seen a ton of models on Ebay that look in my opinion wayyyy better than anything I've done sell for $52.98 or $84.90 tops. And it's clearly not the fault of the piece. It's something else. That something else is marketing. When people start seeing your name in listings all the time, they will say to themselves after a while "Hmm there's another one by that artist. They sure are doing a lot of business." Then after a while people will start associating with the popularity of your NAME and steadily start buying your work. It's like that old saying...."Just convince the world you're famous and you will be". That's part of it. Secondly you have to have decent work to begin with. I don't mean show-stopping work. You can tell yourself if you're work looks like it was painted by a third grader. You don't need anyone to tell you. For the most part many artists who do really great work get only "ok" money for it. And it's clearly not the work. It's the way in which it's presented and marketed to the public through auction sites like Ebay.
Another thing that is important to utilize in Ebay as a seller is the Privacy setting for bidder IDs. Go into your options and set your Ebay auctions to have the bidder's identities anonymous or private from everyone else. There is a reason for this and Ebay should have it as a mandatory thing regardless. In the future I'd be willing to bet it will become a new change for Ebay to make all bidder's names hidden to everyone but the sellers they're bidding with. The reason I keep mine set to private now is a while back I got an email from a regular customer of mine saying that they recieved an email from someone through Ebay offering to sell them a "similar item" as the one they were outbid on (in my listing) outside of Ebay. Number one; I sell One of a Kind Original Customized models. There is no "similar item" available.That tells me right there it's someone who is not familiar with these items and is just some ignorant scam artist more than likely from Nigeria looking to screw someone over. I got another email from another bidder asking if I had in fact offered to end one of my auctions early for them because they recieved an email from Ebay stating I offered to do so for them and they wanted to make sure it was legit and really me. Which thank God they did because it was really someone who went through my auction's bidder list and started contacting the bidders one by one in hopes of pretending to be me just long enough to scam them out of some quick money. Most likely both were people based out of the UK or Nigeria. I contacted the scammers from the emails my bidder's forwarded to me, chewed their asses out, and reported them to Ebay (to which I'm sure nothing was done) So, after that, I changed and will always continue to keep my bidder's identities set to PRIVATE. And I can't encourage to sellers strongly enough to do that in every auction you list in Ebay as well. It's open season to these overseas scammers and it's also a form of identity theft when someone pretends to be you in order to scam someone else. It's a headache. It's bad for all involved, and it's just not safe for online business anymore. Plus it's noone else's business who is bidding on your items.
Some bidders dispute that it gives sellers the oportunity to shill bid their items up higher. This is something I personally can't figure out because Ebay will not allow you to bid on an item from the same account that listed it. I'm not sure you could even use the same computer that the item was listed from because the IP address would match. If you have a reserve price set on your item, unless that reserve is met you are not obligated to sell the item. Even if it were possible, which I'm pretty certain it's not, to bid on your own items... unless you plan on buying you're own stuff by meeting the reserve how does it effect your listing? So I think in the long run now many sellers are getting wind of these scam artists contacting the people on their bidder lists promising to sell them what they missed out on with their auction and setting their listings to private. You see a lot more Private listing auctions from well respected sellers now than before. It's a very smart decision to make. One of the most important pieces of advise I can give on Ebay selling.. PRIVATE
How to have lots of free
photographs in your listings?
I take anywhere from 50 to 80 photos of every model and narrow it
down. I have somewhere between 24 to 30 high detail, closeup,
full sized keeper photos in every auction I list. Not
even counting the collage photos of four or so on the one black
background. If photos don't load all you wind up having to do is
right-click and select [Show Picture] for them one at a time. And
the way to add so many photos to a listing without paying Ebay's
ridiculous multiple picture fees, is to use webspace that is
universal enough, [meaning it will allow for hotlinking-posting an uploaded photo
anywhere and having it show up] to upload your photos to it and
then use the url of the photo in the auction. Since I'm on AOL
[America Online] I get up to 12 megs of free webspace for every
screename on the account. Photobucket works well to but they have
a shorter bandwidth limit. [Meaning the amount of visits or
action your web account gets] I simply upload my photos to my AOL
free user space and insert the URL for them in the table code and
that's it. The photo is now linked by html code to an
"outside" source. Now if Ebay stops people from using
or starts charging people to use HTML code in their listings I
WILL be pissed. Anyway, you can do the same with a photobucket
account and paste the url of your images in the description on
the listing and have the same effect. When you upload an image to
a webspace, it gives that image a URL address. If you are using
AOL, you simply go to:
Aol Keyword: FTP
Click See My FTP Space on the left
Click the UPLOAD button
Make sure the table setting box is checked for Graphics and not
Text files
Select the image from your hardrive, and that's it. The URL is
always the same for AOL uploaded images except for the
screenname. The url of the image will look like this:
http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg
You just substitute the screenname for your AOL screenname and
the name of the image you've just uploaded. When you finish with
an auction and have no need for that image anymore, just open the
file space again and click Utilities to delete
them one by one.
In
the auction description box you simply add each url address for
each photo with the proper tags highlighted in yellow below for the photos from
your photobucket account or AOL account along with your
description.
In other words: In the Ebay description box turned to the HTML
version, you put this:
<img
src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg">
If you're using Photobucket, it's
even easier because they show you the tag completed right there.
All you do is copy the html tag for the photo and paste that in
your ebay description box.
One thing to make sure you take note of when setting up
your auction description box in Ebay.... MAKE SURE you're box is
set for HTML view or the coding wont show up when you
click to preview your auction listing and you wont know what in
the world is wrong with it that the stuff you inserted wont show
up. It's more than likely because you've added your HTML CODE
to a TEXT ONLY view of the description box. You may have
to try it both ways til you figure out which way has the html
coding view.
Either way, it's far easier than adding those two columns of paid for photos to your listing. There's a better, simpler, and cheaper way.
Now in listing for the Ebay auction, I use html code to make my Ebay auctions look like webpages from the site here. Make a table with a background and put everything in the listing in that table. Then paste the code for that table into the Ebay description box. I keep two webpages for each item on my harddrive. One is in the Website folder for my site and a seperate one is for my listings in Ebay. When the time comes to set up another auction I just go in and pick out one of the other html pages for a past item, go in and replace the photos with the new ones and alter the description, then retitle and save it as a new one. All the different colored text, background image and everything is already there. The only difference between the two is the Ebay pages have all the content in a table. There is a reason for this. When you load text color and background coding to your Ebay listing, it messes with the whole listing page including altering the bidder info, high bid, item location, and everything else. You don't want the whole Ebay page to change colors as some of the text may show up the wrong color. Pain in the neck messing with that. You just want to decorate the DESCRIPTION AREA ALONE, so use a table code and just paste the whole table in the description box. Put whatever you want in the table. The easiest way to make a table is to download the free version of Frontpage Express. It's a web page editor and is what made this lovely site you're navigating now. ALL my web work is done with it. You didn't actually think I opened up Notepad, sat in front of a blank white screen for hours typing a bunch of codes by hand did you? lol
FrontPage Express by Microsoft. Go get it! It's FREE!
But, you don't even really need that. It's much more fun if you do though, but a table code is simple.
All you really need for table code is:
<tr> </tr>
When you add your description to it
you encase that with the table data or description tags. So it
looks like this.
<tr><td>Text
description can go here. <img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"></td>
</tr>
See above where you add your text and image tags inside / between the two codes? All codes begin and end with < > The only difference between beginning codes and ending codes is ending codes have this / mark after the first arrow. If you want multiple images inside that table code above, just add them like this:
<tr><td>Text
description can go here.
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg">
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg">
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg">
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg">
</td> </tr>
You just add them back to back or if you want, you can add a break in between each of them, which is this code <br>
If you're doing auction pages it's best to use a break code between each image so they will stack on top of one another and not go on endlessly sideways.
So you'll have it look like this:
<tr><td>Text
description can go here.
<img
src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
</td> </tr>
This will give you a borderless table for content. If you want to spruce it up and add a border to it you can do that to. Just add the following:
<table border="1"
cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Text
description can go here.
<img
src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
</td> </tr>
</table>
If you want your table border thicker just change the number above from 1 to 2, or 4, whatever. An important tag to add is a center tag. That will make the table sit squarely in the center and to do that make it look like this:
<align="center"><table
border="1" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Text
description can go here.
<img
src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
</td> </tr>
</table></center>
It seems like a lot and really confusing to look at it but it really isn't. Open up Notepad if you have a PC with just about any version of Windows. Paste the above code into a page and save it as an .html file. Then go to aol or any way you get online, open up file, then pull it up out of your harddrive if you saved it as an .html file and view it. But mostly just alter the image tags and the text description to your url addresses of your auction photos and your auction item description and paste that entire code into the Ebay auction listing description box set to HTML. Once you do it step by step, you can get it going. Oh, and if you want the table to have a background image, just alter as so:
<align="center"><table
border="1"
cellspacing="0"background="http://members.aol.com/screenname/backgroundimage.jpg">
<tr><td>Text description can go here.
<img
src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
</td> </tr>
</table></center>
That puts a background on just the table or just the description area of your Ebay auction. Your pictures are on top of the background. BUT REMEMBER! Unless you add a seperate table code INSIDE your original table code for the text description, you're text may be difficult to see over the background image. You will need to add another table with a white background for dark text just to hold your worded description. If you don't want to do this or are afraid it's a bit too confusing just choose a light colored faded background image so that your black text can show up over it. Basically you just take the table code I just showed you, copy and paste the first part of it inside of itself. Copy the basic table code and paste it in between the first <tr><td> codes. Then when you want a solid colored white background on the second inserted text table just add this to it:
<align="center"><table
border="1" cellspacing="0"background="http://members.aol.com/screenname/backgroundimage.jpg">
<tr><td><div
align="center"><center><table
border="1"
cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<tr>
<td>Text description can go here.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<img
src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://members.aol.com/screename/image.jpg"><br>
</td> </tr>
</table></center>
Don't let it scare you. When it's done this is what you get.
|
The
reason I say go get Microsoft Frontpage Express is all of the above coding
is done for you. You want a table? Go up to the top bar and
select Insert table. And it shows it to you already
done. There is no code to look at unless you select View Code.
It's as easy as drag and drop web games.
You want to center it, just hit the button. You want to add or
remove rows, columes, and cells from your table. Just highlight
and add or delete. It's all done in fill-out form style and is
about as much fun as playing with a scrapbook. Simple to.
The Ebay Bidder 101
Dealing with bad or just annoying buyers. Who wants to right? I think my all time favorite excuses from non paying or slow paying Ebayers are:
1.
"You didn't get the check!? Damn that Post Office! I'll put
a stop on it and send another tomorrow." This is
usually followed by another week and a half of no check and no
contact.
2. "My father/Mother/Myself was in the hospital.
Sorry to be so late. I'll get it in the mail asap."
If I had a nickel for everytime an Ebay bidder has been in the
hospital or had to go to a funeral of a family member.... Must be
something with Ebay. Everyone who signs up will have an
unexpected death in the family within the first 6 winning
auctions.
3. "Can I pay you two weeks from next Friday?"
Oh dear lord I love these! Nothing makes you wanna dive off the
Empire State Building head first into a thumb-tack quicker than
one of these.
4. "I'm sorry but my kid got on my account and bid
on this. Can I back out? I'll pay your Ebay fees."
Yet another fine Emmy Award winner!
5. "I lost my job and I'm having some financial
difficulties I just wasn't prepaired for. Can I pay you in
payments?" This is usually followed by a self
performed search of their feedback profile showing countless
other items they have bid on, still bidding on, and recieved
AFTER your auction ended.
6. And my absolute all time favorite has GOT to be,
"The second check bounced??? I'm so sorry! I'll send a Money
Order first thing in the morning." That one is
usually followed up with a phone call to the Police department, a
week and a half of nasty email exchanges, and eventually an 11th
hour MoneyGram Wire Transfer the very day before you told them
you're going downtown to get the warrant.
It never ends.
Some of the more interesting Bidder questions/feel-free-comments I've gotten have been:
1.
"How big is this item?" So I do what any
incompetent Ebay seller would do.... Copy and paste the first
line of the item's description and send it back to them.
2. "What's the reserve?" That's a
given. It's just going to happen. But a really aggrivating
downfall to that question is the result of which sometimes
follows and is covered in number 3.
3. "I can pay you that amount for it now. Would you
consider ending the auction for that amount?"
(sigh) This is Ebay. It's an AUCTION site. Not Amazon.com.
It's not Kmart. Unless there's a Buy It Now price attached there
IS no bargain bin price tag. The whole point of having it on Ebay
is you're hoping the price shoots up way above the reserve you've
set. The reserve is just if worse comes to worst the absolute
least you'd take for an item. But if you know your items usually
sail above the reserve you don't wanna seem over-confident and
set a higher reserve which could intimidate bidders and backfire
on you as a seller. And you don't want your items selling for
less than what you "might have" gotten for them. It
puts a seller in an awkward on-the-spot position when confronted
with a question like that. A. You don't wanna be rude. When in
fact it's mildly rude itself of the bidder to ask a seller to do
that. B. You're afraid you'll blow a sale and at the same time
you don't know what's behind door number three so to speak by
letting the listing run it's course.
My only solution is to tell the bidder who asks this question the
same thing I tell mine. "If it doesn't meet it's reserve
then I'll be happy to let it go to you for the reserve amount
instead of relisting it." There. You don't need to feel rude
and you don't have to feel preasured to let something go for less
than what it may or may not go for. Bottom line: It's an auction
people. The sole purpose and intent is to have it bid through the
roof.
4. Will you take time payments if I win? Another
Emmy Award Winner. Unfortunately in my own personal experience
this is usually the question they send after becoming the high
bidder. Only two or so time payment bidders have actually come
through for me. I've been screwed over more times than an
upside-down hooker with time payments! One person paid half off a
$600 model set and quit. Just quit. Had some family problems,
moved out, no internet, no address, cell phone
disconnected..gone. $300 gone to because I'm not waiting a year
and half for them to suddenly show up with either the remainder
of their money or asking for what they paid up to date back.
Sitting there with a model collecting dust, half paid for that I
can't sell and no more money coming for it. I don't think so.
That's why all time payment contracts need to be under the
absolute terms ALL PAYMENTS NON-REFUNDABLE. And set
payment deadlines. Make sure both parties are in aggreement with
them and keep payments on time.
5. Excuse me but why are you painting your Great Danes in
all those crazy "pet quality ONLY' colors? Oh I
just LOVED those! I've been doing more horses now as they tend to
sell for a lot higher than dogs do and have just not done as many
dogs lately, but when I was doing lots of dogs, my specialty was
Great Danes. Ho Ho hooooa was it a ball of fun! I'd get these
obnoxious show breeders emailing me every other week asking
sarcastically, some innocently, or some just blatantly chewing my
ass out for painting Solid White, Fawniquin, Brindlequin, or any
other Mismarked non-Showable color that the breed can and
does widely come in on my dane figures. I even recieved a threat!
I real threat. A right out of the books, good, old fashioned
"You better watch your back!" threat, by I'm assuming
some anal stick-up-the-ass show breeder, that appearantly doesn't
want anyone to know that Great Danes don't come in just six
ribbon winning colors. And on top of that believes a dog who
can't win a ribbon is not worth buying, breeding, or existing.
For some reason they're looking at me like I'm some sort of
celebrity that should be setting an "example" of how
things should be in the Great Dane world. I don't know who these
idiots think they are but they seriously need to take a
pill....or a long walk off a short pier. I usually opt to give
them the latter for advise though. There was also a seller in
Ebay. No names, just another seller. Another artist that told a
long-time customer of mine who asked if they had any other colors
of Danes they would be listing; "Yes, but only the legal
colors. None of those off the wall colors like white and
fawniquin that OTHER SELLER paints." Appearantly
they never thought that would get back to me. lol That other
seller. LMAO. I never thought I'd ever be called, "that
other seller". I'm flattered. Also pissed. They even
mentioned in some of their listings once in a very arrogant way
that they (Only paint dogs in the allowed showable colors in
accordance to the breed standard so don't even ask.) After a
while they revamped the wording a little to lose some of the
snotty attitude, but with pretty much the same message. Which
prompted me to included in every future listing of any mismarked
or pet quality colored dane the statement in bold letters,
"Mismarks are GREAT Danes to.."
I mean honestly. I've sold to pet owners of every colored Dane there is. People who've rescued deaf white half blind danes from pounds and rescues have loved having little figures of the color dane that both depicts and represents their family pet. As long as those colors physically come out of those dogs as puppies, they are in the world and those who have them in their families have a right to look for and buy hand painted figures of their dog's color. Every dog isn't born with perfect coloring and perfect markings. Most dogs, in fact are mismarked. And the majority of all Great Dane litters contain mismarked puppies. So there are more mismarks in existance and more people have them as pets. So for that reason alone the mismarked figures were more popular with bidders. The price for me as a seller was better to. I could spend a day painting a show marked Harlequin and have it sell for just under $35. Then do a solid white blue-eyed dane and have it soar to over $100. I'm no fool. I know what I'm painting.
And
the one word that stands out in that above stated question is your.
"Excuse me but why are you painting your
Great Danes in all those crazy 'pet quality ONLY' colors?"
Thats exactly right. MY Great Danes. It's
MY ART and if I want to paint a picture
of a zebra taking a dump on a purple three-legged field mouse on
the back-side of a customized half Andalusian Jackass humping a
Texas Longhorn I can and will do it! And I don't need to hear any
lip from anyone about it. The best advice I could give someone
who has a problem with what I paint is "Go buy yourself a
paintbrush and do your own!" In Ebay, the only feedback I
want is AFTER THE AUCTION. In Ebay if you don't like something,
you're feelings on that matter are best relayed to the seller by
simply not bidding. I wish more people would realize that
Ebay is not the place people volunteer their work up to be
critiqued. It's for sale plain and simple. And if you don't like
what they're sellin, close the page and move on to something
else. It's not a table show. There are no ribbons being awarded
by Ebay at the end of the day.
6. If I buy/win this item can you repaint part of it for
me? Man this hurts. You have something all pretty and
the way you're happy with it and here you have to in your eyes
ruin it just so someone else will like it. Can't say I haven't
been there. Had the most beautiful Jersey Dairy cow I ever
painted. It's the lightest one on my Jersey Cow page. The buyer
had me make it darker golden orange after they bought it . Broke
my heart. But I still have the photos of it as it was at least.
Punjab, the Arabian Stallion I did doesn't look like he's
portrayed here in this site anymore either. The orginal buyer
shipped him back and had me change his face blaze and his socks
to look more like their horse. Then they wound up reselling him
later to someone else for a fraction of what they paid, mostly
because they took extremely poor photographs of it in their
auction. He's with a far better owner now by the way.
Don't forget the Dragon!...
