I'm a totally newbie at this wii-camping-out-thing, but I got one this morning! Yay! Here's the information I've gleened that I couldn't find anywhere else.

1. If you can help it, don't buy them on ebay. I hate supporting people who are simply scooping up all the supply and building up demand artificially. On Christmas morning, some kids going to stop believing in Santa because Santa couldn't find any in the stores.

2. Maybe you've heard that, if it's in the circular, the store will be getting some. I just found out that the Sunday circulars are published on Thursday, so ask the electronics guy or the store manager on Friday or Saturday. Maybe some of the stores get their supplies on other days. Just be a bit self-depricating with the folks at the store ("Oh, I'm one of those people.") and they'll give you the skinny.

3. I was told that Target wouldn't be giving out numbers and I should come at 8am when the store opened. I was there at 7:50 and, as you might imagine, the parking lot was full and there were forty people waiting near the door. Guess what? They all had numbers. This particular Target had gotten about 75, and people as late as 7:15 got numbers. The first person was waiting there at 1am! I'd recommend around 5:00am. Get there early.

4. Persist. True confession time. I wandered in with the herd who all had numbers. (I was numberless.) I thought, Maybe they counted wrong or maybe someone will change his mind (ha ha). I stood in the line with the chosen few at the electronics counter, and sure enough, a Target guy walked through and handed out ten more numbers! Yay, me! So many people asked other customers at the door and heard that there are none left; they got in their cars and went home. It never hurts to ask, or wait, or grovel.

5. Don't let them sell you all the other accessories. Either you're too tired or too excited about finally scoring a wii, that you'll buy a bunch of extra stuff you don't need. None of that is in short supply so I'd recommend coming back later when you're thinking more clearly. All of a sudden a $250 purchase turns into $400.

6. You might be worried that it will be a mob scene, with pushing and shoving and gouging of eyes. Everyone waiting was sooo nice. (That's because they all had numbers. If they'd waited since 5am and didn't get a number, maybe I'd see a different side of them.)

7. There's always the GameStop voucher program, where you can buy a voucher on Dec. 20 or 21, and pick up your Wii in the store before Jan. 29. I'd be more apt to wait it out until next weekend and see if you can get one at Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Sears, Toys R Us, or Circuit City, unless you HAVE to have one. The voucher thing just smells fishy to me. I bet by the time you can pick one up at GameStop, you could get one anywhere else. Just MHO.

8. Bring your lucky rabbit foot, your four-leaf clover, and your horseshoe. You're going to need them. Good luck to you! I hope you get one. Keep checking the online stores too. While they sell out just as fast, you might get lucky!

It may seem that "Photoshopping" (sorry, Adobe lawyers) your ebay images is unscrupulous, but as long as your intention is to highlight the item for sale by downplaing distracting background elements, or correcting your images to look like the items, it's perfectly okay. Photoshop Elements is well worth the $100 investment. (It's even a little cheaper on Amazon, I think.) I've posted a guide on tips for photographing jewelry, but I still tend to "touch" almost every photo with Elements. Other photo editing software can also accomplish many of these steps.

1. Rotate. A quick "free rotate" can help your images go from cock-eyed to laser level.

2. Skew. By adjusting the skew of an image, you can correct images that were taken from funny angles. For example, when photographing books or record covers with a flash, you can't shoot it straight on or the flash reflection will kill the picture. If you take it from a slight angle, then carefully use the skew tool, you can recapture the rectangular shape of the original item. Just be sure that the dimensions are accurately represented in the photo. After a skew, I might use Resize > Image Size to disproportionately scale the image back to the right aspect ratio.

3. Crop. Every photo should be cropped to highlight only the item for sale. I see so many jewelry photos where the image is tiny in the middle of a sea of background. Buyers want to see every beautiful detail. A related pet peeve is when people shoot their items up too close and they're blurry. Better to back off a little and crop later. Worse yet is when they're wearing the jewelry. Ugh!

4. Adjust brightness. Personally, I hate the brightness and contrast controls in Elements, and usually open "Adjust Brightness/Contrast > Levels" for this one. I simply drag the white input slider to the left, until it is much closer (but not overlapping) the histogram data. Repeat with the black input slider, by dragging it to the right if necessary. If you do red, green, and blue sliders separately, you can often correct color balance issues without using step #5.

5. Adjust color balance. Since many of us are working on ebay after the kids go to bed, we're sometimes forced to take our photos under less-than-ideal lighting conditions. I love the color balance correction in Elements, where you simply click on something that's supposed to be white, and the rest of the image is adjusted accordingly.

6. Rubber stamping. Okay, I'll admit it. Sometimes I accidentally photograph some random object in the image (a wire, my foot, a stray string or fuzz on my background material). Rubber stamping (or cloning) is perfect for removing attention from the non-essential parts of your photo. Of course, never never use this tool to remove blemishes and imperfections from the object for sale. The buyer will be extremely unhappy, and it's probably illegal too.

7. Background removal. It's possible to completely remove the background by selecting your item for sale with the magic wand (hold shift to add to the selection), then choosing Selection > Invert, then hit Backspace. I prefer to shoot my items on a pleasing background than leave them floating in space, but this week for the first time, I did use this to remove an ugly background. I probably should have added a drop shadow to make it look more natural.

8. Compositing. I am selling two articles of clothing in one particular listing this week, and wanted them to both show up in the gallery. I didn't have access to the camera while I was writing the listing, so I used Elements to composite to images. Take one image and double the canvas size, keeping the original image on the left or right, not in the center. Then just copy and paste the second image and viola. Just be sure to flatten the image before saving it as JPEG for posting.

9. Reduce or increase saturation. I think this is totally okay as long as you are using it to obtain a better match to the actual object. For example, the flash or indoor lighting can make silver jewelry (one of my most regular subjects) look gold. Since I shoot on a neutral background, reducing the saturation somewhat makes the jewelry photos look much more like the actual pieces.

10. Add a colored border. Increase the canvas size by 5% in height and width to add a colored border to your images. This may make them stand out in the gallery view. Just be sure that you've selected the right color on the color picker at the bottom of the tools.

11. Highlight flaws. Adding a colored circle or arrow to an image to show a flaw can be very useful. Buyers will appreciate your honesty.

Ebay's help pages have a great tutorial for more information on taking great pictures for your auctions. Please check out my auctions. I'd love to hear YOUR suggestions for better photos and listings.

Last week, I was trying to sell a pair of marked earrings. They had a crown on the back with an AD under it. Under that it said "Mønster Beskyttet," whom I assumed to be the designer. I searched the internet and found only a couple of English references to this "designer". The earrings didn't sell for $4.99. I relisted them and did some more research. I found a Danish-to-English on-line translator and found out that Mønster means a "sample or design", and Beskyttet means "protected". So I was essentially listing the designer as the © or ™ symbol. Duh!

Turns out that the AD with the crown is A. Dragsted (I believe), a famous designer in the early 1900's. There's still a jewelry store with that name in Copenhagen, Norway. I've relisted the earrings and hopefully they'll sell this time. I've learned some important lessons: the importance of the internet, the importance of learning foreign languages, and the importance of doing thorough research!!

A few years ago, as my expertise with Photoshop improved, I got the idea to digitally repaint my rooms (which WERE all "builder's white") before painting. Since then, I've used this technique on all the rooms in my house and on several friends' houses. I am currently offering an auction to do the same to your room. For $10, you can preview your room in a variety of colors. This has saved me personally a number of times. I wanted a blue kitchen, but when I digitally painted the room, I realized that blue looked hideous with my honey-stained oak cabinets. Terra cotta worked much better. I'm willing to work with you to get it just right.

It's somewhere between science and art. Finding the right color in the image to represent the swatch color is the art. The digital manipulation of the image is a science. Check out the examples of my front hall in multiple colors. Let me know which one I should choose!

Here are a couple of tips I've learned for making my jewelry photographs sparkle:

1. Most importantly, please don't include your hand or neck or toe in any pictures of the jewelry. I really want to think of the item as never worn and, trust me, you are not a hand model (or a foot model...ewwww).

2. Photograph outside in the shade or on an overcast day. Direct sunlight or a flash can give harsh shadows. If you use a flash, take your picture during the day in a well-lit room.

3. Don't move in too close or your photo will be blurry. Step back, shoot, then crop it later. And please do crop. A photo of a tiny ring with a whole lot of background doesn't let me see the true beauty of the item.

4. Keep your background simple. I favor black, but white also looks pretty. Other colored background can also make your listing stand out from the others; try red or purple.

5. If you take the picture straight on (where the lens is perpendicular to the background) you're very likely to get a strong reflection of the flash. Shoot at a slight angle.

6. Silver jewelry can sometime look gold when photographed. You can dial down the saturation in your photo editing software to give a more accurate rendition of the object. If there are any colored stones, you may need to select just the silver parts before adjustments. This may seem like "cheating" but the goal is to accurately portray the item. Never ever use this kind of software to remove blemishes or flaws. That IS cheating. I use Photoshop Elements for cropping, saturation adjustment, and tone level adjustment.

7. If you're shooting digital, take lots of shots of the item from different angles so you can choose the best one. I use auctiva (it's free) which lets me post multiple photos of the item for free. If you can include any maker's mark photos, these are always useful.

Hope this is helpful. Check out my listings for examples.