| Joined: | Thu Apr 19th, 2012 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 4435 |
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Wow, thanks for pointing that out, Eric.
I am stunned. US fees are 9% to ebay and 2.9% to paypal. This was about 4% and 2% when they started - I haven't paid much attention to the changes...obviously...
What other marketplace do you sell in?
In the UK a growing number are using 'preloved' which is a free service I believe.
I have been fortunate to sell recent items (using eBay initially) to local buyers, who were happy to collect and pay...for a sizeable cash discount!
There is a funny story here...
I advertised a camera on eBay some months back. Local buyer emailed to say could he pay cash and collect....and if so, what price. I offered him the equivalent of the eBay /PayPal fees discount and we did a deal. When he came to my house, it transpired he was the brother of one of my clients. He had returned from Germany and wanted to get into photography. he was a nice guy and we chatted over several drinks.
Spin forward two months and I am shooting some products at this clients premises when up walks the brother, who is now working at his brother's company.
Spin forward to the week before Christmas and I get a panic phonecall. It transpires the brother had been commissioned by my client to do the next shoot himself.
Well I sortof guessed that's where it was going...but hey I am heading for retirement what the heck?
He had done some ok shots indoors of the product, the problem was they wanted them shot outdoors .....in a garden. They had tried taking the products to a local mansion...and the brothers images didn't work....he didn't know how to best shoot them in outdoor settings.
I suppressed a smug smile.
As a £120,000 contract was going to be lost if they didn't get 'outdoor' images of the products onto a customers website in 48hours, just before Christmas. They needed me to take his indoor shots and set them realistically in garden settings.
As anyone might guess, trying to match studio lighting (taken without trying to recreate sunlight) to outdoor shots....finding shots that have similar shooting angles....etc ...ain't easy. Then you have to do the actual editing invisibly.
Somewhat fortunately, while on holiday in France in October I took some shots of gardens...in flat lighting. For some reason, I took the shots at different heights which miraculously matched up sufficiently with the 4 images the needed doing urgently.
A few hours later and their bacon was saved...and an invoiced issued!!!!
Am I glad I went on my holidays in October?! Cant wait to go away again!.
Don't you love happy little accidents?
Last edited on Sun Jan 6th, 2013 19:31 by Eric
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Eric