Enlarge Photos On eBay Auction Pages

The photos that users upload to eBay are used to populate the search results and category listings. The eBay auction platform automatically displays thumbnail versions of the uploaded photos on search and category pages instead of the, often larger, versions of the photo uploaded by the eBay user.

While that may not be a problem to some eBay users, I know of a few who like to see a larger preview picture of an auction item on eBay on the search and category pages to speed up the discovery and first evaluation of items on eBay.

It can speed up things because you do not need to click through to see the large version of the picture, but can do so right on the page the thumbnail is displayed on.

The browser userscript Add Enlarge Picture Option to eBay Search Results (what a name) adds a semi-automatic option to all eBay search and category pages to display a larger version of the thumbnail image that is shown next to each item in those listings.

The developer has configured the userscript to only work on eBay.com and eBay.co.uk. Users who want to use the script on other eBay sites can try to add include urls to the source code of the script. I have not tested this though and it is questionable if it is going to work.

It should be noted that the script works on most eBay category pages. Those that use a custom layout, like the Women's Clothing category, are not supported.

The script displays an enlarge link next to each thumbnail image on eBay. Moving the mouse cursor over the link text will automatically display the larger version - if available - as an overlay image on the screen. The image vanishes automatically when the mouse cursor leaves the link area.

Users of the script can click on the top right corner of each listing to open the program options. Here they can modify the image preview option to activate by click and not by mouse over. They can furthermore add enlarge links to the private My eBay listing and check for script updates manually from there.

I have tested the userscript both in the Firefox and the Google Chrome web browser and it turned out that the script is compatible with both Internet browsers. Google Chrome users can simply install the userscript from the project website over at userscripts.org just like they would with any other extensions for the browser. Firefox users need to install the Greasemonkey or Scriptish add-on first before they can install and use that userscript.

Advertisement