@rose-dee wrote:
@mjwl2006 wrote:
The new no-watermark policy does one thing for sellers only: it punishes the sellers who work hard to create great photos that sell things as part of a premium buyer experience, and it rewards the sellers who want only to expend zero effort to make a quick buck.
I see it differently. This is part of eBay's drive to appear, from the landing pages onward, to look as if they're a homogeneous, single-source commercial site. They are attempting to weed out the unique, the different, the non-conforming so that Product A looks exactly like Product A all across the site.
This isn't about deliberate punishment of hard-working sellers. I believe it's eBay having decided which direction they must go in order to stand up to the competition -- who, as we all know, is barking at its heels right across the River, and has already incorporated most of this standardizing some time ago.
Where I do agree with you is that I think eBay has no interest anymore in focusing on supporting its "traditional" small, independent sellers through its site policies. But that's different than intentional punishment, and is a trend that's been going on for several years now.
That group of independent smaller sellers, as big as it may still be, is overall the most disparate, the least likely to have retail experience, and the most likely to cause eBay trouble and time in dealing with issues. In other words, an expensive luxury for eBay. You may have noticed that eBay was pushing hard a couple of years ago to entice "newbies" to start selling through its landing page ads. I think they found out where that led -- more trouble and more CS calls -- and decided to take a different direction. I haven't seen much of those ads anymore.
Better to have big professionals with big turnovers from whom they can make more money at lower cost and with fewer interventions. I think that's what is behind this transition that's been going on for several years. It's hard to accept, but it was never personal. How long it will be possible for remaining small sellers to survive in that environment is the question, but as long as you're able to make some sort of profit here, I think it's worth continuing to try.
Here's a thought to consider with respect to your photo problem specifically, along the lines of what 'cumos' described above. Include a small postcard-sized photo of yourself (as seen on your storefront, with the laughing expression amongst the coloured balls) as a prop in each shot you take of your products. No text, no logo, just that image. Or have the same image custom-printed by someone on removable stickers that you can stick in a visible spot on the product box when you photograph it. Or on a small ball or balloon that just happens to be in the picture. Or a child's hands holding up the toy who has a a ribbon tied in a bow around her wrist with your sticker on it. I could go on, but you get the idea. eBay can't prevent you from including non-text props in your photos, and no one wants to use a photo with someone else's face on it.
Props in your photos are not allowed per a discussion in the eBay.com forums. You are not allowed to circumvent the no watermark policy using props.
They were not allowed since the change to 500 pixel minimum introduced years ago. That policy banned text on photos as well as props with text to circumvent that old policy of no text.
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