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Seller guides

Seller guides: photos & video

This is the part you do — and it’s simpler than it sounds. Your photos and video set the standard for how your listing performs, so clear, well-lit images and a good video give buyers the best view and give you the best result. Everything below is shot on your phone, in even natural light, with the vehicle clean and dry. Don’t edit, filter or retouch anything you send us — honest photos are the product, and the flaw photos are what make the good photos believable. We handle everything after you send them.

Start here

Key takeaways

01

15 key photos to start

Straight from your phone, originals only — we crop and correct the lighting, never the vehicle.

02

The flaws are mandatory

Honest flaw photos are what make the good photos believable to bidders.

03

Keep your originals until the auction closes

Bidders sometimes ask for one specific extra shot — being able to add it within a day is an advantage.

Photo guide — your 15 key photos

After you return the intake form, we send you a Dropbox upload link (we supply it privately — it’s never published). Upload up to 15 key photos there, straight from your phone:

Placeholder — upload link coming

The Dropbox upload link will appear here once the account is set up. Until then, your upload link is sent to you directly after you return the intake form.

The 15 shots

  1. Front ¾, driver’s side (your hero shot — full vehicle, clean light)
  2. Front ¾, passenger side
  3. Front, straight on
  4. Side profile, driver’s side
  5. Side profile, passenger side
  6. Rear, straight on
  7. All four wheels — one shot showing the set, plus any wheel with curb damage, close up
  8. Engine bay, bonnet open, wide from the front
  9. Interior from the driver’s door — seats, wheel and shifter in one frame
  10. Interior from the passenger door — dash and trim
  11. Front seats, close up
  12. Dashboard and centre stack — every control bank
  13. Steering wheel and instrument cluster, with the odometer legible
  14. Open door / cabin entry — door card and sill
  15. The flaws — every ding, scratch, stone chip, curb mark, tear or stain that applies, close up and from standing distance so a bidder can locate it

Before you start: wash and dry the vehicle, clean the glass inside and out, vacuum the interior, and remove personal items — but leave in everything that sells with the vehicle (tools, spare, manuals, extra keys), because it gets photographed too.

The full gallery: the platforms run much larger galleries than 15 — each wheel and tyre with its date code, underbody, boot, documents and more. Once you proceed, we’ll send you a short shot list for the full platform gallery.

What we do with your photos: we crop and correct the lighting only — never anything that changes how the vehicle looks — then sequence them and return a ready-to-upload set. Keep your original files until the auction closes; bidders sometimes ask for one specific extra shot, and being able to add it within a day is an advantage. The example listing shows the standard to aim for.

Video guide — what to film

Phone video is fine: landscape, steady, real audio, no music. Film these, in this order:

  1. Cold start — first start of the day, genuinely cold engine. Camera on the instrument cluster; start it, let the warning lights clear, then walk to the engine bay at idle and finish at the exhaust for the idle note. (On Cars & Bids this clip is required by the platform.)
  2. Walk-around with the engine running — a slow circuit of the vehicle; open and close each door, the bonnet and the boot as you pass them; pause on the flaw set.
  3. Interior — sit in the driver’s seat and show the controls working: windows, roof if fitted, lights, infotainment.
  4. Short driving clip — a passenger films: pull away, accelerate through the gears, cruise, brake to a stop. Capture any noise the vehicle makes, good or bad.
  5. Odometer close-up — mileage clearly legible.
  6. Flaw close-ups — anything you photographed for the flaw set, on video too.

Then: upload the video to your own YouTube channel, set it to Unlisted, and send us the link before your listing is built. We review it once and send one round of feedback — a one-time review, so you can fix anything before buyers see it. Keep the video live and accurate through the auction and the sale.

Never uploaded to YouTube before? The tutorial page takes you from creating the account to sending us the link, and the video on the example listing is the filming standard to copy.

Start — email “Car for sale” See the standard first