How I create attractive ebay.com auction pages
without buying any more software or learning HTML.


Images can be stored on your personal web page which is provided FREE by most ISP's.

Most browsers have a built-in editor that will create HTML documents with point and click. I use Netscape Navigator Gold and Netscape Communicator. Internet Explorer also has a built-in editor.

Create a blank page in the editor and design your ebay.com description using all the power of the HTML editor including links, colors, text sizing, images, line breaks etc. Stay away from tables as the description is already in one and nested tables may not work on all browsers.

IMPORTANT before submitting your item to ebay:

ebay gives you a chance to verify your description before you finally enter it. If the images do not appear or the links do not work either they do not exist on the web yet or the web path to them is incorrect.

Fix these before chosing to submit your item to ebay.

Example ebay description:

Almost All Digital Electronics

L/C Meter IIB

L/C Meter IIB

.001uHy to 100mHy
.01pf to .1uFd.
Automatic ranging
Selfcalibrating
 
 
 
 

Inductance / Capacitance Meter Kit. Retail Value $89.95.

Buyer to pay shipping estimated at $15. Personal checks must clear, Visa/MC available (phone number supplied to winning bidder).

Visit Almost All Digital Electronics Homepage

Visit HAMPEDIA the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMATEUR RADIO EQUIPMENT featuring hundreds of pieces of ham equipment.

end of example ebay description

Open the documents source (use view|view document source in netscape) or you can open the source with a word processor.

It looks like:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>
<BODY>
<P><IMG SRC="Lcm.gif" HEIGHT=229 WIDTH=160 ALIGN=LEFT>L/C Meter IIB

<P>.001uHy to 100mHy
<BR>.01pf to .1uFd.
<BR>Automatic ranging
<BR>Selfcalibrating
<BR>&nbsp;
<BR>&nbsp;<BR CLEAR=BOTH>
<BR>

<P>
<HR WIDTH="100%">

<P>Inductance / Capacitance Meter Kit. Retail Value $89.95.

<P>Buyer to pay shipping estimated at $15. Personal checks must clear,
Visa/MC available (phone number supplied to winning bidder).

<P>
<HR WIDTH="100%">

<P><A HREF="../welcome.htm"><FONT SIZE=+2>Visit </FONT><FONT SIZE=+3>Almost
All Digital Electronics</FONT><FONT SIZE=+2> Homepage</FONT></A>

<P>Visit<FONT SIZE=+3> <A HREF="../hampedia/hampedia.htm">HAMPEDIA</A>
</FONT>the <B>ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMATEUR RADIO EQUIPMENT</B> featuring hundreds
of pieces of ham equipment.

<P>
</BODY>

</HTML>

Select all the text between <BODY> at the beginning of the page and <BODY> at the end of the page (shown in bold above) and copy/paste it into the description section of the ebay auction entry page.

Everything is fine now except the internet paths to the files. (shown in blue above) the path initially is relative to the document and must be edited to the path to the ISP where you store your images.

For example I store mine on my web site at http://www.aade.com/ebay/.

edit the origional IMG SRC="lcm.gif" to IMG SRC="http://www.aade.com/ebay/lcm.gif" by inserting the internet path to the appropriate directory on your ISP.

Similarily you may have to insert the complete path to html pages you referenced in links although it is easier to just put in the full internet path when creating the link. The example links go to the main directory on my web site http://www.aade.com/

In the above example edit HREF="../welcome.htm" to A HREF="http://www.aade.com/welcome.htm" and
HREF="http://www.aade.com/hampedia.htm"by inserting the internet path to the appropriate directory on your ISP.
 

Once you put in the internet paths the links and images will not work unless you are on-line.

ebay puts aafter your entry in the listings if you entered a path to an image file in the appropriate box of the auction entry form. If you embedded images in the description this will not appear. You can create a little tiny image file to reference in this box or chose an interesting animated GIF from somewhere on the internet.

I use: 

PREPARING YOUR PICTURE FOR ebay.

Use an image processor such as Paint Shop Pro to crop the image to just include your item. I don't know how many times I've spent five minutes downloading someones drapes or backyard with their item occupying about 10% of the picture. Bad pictures are probably worse than no picture. Use properly exposed pictures.

Use the selection tool (dotted rectangle) to select your item then select IMAGE|CROP. Select SAVE-AS and select .jpg file format. Click options and select compression level 64. This will reduce you image file to 1/4 it's origional size with little loss in quality. The pictures in hampediaare stored with this level of compression.

If you like electronics or ham radio visit my web site

If you like old radio equipment (boat anchors) visit Hampedia

For a huge list of links for electronics engineers, hobbyists and amateur radio click here

Hope this is helpful.

Neil Send E-Mail to neil@aade.com