One of the biggest misconceptions about the internet is that the color you see on the screen is the color you will get.  That is virtually impossible to guarantee on the internet OR on television, for several reasons.

• You can put two computer monitors or TV sets side by side--same brand, same model, same year, same everything--and see a product displayed in different colors on each screen.  No two monitors can be exactly alike, ever.  If you want the product in RED and the shade of red matters little to you, this is probably not a problem.  But for some buyers (and sellers) this issue is a huge problem.  And what are the odds that buyer and seller are even using the same brand of monitor, anyway?
  
• Aside from make/model, the seller can also ADJUST his/her monitor so that colors look accurate to him/her...  yet ebay customers, who are using all different types of monitors with all different settings, cannot adjust their monitors in exactly the same way because that is impossible to do.  It's not the seller's fault or the buyer's fault.  This is just reality. 
  
• Now add LIGHTING to the equation. Your favorite fabric seller may have taken her photographs of that supposedly bright red fleece with a Sony or a Nikon (my Sony tends to distort certain shades of red), a high-end megapixel or a low-end, a digicam or a still camera, outdoors in bright sunlight or indoors in bright light or indoors under poor light. Or at the bottom of the Grand Canyon at dusk while riding a mule. I'm sorry, but no two of these photos will show the same bright red and that's assuming it IS a bright red according to all who look at the fabric. Which brings me to the next point...
  
• PERCEPTION varies widely. Your seller may tell you those shoes you bid on are denim blue, but how do we know what they mean by denim blue?  To you, denim blue may be deep indigo or stonewashed or a faded blue. What does denim blue mean to the seller? You do not know.  You can ask.  But even if they say, "Dark blue," what does dark blue mean?  What you call dark blue may not be the same as what everyone else on the planet calls dark blue.
  
• DISCREPANCIES:  What if the color shown in the photo looks lime green and the seller says it is olive green? Which one should you believe? Photo or description?  If you trust the description instead of the photo and the product arrives looking lime green, then what?  Accuse the seller of lying? Some buyers do that.
  
• DEFINITION: What if the seller says the color is orange-red and the photo does indeed look orange-red (to you)... but the seller also says, "It's not nearly as orange as shown," what are you supposed to believe?  Is the seller wrong? Is the photo wrong? Is your monitor adjusted poorly? Is the seller's monitor set poorly?  Or is the seller's definition of red-orange different than yours? Are we talking about bright red-orange or more of a rust red-orange?
• VISION ABNORMALITIES: What if the buyer or seller has cataracts and doesn't know it and perceives colors differently than most people?
• RIGHT v. LEFT EYE. What if the buyer or seller's left eye sees color differently than the right eye?  Guess what, folks?  THIS IS TRUE.  It's true of you, me and all of humanity.  NOW who can you believe?
  
• CLOSE-UP, LIFE SIZE, DISTANCE: What if the close-up of the product looks different than a view of the product from four feet away?  Take the IF out of that sentence.  The color of a product will almost certainly look different depending on the distance between the camera and the product, especially considering lighting, type of camera, etc. plus whether or not the product has a pattern to it. I recently got a comment from a buyer who said the close-up was deceiving.  Well, a far-away photo would also be deceiving. So I have taken to showing a close-up AND a farther-away shot of my yarns.  Sounds like a good solution, doesn't it?  Think again. Now I have customers asking me, well, which one is right? Both of them!  No, they do not want to hear that, because they LIKE the close-up but they do not like the far-away shot.  What can I tell them now?  "After you knit the sweater, stand right up next to people and do not let them walk away so that all they ever see is the yarn in close-up."  I predict that people who try that will eventually get arrested for standing way too close to the wrong person.

How prevalent is this problem?  It is not generally a problem for people who buy and sell books, CDs, anything in which the color is going to be predictable, uniform or irrelevant.  People want to know that the DVD is new or in mint condition. They won't care if the DVD case is a slightly different color than expected.

But color is a HUGE problem for anyone selling or buying fabric, yarn, almost any type of fashion or jewelry that isn't black (few people disagree over black), handbags, cosmetics, home decor and more.  I get many questions about my yarn and I answer to the best of my ability.  Over 99% of my customers are either happy with the color or realistic enough to deal with it.  For the other <1%, nothing I do will ever be enough.  A year ago, someone ranted at me for describing a yarn as ivory/beige. She insists I should have called it "very light tan."  Don't laugh. This is true.  Hundreds of people bought THOUSANDS of skeins of this same yarn and loved it, but this woman is outraged.  Who is right?  Well, she was in the minority, but does that make her wrong? And if so, how can I tell her that?  One thing I have learned from this business is that each person is absolutely certain that they are right. I no longer believe that I am 100% right any more and pride myself on having this Zenlike level of awareness, but based on emails I sometimes receive, I am pretty much alone in taking this stance.

Last week, I received a ranting email from a customer who said the lipstick I sent her was red, not pink.  The photo showed a deep pink lipstick with a photo flash on it that gave the impression it was dark pink except in that one spot.  Most people could tell it was photo flash and the customer even mentioned the photo flash as part of my evil "marketing" scheme. But the NAME of the lipstick color included the word fuchsia.  I did not name the lipstick. The manufacturer did.  Most people who see the lipstick or the photo agree that it is fuchsia.  But how do we know all our definitions of fuchsia are in sync?  Every customer who has ordered this fuchsia lipstick has been happy with it .. until now.  She deemed it red.  What am I to say?  "Sorry, ma'am, but you must have cataracts."  I can't say that without getting slugged in some manner.  Or how about this:   "Return the lipstick for a full refund and I will sell it to someone else who will never suspect that you opened the tube and applied it to your germ-free lips."  Eeeeeewwwww.  I think not.

If you buy or sell merchandise in which color description or photography is a large factor,  I have very little advice to give you, but having sold over 5,000 things thus far, I am offering the benefit of my experience and the few solutions I have ever been able to think of:

SELLERS: Be prepared to offer a refund policy.  This is not a good solution for every seller, because if your product cannot be resold--i.e.: opened lipstick--you may get so many returns you will go out of business.  It is also not a good solution for sellers whose acceptance of returns is iffy. I would accept yarn returns in a heartbeat if I knew that every customer could be counted on to return the yarn unused and not exposed to smoke or pets.  If I did accept returns, what am I to do if the returned yarn reeks of cigarette smoke? Charge less for it?  What if it smells like expensive perfume?  Charge more for it? 

For sellers of clothing, I urge you to at least affix a sales tag to each garment such that it cannot be removed and reattached.  Tell the buyer they must return the garment unworn with the tag still attached.  That way, if they wear it, they either must wear it WITH the tag dangling from it or try to reattach it.  Just make sure the tag is in a place they will not like wearing it; use your imagination; I can think of several options.  And when that garment arrives covered in cat hair and dander, you had best have a ready answer for your customer who is impatiently drumming her fingers waiting for that refund.

If you offer a no-questions-asked guarantee, you will likely have to raise the cost of your merchandise to compensate for returns.  Sadly, your satisfied customers will have to pay more for the privilege of having your return policy.  The bargain hunters will not like that. I do not know what to advise you.

BUYERS: My solutions for you are not nearly as good as the advice I gave sellers.  For that, I apologize.  I am truly searching for solutions because I am faced with this dilemma every day.  Here is all I could come up with:

• Shop with ebay sellers who take the clearest photos AND write the most detailed description ...and then, for crying out loud, read and study both of them. A high percentage of my buyers look at the photos without reading the entire listing.  How do I know this? By the questions they ask.  Most of these buyers are trustworthy and honest enough to admit that they did not read the listing carefully and do not leave a nasty feedback. I love you guys for your understanding, but please, just read the listing and you will be disappointed far less often.
  
• Continue shopping with the ebay sellers whose goods you have purchased and have been happy with.
• Shop with ebay sellers whose DESCRIPTION star rating on their feedback page is 4.0 or higher. That means that most people found the listing or the photo (or both) to be very accurate.
• Try to be realistic.  If you want a pair of shoes that exactly match a skirt, you are taking a risk.  Do not trash the seller for a photo or description that seems a little off. It may be your computer monitor or your vision that is a little off.  Remember the woman who bought fuchsia lipstick from me and swears it is red?  I'm sorry, but the misperception may, indeed, be yours.
  

  -- dj runnels (c) 2008