One of my goals for 2012 is to organize of all of the stuff we've accumulated in our house. I've donated a ton, gave away some and sold my first item (in years) on eBay last month. I picked a designer purse to auction off and I have to admit that it was a lot more work then I intended on. Why? Because eBay only allows you to upload one photo for free. I had to answer emails all week long because my listing didn't include enough photos, leaving people with lots of questions.

Who would pay top dollar for a designer purse with only one photo in the listing?

I knew that if I wanted top dollar, I had to "invest" and upload more photos to display in the auction in order to validate the authenticity of the designer purse. I used my 50mm camera lens to take close-ups of what could convince someone that my item was in fact authentic.

I tried to highlight the authenticity by taking photos of zippers and lining.

Even though I included four photos of the purse I received a flood of emails asking me for more photos and details. I answered all of them but believe that if I had "invested" by adding more photos, I wouldn't have had such a difficult time selling a designer item and would have received more money for it.

The good news?

It was just announced yesterday that starting July 2, 2012 sellers will be able to include 12 PHOTOS FOR FREE for every eBay listing, using eBay picture posting. This is great news because buyers make faster purchase decisions when listings have more photos. You show more, you sell more. It was a lesson I learned quite quickly last month and I'm thrilled that eBay caught on.

More good news!

I'm headed to the eBay headquarters in two weeks as part of the "eBay Parent Panel". What does this mean for you? That you have a friend going inside eBay - if you have any questions, concerns and/or suggestions please leave me a comment below and I will pinky promise that they will be addressed through me.

"I am an eBay Parent Panel Partner. This post is sponsored by eBay. Opinion and experience are my own."