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Model Forum / General / Models / August 2005Pretty OT: e-Bay Selling Question - Decals
I'm thinking of selling some decals on e-Bay. I was considering scanning the sheets, but am having problems trying to figure out what sort of resolution to use. I want people to see what's on the sheet, and get an idea of the quality of the printing, but I also want to protect the manufacturer. I don't want someone using my pic on e-bay to print themselves a copy of the sheet. Usually when I send photos via e-mail, I use a resolution of 72dpi. Is this enough to accomplish my goals? Maybe I should just take a photo with the digicam and put up with the lack of detail. Any suggestions? TIA Don McIntyre Clarksville, TN How about scanning the instructions so people can see what the finished product is supposed to look like? I like that better than a decal sheet where it's just jumbled up RAF code letters and stripes or whatever that make no sense. Then people can't copy the original artwork from the decals-  SignatureJim Atkins Twentynine Palms, CA USA Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -Groucho Marx > How about scanning the instructions so people can see what the finished > product is supposed to look like? I like that better than a decal sheet > where it's just jumbled up RAF code letters and stripes or whatever that > make no sense. Then people can't copy the original artwork from the decals- I like to see what condition the decals are in; I would like to see the decal sheet itself. You can always take a low-res picture or scan, and it would be difficult for someone to use that to print a quality decal sheet. They'd have to redraw it anyway. ---Stephen Tontoni Personally, for ease and speed of viewing, I usually save all my eBay images as JPG and the resolution of 640x480. That usually ends up being a 50-80Kb file. It has enough detail (especially if taken with any good Digital Camera) and it is small enough to be downloaded through a Dial-up connection without waiting forever. Yes, there are still some people who use dial-up (I sometimes do too). One of my pet-peeves is eBay listing whith huge images in it! There is usually no reason fot that. And please restrain yourself from using ALL CAPS in your listing or title! And no HUGE fonts! Less is more, when it comes to good eBay listings. Trust me. Here is an example of one of my images: http://img284.imageshack.us/img284/6837/dscn07215kt.jpg Peteski I should have been a bit clearer: If you scan your decal sheet, just save it as JPG and make sure that the image size doesn't go over about 100Kb. Whatever DPI gives you that file size, should be fine. It might be be 72dpi or less - dunno.. Peteski > I'm thinking of selling some decals on e-Bay. I was considering >scanning the sheets, but am having problems trying to figure out what [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >Is this enough to accomplish my goals? Maybe I should just take a photo >with the digicam and put up with the lack of detail. 72 dpi should be fine, wouldn't produce very good decals. If in doubt, print a pic on paper to see. Alternatively, use your image program to 'distort' the image, or put a 'watermark' over it. Remove nospam to reply!! >> I'm thinking of selling some decals on e-Bay. I was considering >>scanning the sheets, but am having problems trying to figure out what [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Alternatively, use your image program to 'distort' the image, or put a > 'watermark' over it. Do a combination of some of the afore-mentioned suggestions to show an overall pic of the decal sheet. A digital camera shot at a weird horiz and vert angle and reduced to low res would generally be enough to thwart copying. Don't go nuts, though...the intention is let the bidder see whats there. Then use a second pic of a small area on the sheet to show the fine detail. Good luck! -Bill Thanks for the responses, guys. I'll probably use a combinations of your suggestions. Don McIntyre Clarksville, TN What I have seen (and makes perfect sense to me) is to take a small piece of clear mylar and write your name on it. Then place this across the scanner bed and lay the decal sheet on that. That way, anyone using a scan of your scan will have to figure out how to remove your name from the sheet. Folks that sell posters and prints do this all the time. Sounds like a good idea, hadn't thought of that at all. Thanks Don McIntyre Clarksville, TN Maybe "Old Timers" use mylar film. :-) Nowadays, most bitmap editting software has a "watermark" feature which places some specific text onto the image to make it very hard to use for anything but viewing it. (Just giving you hard time - clear mylar solution is a KISS solution and will work perfectly well). Peteski > Maybe "Old Timers" use mylar film. :-) > Nowadays, most bitmap editting software has a "watermark" feature which [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Peteski You need to be creative with watermarking. Most of what you typically see can be corrected out by anyone savvy enough to rob pics and print decals if its not made 'complicated' enough. Take a decal sheet - or poster, etc. - with red green blue and white colors and place a grey watermark over it. It takes a single keystroke to select out all the grey. Then its simple to go back and fill in the colors as needed. Low-res jpegs are enough to thwart any image thief with intentions of resale. Grabbing a 72dpi jpeg off the net to reuse for printing is not worthwhile for most people. At that resolution, and being in jpeg, is simply too much effort to clean up. It would be easier to start from scratch for the type of decals we are discussing. But...as stated before...do all of the above if its really a concern. It all *could* be corrected out but the thief *could* also spend a few bux and PURCHASE the decal and proceed to make high quality scans and copies! -Bill I've put some on already but I never thought about anyone ripping them off. Then too, I scanned them inside their envelopes so I assume the polythene film would have distorted them sufficiently. Bill Banaszak, MFE > I've put some on already but I never thought about anyone ripping them > off. Then too, I scanned them inside their envelopes so I assume the > polythene film would have distorted them sufficiently. > > Bill Banaszak, MFE That'll work! -ex Some of the decals I'm thinking of selling are from the old Modecal range. I guess I could just leave the wax paper on when I scan them. It was some of the others I was concerned with. These are all great suggestions, thanks again. Don McIntyre Clarksville, TN > I'm thinking of selling some decals on e-Bay. I was considering > scanning the sheets, but am having problems trying to figure out what [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Don McIntyre > Clarksville, TN Some of the review sites just drop the res. It allows them to display what's on them yet make them somewhat unuseable. > I'm thinking of selling some decals on e-Bay. I was considering > scanning the sheets, but am having problems trying to figure out what [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Don McIntyre > Clarksville, TN I've had a lot of success selling decals on Ebay, I just used a simple digital photograph of the sheet and the instructions together, on the whole anybody buying aftermarket decals knows generally what they're looking for and all they want to know is that the sheet is intact and complete with placement diagrams etc. I always expand on the contents in the description e.g. Joe Bloggs Decal 48-003 Fruitbats in Worldwide Service Fruitbat Mk.1 - 2 Squadron, RAF F- 24 Fruitbat - 1 FW, USAF F-24C Seabat - VF-14, USN I tend to find this gives potential buyers the information they want without the need to see the decal sheet in detail. Hope this helps. Ant P.S. What you selling ??? Mostly 1/72nd scale stuff. A little of everything, Modeldecal, Super-Scale, Micro-Scale, Repli-scale... Trying to thin down the 1/72nd scale herd. Anything in particular you're looking for? Don McIntyre Clarksville, TN > I'm thinking of ... How many RMS'ers it takes to take a pic of a decal sheet? Just kidding! R. |
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