Accessories: pre-purchase judging points

For accessories the two failures that come up most are these: plating that reads as the right colour in a warm-lit photo and as a different one in daylight, and panel alignment on caps that only shows as a lean once the cap is on a head. Both are decided by photographs a seller can take before dispatch, which is why the points below start where they do.

Accessories are cheap per unit and easy to bundle, which makes the quantity tier the single biggest lever on the delivered total.

For accessories, 6 distinct things have to be visible in the set a seller sends — beginning with one front-on photo of the cap on a head form or a flat surface, plus one taken from directly above:

• one front-on photo of the cap on a head form or a flat surface, plus one taken from directly above
• a macro photo of the embroidery, square to the panel, with a ruler in frame
• the overhead photo from step 1, with a ruler laid across the empty crown
• two photos of the cap worn on a head form or a person, one front view and one three-quarter view, at eye level
• one overhead photo of the scarf laid flat on a plain surface, whole item in frame, with a tape along one edge
• the flat photo from step 1, measured at the middle of each of the four sides

Asking for that set in one message is what the photo request wording is for. When a seller skips one of these shots, the gap surfaces first at cap crown alignment and embroidery density, which is why that point sits at the top of the list above. What each angle can and cannot show is set out on the photo limits page.

Accessories are cheap per unit and easy to bundle, which makes the quantity tier the single biggest lever on the delivered total.

5 gauges cover this category, listed beside this column with the date each parameter set was last read. On accessories orders the line that moves first is accessories are cheap per unit and easy to bundle.