How to Use Dropbox with eBay
eBay is a Necessary Evil
There comes a time in a man’s life when his house becomes cluttered with possessions he does not need. In such circumstances, it behoves that man to either give those possessions to those in genuine need, or sell them for monetary gain.
One avenue for selling possessions is eBay. There are others, but eBay gets lots of traffic, and every now and again, bidding wars will fetch you more than you expected.
The biggest problem with eBay is that their listing process is convoluted and annoying. But if you’re like me, you hate clutter more than you hate eBay, so you suck it up and use it anyway.
Enter the Dropbox
Dropbox does three things, and it does them well: it backs up your files online, syncs your files across all your computers (Windows, Mac, Linux, and iPhone), and lets you share files with other people.
Dropbox is so good, it will change your workflow. You get a sizeable 2Gb on the free account, so start using it now, if you don’t already.
Dropbox and eBay: Match Made in Heaven
If you sell something on eBay, you should use Dropbox to host the images. eBay lets you add one free image for each listing, but charges you if you want to add any others. Using Dropbox, you can add as many images as you want, for free, and retain complete control of your images.
Granted, you can achieve this with many image hosting services, but Dropbox makes it easy.
Here’s how to do it.
Photograph your item.
Transfer the photos to your “Public” Dropbox folder.
Get the public links for the photos (right click > “Copy Public Link”)
Include the photos in your eBay listing.
This is where it gets fast. If you have an iPhone — preferably a 3GS, for the better photo quality — the Dropbox iPhone app lets you take photos and instantly upload them to your “Public” Dropbox folder. (Remember to take plenty of shots in good lighting.)
Sure, you’re only saving one step, but anything that simplifies eBay’s user experience is worth it. Happy decluttering.
