Forum

Hate those who copy my auctions verbatim
 

Since you guys are like family to me, I feel the need to vent and SCREAM from the cheap seats! Well, being a new stealther on Ebay, (much kudos to OGE for hooking me up!) I've been doing my conservative selling on Ebay.. I currently have a HOT TOPIC MINI SKIRT listed and would you know it, as I'm skimming to measure up the competition, I stumble upon the same EXACT picture that I posted. This has happened twice before with different items. Now I wouldn't be pissed if this was a stock photo or something I swiped from the internet, but I literally was up til 2am taking pics of things and listing them. I was hesitant but I reported the auction to ebay and also shot the slacker an email. Fearing any type of retaliation, I blocked her from my bidders list. I cut and pasted the "ebay seller policy" regarding using photos and text from other auctions being a big NO-NO and ironically, got a response apologizing and stating she was "very sorry" and fixed the problem immediately.. Now my question is, by reporting her auction, is Ebay going to be monitoring me? Call me paranoid as nowadays you can't be too careful with ebay and walking on eggshells.. Thanks for listening! :) Tami

For your pictures you can always add a watermark with your ebay id.

can you give me pointers on this.. I saw the instructions on doing this but I couldn't find where this option was offered when I posted my pics. Sorry to sound naive but I'm new to the watermark thing.. thanks for answering so quickly! :)

You have to do it with a image editor of your choice before uploading it.

There are plenty of free watermark software online. Just try some out and find ones you like.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

this happened to me a few times and i felt as if i had squatters in my house eating my food and sleeping in my bed

pure lazyness....they copied everything....pics...prices...listing...the whole thing

A nice subtle watermark sorts them :boink:

Haha GTB that's Hilarious as I just had that happen to me and I was thinking the exact same thing as your were typing.
Back to the op's one question regarding will her account be under scrutiny for making the report. I myself think she is fine and there is very little to worry about as its a very common report and if anything they will look after the other party. See what others say as well

I agree. No direct evidence for this, but like the poster above ^^ this happened to me on my legit acct a few times, and as far as I'm aware was no increased scrutiny on my acct, yet in one of the instances that happened where the stealer failed to respond to my messages telling them to take everything they'd stolen off me down, after reporting them to eb their listing was flat out removed, so I'm pretty sure if there is any extra scfutiny, it gets directed to the acct of the perpetrator of the prob, not the victim who reported it.

Tamigirl, try this website Free Watermark. Add Custom Watermark. Protect Your Photos and Images - PicMarkr if you don't feel like using image software.

Tami you can always use the one on eBay it will watermark your eBay id for you. It's an option when you add your pics!

OGE,
Hope all is well! I went to upload pics to a new auction the other day and didn't see this option. I know ebay has it listed as they say you can add a camera watermark or anything up to 25 letters but when I got to the upload part, I searched everywhere for this and couldn't find the option or button. GB has sent me a Pm with a link that should be helpful and I will also check the other watermark options that others have been so kind to share with me. Thanks for always watching over me. :)

LOL...Totally agree with you GTB.. Pure laziness and the arrogance of these people. Thinking they can use someone elses hardwork and creativity and get away with it. I guess they're hoping that you won't look beyond your created auction. I had the same happen to me - pricing description, pics. Simply pathetic... :)

and what tops it off is they ignore your emails

Grrr

I told this one guy that I'm going to report him if he does not take my pictures done as I did take them my self. I now use the right click copyright disable code in all listings, working great for text and pictures :)

I think sales suffer when you worry about people copying you... It's going to happen, and in the time you spent scouring your competition you could have increased your productivity in some way, IMO.

You can report those people to ebay also. Watermark/branding is the way to go.

Yes I know what you mean First Edition but when you have the best pictures for that product on ebay and people start stealing them you star losing sales..

Like I said, report them to ebay.

Even with a stealth account, report them to ebay. They'll pull the listings in a heartbeat. In this situation you are actually the verified rights owner of the picture you took. Even in AU you have rights to media you publicate, and don't have to go out of your way to be protected by copyright infringement. Although on a small scale, this is what they're doing. Report them to ebay. Ebay will comply or else be held in a DMCA violation, or something. Ebay won't do anything if the wording of a description is off by even a word or too, but copied pics is a huge no no. You can also make several stealth accounts and report him from each account for stealing pics.

Normally, I wouldn't push someone under the bus, but I take pride in the pictures I take too... so screw this guy.

I highly recommend Auctiva for watermarking. They are great as just an image host even if you don't use their listing software (which is great too). As an image host you can make edits and crop your pictures too. :)

If you dont have watermark program, you can use Paint to add typing on top with clear background to avoid affecting your photo.

I have done this before to block seller-rips.