I’m not sure why, but Craigslist decided to change the way item photos are shown on the ads. Personally, I liked the simple display at the bottom of each ad.
You could include up to four photos. They were small and condensed photos, so some of the quality was lost, but the page loaded quickly and you didn’t have to use any extra effort to see all of the photos.
Copying eBay
Now it looks like they are trying to copy eBay’s product photo style by having one large picture and a few thumbnail photos next to the main picture.
When you mouse over the thumbnails, they show up in the larger picture space.
Below is a screen-cap, so mousing over the thumbnails won’t work, but you can check it out on any ad posted March 26th or later that have multiple photos in your Craigslist for sale section.
The new format does allow for larger pictures to be uploaded, so you can have more detailed photos in your ad to hopefully minimize questions from people asking about the condition, but the ads seem to load a little slower and/or the mouse-over function doesn’t always load correctly.
New Format
This new Craigslist picture format has only been live since this afternoon, so they may still be working out some bugs in the programming.
And I understand the need to update things to try and keep up with competition, but Craigslist works so well because of its simplicity.
Four simple photos loading at the bottom of the page has worked for a long time. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
However, if this new craigslist picture format is here to stay, I think it would be awesome if they could figure out a way let sellers choose between the old format and the new.
I prefer the old, simple and fast loading ads, but I’m sure there will be many people that will love and prefer the new format. With that being said, check out my full guide about how to sell on Craigslist for more info.
What do you think? Is the new Craigslist picture format better or worse? Discuss in the comments below…
EDIT: After a day, the delays and some of the weird glitches are gone. The pics load fast and it works pretty well. I would recommend uploading photos between 500 – 700 pixels.
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Nick is a seasoned professional with over a decade of experience in successfully selling products online across various platforms. With his extensive knowledge and expertise, he has honed his skills and has become an expert in the field of online sales.
DO NOT LIKE THE CHANGE, CONCERNING THE PHOTOS, FIX IT OR LOSE PATRONS
I hate the new format! Been on it all morning! Awful!!1
Hi Marty,
After some time, I got used to this picture uploading format and I wrote a more detailed article about it. Here’s the post: https://www.howtoselloncraigslistebook.com/add-more-photos-on-craigslist-ads/
You can probably skip to the part titled, “Now, what is different about the listing process?”.
Let me know if that helps. Thanks for the comment!
As an old fart I was exceedingly happy with loading my fotos into my Craig’s list ads. Can you explain to me exactly how this new system works? What are the steps I need to follow. I’m confused with the whole middle man idea.
I can only view the top photo in the large format. When I scroll over the additional photos a small white box pops up on the photo with the corresponding number (ex. 2, 3, etc) If I double click on the additional photos, nothing happens. Please help me! I have been a huge CL fan for years. This is driving me crazy.
Thanks for the comment. I wrote this post the same day they changed the format, so it didn’t seem to be fully working and maybe they worked out the bugs. And after using the newer format, I agree with you. It is nice to see larger pics.
It was broken the way it was before. The tiny thumbnail pics were next to useless. At least now you can actually see what’s going on in the pics, and for me it loads in the same amount of time.