Image Hosting for Online Auction Pictures: The BidLab Guide

Can Photosite be used to host images for online auctions? Absolutely.

FREE online photo album of your auction images!

"One of the unique features of Photosite is that every photo (as well as each album and chapter) has a unique web address, making it a virtual online database of your photos.

To locate the URL for an album or photo, simply visit Photosite, click on the album or photo, and view the URL that appears in your Internet browser's Address window. You can copy and paste that URL into another webpage or online listing."

-Source: Photosite, June - 2004

Ebay Picture Services

To store an auction image on ebay, your first digital picture is free and each additional image costs 30 cents.

Or, if you have several items in the listing or want to show pictures of an auction item from multiple angles, you can opt for the $1.00 "Picture Pack", which includes six super sized pictures (up to 800 x 600 pixels or 11 by 8 inches) and inclusion into the Gallery Image section. You can also add a slideshow for your images a 75 cent add on fee.

Money Saving TIP:

The best value for online image hosting is obviously, the free picture, if you are only showing a single picture in your listing.

If you want hosting for four or more auction pics per listing, you could use the ebay picture pack for a buck, especially if you are planning on using a gallery image, which would cost 25 cents by itself.

Our advice however, is to host your auction images yourself, as you will save a ton of money on picture fees. Services like Photosite offer image hosting for free for 150 pictures, displayed in an album that you can share with your auction customers- or you can make the album private for friends and family members.

Auction Image Hosting - Pros & Cons

Pros: Convenience. You are already there in the ebay listing area, you browse for the picture on your computer, you click, upload and you're done. Images appear immediately for review, and you don't have to mess with long lists of image URLS. Plus, you won't have to worry whether the picture will show up, whether or not you named it correctly or forgot to resize or crop your photo. Also, you won't have to worry about having your server go down and having all your auctions blown at closing time, which could cost you lots of bids and profits.

Cons: Expense. You can spend a fortune on auction image picture storage, and not even realize it. Let's suppose you buy the picture pack for six pics, and you run just 20 auctions a week. This does not include any other service like the slideshow feature. This would amount to $20 per week, $80 per month and $960 per year! A better option would be to host the images yourself, or use a site like Photosite with 150 images stored for free.