Where have all the ebay Watermarks gone?

[momcqueen]

I've been listing up a storm these past few weeks and noticed now for the first time that the ebay Watermarks which I had always had enabled to show my user ID are gone.

Is this a by-product of the one-page sell form?

I'm annoyed. 

It's hard enough to stop deadbeats from stealing my handwork in the form of photographs when they were watermarked, never mind when it is not. 

Is this an issue now? 

[momcqueen]

From down south: http://community.ebay.com/t5/Technical-Issues/watermarks/m-p/25688112/highlight/true#M18140

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-to-enable-watermarking-with-the-new-listing-form/m-p/256832...

[silverpinups]

You should look into purchasing your own watermarking program.

Having a watermark at the bottom left hand corner can easily be cropped out by picture thieves. In some of your ads you are basically protecting the table top and not the item.  

It costs about 20.00USD.

Centering your watermark is the most effective protection.

[musicyouneed]

Hi mjwl, yes with the new form the watermark has gone, that is why I went back to listing with the old form.

[momcqueen]

I added my own watermarks using the plain old Preview program but I cannot seem to adjust the opacity of the text.

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/how-to-take-product-photos/ebay-photo-requirements.html

Watermark policy

Watermarks are allowed for ownership and attribution, but not for marketing information, specific details about your item, or customer service. Your watermark should be no bigger than 5% of the total image area, have an opacity of no more than 50%, and never obscure the item. Links are not allowed in watermarks.

To make sure your watermarks are compliant, use the eBay watermark creation service. You’ll find it in the “Bring your item to life with pictures” section of the listing form.

I don't think the photo police will come looking for me, however, since everything else is okay. This is listing http://www.ebay.ca/itm/KERMIT-THE-FROG-Its-not-EASY-being-GREEN-Canvas-Carry-all-THE-MUPPETS-Disney-.... You guys think the watermark isn't so opague as to get me into actual trouble, right? It's totally unobtrusive. 

Of course, there is no 'ebay watermark service' now with the new listing form which is the entire problem.

[momcqueen]

This is another listing where I have applied the my new watermarks. Do you think it will pass as acceptable despite the text not being 50 per cent opague? 

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=231782829138&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_1210wt_118...

[musicyouneed]

I think your watermark looks excellent.  How did you do that?  I don't know if you will get in trouble for using it but looks great to me.  Nothing different from mine. 

[musicyouneed]

I came across this on ebay:

[momcqueen]

Thank you. Right, that's what I remember seeing too. A user isn't supposed to put their watermark on the actual item for sale where it would best discourage others from swiping it.

All I did was add text. Preview is the program that is the plain old picture editor. I'll do a step-by-step when I return to my desk tonight. I'm on a mobile device right now.

[silverpinups]

"A user isn't supposed to put their watermark on the actual item for sale where it would best discourage others from swiping it."

If you would like to see watermarking overkill click below.....

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Ann-Margret-Amazing-Sexy-Busty-RARE-Hot-Stamped-Vint-Original-Stunning-Portra...

[momcqueen]

Oh boy.

[pjcdn2005]

I think that your watermark looks fine.  It doesn't make sense that they want it outside of the item....why bother putting it on if it can easily be cropped out.  Sheesh

[recped]

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@silverpinups wrote:

You should look into purchasing your own watermarking program.

Having a watermark at the bottom left hand corner can easily be cropped out by picture thieves. In some of your ads you are basically protecting the table top and not the item.  

It costs about 20.00USD.

Centering your watermark is the most effective protection.

---

Pay for watermarking?

There are dozens of free programs that can do watermarking, I suggest Irfan for a multitude of simple image processing tasks, one at at time or in bulk.

[silverpinups]

I purchased my watermarking program alooooooooong time ago......

I'm sure you can get most programs "free" these days. 

[recped]

Irfan is freeware and it's been around since the mid-90's

[silverpinups]

I purchased a "full" version while most "free" versions are usually missing certain functions and limit what you can do.

You get what you pay for.... 

But it's done, it's over and I'm very happy with my watermarking program.... 

[momcqueen]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

I think your watermark looks excellent.  How did you do that?  I don't know if you will get in trouble for using it but looks great to me.  Nothing different from mine. 

---

1. Open Preview and select all your photos.

2. Open your toolkit.

3. Decide what colour you want your text to be.

4. Click the Text Tool.

5. When you see 'text' type instead your user id.

6. Position your watermark someplace it won't get you into trouble.

[momcqueen]

I realize this could be automated with the right software but I'll try this for now. 

The only real problem that I see (aside form the extra time it takes) is that I have no way to create an opaque watermark with this freebie program of mine, Preview. If ebay was clever, they would offer a text tool right next to the crop tool on the sell item page itself. Like right here:

That would be too easy.