eBay Hacks, 2nd Edition

Create a Photo Collage

Combine multiple photos into a single image for convenience and dramatic effect.

When you choose to host your own photos [Hack #76] , eBay allows you to specify only a single image URL to appear beneath your auction description. If you have any additional photos, you’ll have to include them directly in the description with HTML [Hack #52] . But you also have the option of combining all your photos into a single image file, thus completely eliminating the need to use thumbnails [Hack #77] or a photo album [Hack #79] to organize multiple pictures.

A single collage of your photos is easy to build, and may ultimately require less work to insert into your auctions than hand-coding HTML or JavaScript. A collage also provides a good amount of control over the presentation of your photos, allowing you to easily emphasize the most important pictures.

You don’t have to host your own photos to take advantage of this hack. However, if you use eBay’s Picture Services to host your photos, you’ll be limited to their cramped 400 X 300 standard size, which is much too small for a photo collage. And while the Supersize upgrade [Hack #46] would remedy this, your customers won’t see it full size unless they click the Supersize link underneath the smaller version.

To build a collage, start with the most prominent photo of your item, properly cropped and resized [Hack #74] . Then, use your image editor to increase the canvas size to accommodate additional photos. Most people ...