Text on main photo - good or bad.

[winner188]

Looking for some opinions on adding informative text to the main photo. Do you think it'd s good or bad idea.

[hlmacdon]

Bad idea for two reasons. 1) It is against ebay policy on photos and there is the possibility (although I don't often see this happen) of your listing being taken down. 2) It is tacky and may put off some buyers. You may want to familiarize yourself with the upcoming changes ebay is making to listing descriptions and how they generate the shortened version of the description for mobile devices. If the informative text is highly relevant to your listing to avoid misunderstandings/buyer misuse/etc I'd ensure you use the suggested method to ensure that text is included in the shortened description or consider using the subtitle feature as that is quite prominent in a listing.

[thestuffofchris]

eBay policy states that you are not allowed to add text to photos unless it is a watermark. The direct quote is:

"Photos can't have borders or text on them, with the exception of a watermark showing that the photo belongs to you."

Source: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/pictures.html#standards

EDIT: Whoops. Looks like hlmacdon and I were composing our messages at the same time.

[winner188]

Thank you I did not know text on photos was not allowed.

[momcqueen]

I don't think it's allowed, actually. The only text on a photograph is supposed to be the seller watermark but even that is required to be unobtrusive.

Here is the policy: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/pictures.html

Also here http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/how-to-take-product-photos/ebay-photo-requirements.html

EDIT: I think we were all replying at the same time!