Another seller is using some pictures of one of my old listings
Quite self explanatory. I found a listing of an item I sold last year, and the seller is using some of the photos I used in my listing. For what I gathered after checking online, there's not much I can do about it, unless I had published said photos in another website (other than eBay). Is this true? It's really lousy that someone can do such thing and gets a free pass.
I am tempted to watermark all the photos of my listings, but that would take a bit of effort.
8 comments
hansatrade
·2 weeks ago · EditedSome pictures..? Years ago I found a whole phony Chinese website with 3.000 of my listings and 20.000-30.000 stolen photos. Of course, all items were there offered for "sale" with a 70% discount. A scary sign of the times ...
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
·2 weeks agoDo what I do, and use a very loud background that no one would want to steal the pic (they might steal it and remove the background, but the background is my trademark in my listings so people recognize them when scanning search results).
I can't use a loud background when the item is very loud (like banknotes or stamps). Most of my coins have a unique loud black and gold background.
reallynicestamps
·1 week agoDo you have a scanner? For banknotes and stamps, anything flat, a scanner makes a better image with no distortion.
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
·1 week agoI do, but I was getting complaints about the image not looking like the item. Also my scanner won't scan currency (maybe really old currency, but anything relatively modern gives an error that it's against the law to scan currency).
I do get the distortion because they are not perfectly flat when taking pictures, and my phone is not perfectly above the item to make all sides look straight.
flipistics
·2 weeks agoI've had it happen before, but it's pretty rare. I just retook the photos in question and improved on them.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 weeks ago · Edited@john_koenig99
This has been going on for years. Sadly next to impossible. I found another seller a few years ago in China selling something I had listed. It was the only other item on eBay at the time. They copied my photos and text almost in its entirely. I tried to report but went nowhere. Attached are eBay topics on the subject. Probably written years ago and never really amended/brought up to date to match current situations.
https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/listing-policies/picture-policy?id=4370&st=3&pos=1&query=Picture%20policy&intent=watermarking%20photos&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1316
https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/listing-policies/images-videos-text-policy?id=4240&st=3&pos=2&query=Images%2C%20videos%20and%20text%20policy&intent=watermarking%20photos&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1242
There are sellers who do watermark or personalize their photos so is being done. With cropping, editing and kazillion of sellers/listings challenging to stop.
john_koenig99
OP2 weeks agoThank you for the links.
It is interesting that they actually say that "watermarks of any type" are not allowed, but I've seen numerous sellers using them in their listings, with impunity...LOL
They also make clear that one can use at will other people's photos or even text, as long as they are part of what they call "eBay product catalogue". 😑
What should I do if my image, video or text is being used by another seller?
When you create listings you give eBay and its customers permission, through our User Agreement, to use your images, videos and product details. Your content may be added to the eBay product catalogue, and may be used by other sellers in their eBay listings.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 weeks ago@john_koenig99 eBay guidelines....ummm rules tend to trip over themselves constantly. Why no one can actually be an expert in their TOS. Much of it depends on interpretation and what 1 finds with each subsequent search.