Etsy Listing - Hand Made Wood Toy Cars, Hot Rod Freaky Ford 1932 Ford Sedan

October 14, 2017

I did a lot of testing photography testing on this one I must have deleted 50 photos that I didn't like before I finally settled on some I liked well enough to use for the shop. On the internet especially handmade items. Vintage and collectors items also need really good photos. The buyer cant see it, pick it up, feel it, smell it or interact with it in any way other than your photos. I do my best to make quality toys and I want prospective buyers to see that when the look at my photos. If a picture is worth 1000 words the the ten photos that Etsy lets you put in your listing are worth 10,000 words. I can't put that many words into the description.

Photos are also what gets buyers into your shop. 80-90% of my views come from Pinterest and other places I have posted photos.

I find it amazing that i can easily find items for sell on EBay that have terrible photos. I've seen terrible photos that were dark blurry and out of focus in listings that were trying to sell a Nikon camera.

What I was trying to do is get all of the toy in sharp focus. What I discovered was that this is almost impossible with the equipment I have. If I am very careful I can get close but I can't get the depth of field wide enough at the distance I need to shoot at. I can back away and get it wider but I sacrifice some of the detail.

My photos are way better than when I opened my store last year but they could be a lot better and easier. I could use some more/better lighting too. My table top studio works great for small items like these toy cars but not very well for larger items.

This is another version of the Hot Rod Freaky Ford 1932 Sedan. It's not that much different than some of the previous versions I have made. The purple and black trim are new. I thought I had one like this in the store already but when I looked I could not find one. The toys cars body cut from a pine 2x4 using a scroll saw and a #5 skip tooth blade.

There is always a lot of sanding to do on these. Pine 2x4s seldom cut smooth enough to suit me. I get lots of tear out and fuzziness I have to deal with. Most of the sanding I do with a belt sander. If I had the room I would have several of them set up with different grits. Belt sanders are very aggressive and it takes a bit of practice to do a good job with them. If you are going to build quality wooden toys you are going to do a lot of sanding. I can do everything from grind a car body out of a block of wood to some pretty delicate work. I currently have three belt sanders.