So, you tried using Photobucket's HTML and it not work?

Here's why:

eBay does not allow pop-up pix in listing descriptions!

But fear not -- you can disable that function so the pic WILL work!!!

I am assuming you already have your pix stored on Photobucket or some other storage site.  If not, read my guide How to post pictures on your eBay blog, which takes you step-by-step through the process.  However, there is one big difference:  The blogs allow pop-ups, the listings do not.  To make the auto-generated Photobucket HTML link work in a listing, you have to get rid of the part that does the pop-up.  Here's how:

•  Open another window, go to Photobucket and upload your pic.
•  Go back to the window with the listing you are writing. 
•  Switch to HTML mode.
•  Scroll down to where you want your image to be.
• Go back to the Photobucket window and copy the HTML code for your pic.
• Paste it into the editing area for the listing.

DO NOT switch to normal mode yet -- here comes the part to disable the pop-up:

Every Photobucket HTML tag has TWO parts, one to display your pic on the net page, and the other to create a full-size pop-up on Photobucket when you mouse or click it.  The first part looks like this: 

<a href="web address here" target="_blank">

That's the part you want to get rid of, because it created the pop-up space. To disable it, put your cursor at the end of this section after the > at then end and before the < beginning the next part of the link, which you want to keep,  like this: >cursor here<.  Now backspace and remove all of that first part.  You will now have a link that looks like this:

<img src="web address here" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

That will now work on an eBay listing!  By the way, you should change the word "Photobucket" (or whatever) in the ALT="Photobucket" part to something that describes your image.  You have probably noticed that, when you mouse over the photo, a little box appears that says "Photobucket."  This is an alternative text created for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to read for the blind.  You can -- and should -- change this to something that describes your photo.  To do this, simply find the alt="Photobucket" part of the HTML and change the word "Photobucket" to something else.  If you don't want the text box there at all, erase the entire alt="Photobucket" part.  However, I recommend changing it to your own description instead, because it makes your page more handicapped accessible.   Also, if you want a border around your pic for some reason, just change ther zero on border="0" to some other number.  The bigger the number, the wider the border.

This works on blogs and websites, too!

Anytime you want to disable the pop-up on a web page, you can use this same technique.  This is VERY helpful to keep people from stealing full-sized copies of your photos.  I use thumbnails or 300x200s most of the time -- big enough to see the image, but not big enough to copy it for wallpaper or whatever. 

Getting text to wrap around the pictures

The default setting for picture links is to post the picture without text wrap.  That can look pretty clunky.  And, unfortunately, that's the only option you have here in the Guides section, because you can't write your own HTML here.  So I can't clearly demostrate how to do it in a Guide.

On the blogs, however, you can get the text to wrap.  So, rather than try and explain here without the benefit of examples, I have written a nice how-to on my blog.  Go to my page, Rooster reveals how to wrap texts around pics on blog posts, for illustrations in living color, complete with step-by-step HTML instructions.

Now go spice up your listings -- and smooth sale-ing!