Here is a cold hard fact of selling online: Most buyers don’t read the description. You can take hours to describe every tiny flaw in a collectible or every product detail but most of that will, sadly, never be read. When people ask me for a tip about selling on eBay here is my number one biggest tip: take pictures with the assumption that no one will read your description. That means take clear, hi-resolution photos and many of them so that someone only looking at your photos and not reading your description will still know exactly what they are buying.

A picture is worth a thousand words and a great picture can render some text irrelevant but this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to write any description at all. Some people write their descriptions as if they have no pictures but a big mess of text is far less likely to be read then a shorter description with large, useful pictures. You still need to write a description but having extra photos will save you time in the writing. Giving buyers many hi-resolution pictures of flaws, features, and other details of your item not only saves you the time of answering additional questions but also ensures that the buyer knows what they are buying, saving you from feedback trouble later.

In addition to showcasing flaws and features, pictures should also show the buyer what they are getting so even if you have separate photos of each element of the listing, make sure to also have a single photo of all items together.

Let the photos tell the story of your listing and you will find yourself answering less questions and dealing with overall happier buyers.

But, for heaven’s sake, don’t pay eBay or any other site for those extra photos! Even if you aren’t already using a third party provider, Photobucket or Auctiva offer free image hosting so you can add an infinite number of photos as no extra cost.