The short story
A few months ago I sat down to list my own car. The first thing that hit me was the photo requirements: front, rear, sides, three-quarters, full interior, every wheel, the engine bay, the trunk, the odometer, close-ups of every flaw. Cars & Bids’ reviewers were polite but specific—and the listing kept getting kicked back for missing angles.
I asked a local photographer for a quote: $300+ to shoot a daily-driver Civic. That was when it clicked: this isn’t a photography problem. It’s a checklist problem. Anyone with a modern phone can take a good photo. The issue is remembering every required shot, in the right order, without skipping anything.
So I built Car Photo Checklist. A guided checklist. A camera with a framing reference for each angle. A PDF export ready to attach to any listing. On my first sale with it, I skipped the photographer, the listing was approved without revisions, and the car sold above estimate.
The principles
1. Privacy is a feature, not a footnote.
Listing photos can contain license plates, VINs, garage addresses, and personal items. Car Photo Checklist never sends any of it off your device. No upload, no sync, no account, no analytics SDK. Apple verifies this with the “Data Not Collected” label on the App Store.
2. The free tier should be useful, not a trap.
The first checklist and first PDF export are free with no sign-up. If you’re selling one car, you may never need Pro. Pro is built for the people who sell repeatedly: dealers, fleet managers, and rental operators.
3. The output should look like a pro shot it.
The PDF export is laid out like a dealer photo brief: captioned, paginated, and clean. You can send it to Cars & Bids, BaT reviewers, an insurance adjuster, or a buyer asking for more shots—and it works.
Who builds this
Car Photo Checklist is built and operated by Jiu Hong Deng as an independent project. It is not affiliated with Cars & Bids, Bring a Trailer, eBay Motors, Facebook, Apple, or any marketplace.
I personally read every email. If you want a feature, a platform-specific template, or you found a bug, write to [email protected] and you’ll hear back directly from me.
What’s next
Near-term I’m focused on adding deeper templates for Bring a Trailer, eBay Motors, and Facebook Marketplace, plus EV-specific checklist sections (charge port, battery pack labels). Mid-term: a dealer mode that lets a small team standardize on one shared template.
If you have a workflow that’s causing rework on your listings, I want to hear about it.