eBay

musicyouneed · ‎09-22-2017

Last year when ebay moved away from watermarking our photos, I was thinking that I would do my own watermarking. I did some experimenting but eventually dropped the idea. Boy am I ever glad I did that now. Every year, I have had to spend major time revising listings to conform to the sellers update. Other than a few listings that I had copied info from wikipedia, it is all done.

Now I look as some sellers and boy do they ever have a big job. One seller have over 5,000 he has to amend the pictures and he had 2 to 4 pictures to do. He just put the CD on a paper page which had his name in bold print at the top and the bottom.

What happens to all the pictures that ebay watermarked? Like this one: 201669855398

femmefan1946 · ‎09-22-2017

Would scanning or photographing an item on such a background actually count as 'watermarked'?

I'm guessing one reason for the ban, is that eBay wants to 'steal' seller's pictures for their catalogue and watermarks get in the way of that.

The other reason is to remove links which interfere with mobile shopping, which is fair enough.

momcqueen · ‎09-22-2017

I'm guessing the watermark ban is step 2 in a policy which will soon require all items to be photographed against a plain, white background. I also expect software will identify those 'busy backgrounds' as watermark interference and the photos won't be allowed in relistings at all.

Ebay does not adopt these policies that require sellers to continually re-invest hours and hours of time to stay compliant by accident. It's a deliberate move to ensure only viable, sellable listings remain on site. And that's fine. It's their sandbox, I don't have to play in it anymore.

momcqueen · ‎09-22-2017

The eBay-created watermark will simply drop from those millions of listings one day without warning, I expect. There won't be any announcement to coincide, it will simply happen. I was prepared to begin re-uploading those 10,000 photos here with my own watermark, so now after the Fall Update, I don't have to because those listings won't be kept here. My new store is outside eBay, anything I keep here to the expiration of my store subscription will simply show a crummy stock photo so that my own photos are kept safe from theft. I'm not even upset about it now, I'm looking forward to moving on since it was too easy to sit here, inert, and be comfortable making money for someone else. The one habit that I do need to break is coming to the Board to comment on issues such as this which now serves no actual purpose. I have real, significant work ahead of me. Waxing poetic advice to buyers about how best to proceed with their INR Claims against other sellers does me no good, it only helps preserve the integrity of the eBay experience. That experience is dead to me now, so why bother?

pocomocomputing · ‎09-22-2017

@musicyouneed wrote:
Last year when eBay moved away from watermarking our photos, I was thinking that I would do my own watermarking. I did some experimenting but eventually dropped the idea. Boy am I ever glad I did that now. Every year, I have had to spend major time revising listings to conform to the sellers update. Other than a few listings that I had copied info from Wikipedia, it is all done.

Now I look as some sellers and boy do they ever have a big job. One seller have over 5,000 he has to amend the pictures and he had 2 to 4 pictures to do. He just put the CD on a paper page which had his name in bold print at the top and the bottom.

What happens to all the pictures that eBay watermarked? Like this one: 201669855398

Using a prop like a sheet of paper with an eBay id or any text is considered a "watermark". It does not have to be an electronic watermark. This was said by an eBay support person in one of the discussions on eBay.com. I do not have a link to that post. If I find it, I will post the link to that post.

femmefan1946 · ‎09-22-2017

Which would require looking through millions and millions of pictures to spot those with identification.

Is that economically viable?

Or will those be left to competitors and busybodies to report to eBay, like many non-compliant listings are now?

Anonymous · ‎09-22-2017

Why on earth eBay not allow watermark on our photos?? We put watermark on our photos to prevent theft. Sheesh, eBay is getting worse and worse and worse every time.

cooltoycars · ‎09-24-2017

Just one more reason that many sellers will be closing their stores like I just did; not that Ebay cares!

hlmacdon · ‎09-25-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Why on earth eBay not allow watermark on our photos?? We put watermark on our photos to prevent theft. Sheesh, eBay is getting worse and worse and worse every time.

Photo theft = free database.

widgetc · ‎09-25-2017

He or she should just download all listings with TL (before it dies) and bulk add "item as pictured including the printed piece of paper in the background" ie. make the paper part of the item being sold.

I am only being half factitious...

More seriously... eBay wants to steal those pictures for their catalog that they are too lazy to make up from legitimate images. They want the catalog to emulate their big competitor

But IMHO...eBay is making a big mistake alienating their small sellers. The small sellers often offer non-catalog items like collectables that bring people here and then they buy other things. Without that most would just go to the big competitor eBay is trying to emulate and never look at eBay. Also many sellers here purchase a lot of stuff with the proceeds of their sales. If driven away they too will purchase elsewhere.

momcqueen · ‎09-25-2017

Adding stuff to the background to identify your photographic images as your own in order to circumvent the watermark ban is also prohibited.

widgetc · ‎09-25-2017

Just curious....is it allowed to have a picture of you or your hand holding the item?

momcqueen · ‎09-25-2017

If the hand had a tattoo of your business name on it?

I don't now about that. Like i said earlier in this thread or another related to it, I think this 'no-watermark policy' will be followed in six months with a new policy requiring all items to be shot on a plain, white background. Period.

Hands in photos are logical for jewelry. Hands in photos are not necessarily logical for my product line, unless to show scale. I'd take that question to an ebay rep.

(Sorry for the edits, my fingers are typing poorly today.)