eBay

happy_pigeon · ‎09-19-2017

Hi everyone.

Opening up a thread to discuss the 2017 Fall Seller Update, announced September 19th on eBay.ca.

cumos55 · ‎09-24-2017

From Message 59.....

The books I sell are NOT in a brand new brand new..

Should be

The books I sell are NOT in a brand new condition...

ians_vintage · ‎09-24-2017

Has there been any clarity provided about users and watermarks under the following circumstance:

You upload non-watermarked images in Turbo Lister, and when TL then uploads to eBay, it adds your username as a watermark.

Last year, I was specifically told by a rep that adding a watermark will help prevent other sellers from stealing your pictures.

So are we now responsible for re-doing the listing images on all those that Turbo Lister added a watermark to?

What about adding a small card/picture of your store logo into a blank part of the image (that doesn't obscure the actual item). Is that still allowed?

pocomocomputing · ‎09-25-2017

@ians_vintage wrote:
Has there been any clarity provided about users and watermarks under the following circumstance:

You upload non-watermarked images in Turbo Lister, and when TL then uploads to eBay, it adds your username as a watermark.

Last year, I was specifically told by a rep that adding a watermark will help prevent other sellers from stealing your pictures.

So are we now responsible for re-doing the listing images on all those that Turbo Lister added a watermark to?

What about adding a small card/picture of your store logo into a blank part of the image (that doesn't obscure the actual item). Is that still allowed?

Props in a photo to circumvent watermarking are not allowed. This was a reply by an eBay rep in the USA forums.

pocomocomputing · ‎09-25-2017

@cumos55 wrote:
The question becomes....

Is there a way to prevent someone from copying a photo, or text in a listing?

Can one add a ... code.. to prevent this ....copy it ...... aspect?

It was learned many years ago that this is possible.... There was a discussion on eBay about this.

At that time several sellers had added this code to prevent the copying of photos and text in a listing...

Is this a possibility? Can this code be used on eBay?

The copy protection for text or photos was in the description. It was implemented using javascript code which is not allowed anymore.

widgetc · ‎09-25-2017

Plus...code or no code...it is still easy to steal the picture if you know how.

ians_vintage · ‎09-26-2017

OK, that's no big deal, I don't have any listings with them at the moment. Any clarification around watermarks that were auto-generated by Turbo Lister?

pocomocomputing · ‎09-26-2017

@ians_vintage wrote:
OK, that's no big deal, I don't have any listings with them at the moment. Any clarification around watermarks that were auto-generated by Turbo Lister?

Even if Turbo Lister made the watermarks, you will have to remove them. If you have the original photos, update your TL listings. If not, then you will have to take new ones.

As far as I know watermarks made by eBay when creating listings in Turbo Lister or online with the Sell Your Item online tool are in the photos and even eBay cannot remove them.

blackranda2 · ‎09-27-2017

Totally agree. These never ending updates are a huge waste of time for sellers who could be spending the time it takes to do them to create a new listing to sell which in all likely hood would generate more Final Value Fees for eBay. Can they not see this?

For example,I recently received an email from eBay saying my listings contained http content which would soon not be secure if my listings were viewed by a buyer using Goggle Chrome. I was told to use their new i-ways checker to check all my listings. You have to create an account with i-ways and then run their tool to check your listings. So I did this and guess what? All my listings were totally compliant. Once again, I wasted a good half hour of my time for nothing! Makes no sense to me.

blackranda2 · ‎09-27-2017

If eBay continues with this no watermark update I will be gone from their site. The items I sell have to be watermarked due to a previous copying issue by another eBay member. I have been a seller on their site since 2006 and do very well. If they don't want my Final Value Fees anymore that's up to them. I am well established now with numerous regular buyers. There will always be other ways to sell my items. Maybe not as many sales but definitely with a lot less hassles and headaches. Perhaps I will have a life again which will not be consumed by constantly having to change my listings to comply with ongoing updates. I could understand if you were a new company eBay but you aren't. New companies need to make changes all the time to compete. You have been around a long time and to me you should know by what works and what doesn't. Yes some change is necessary to adapt to the market place but your updates have reached the stage of being excessive.

diamonds_and_ice · ‎09-27-2017

Hey eBay:

Why oh Why, please explain, do you constantly make changes forcing the Seller community (all of us) to re-enter all of our listings, wasting countless hours in the process! This time around its all ab out "watermarks". All of a sudden, they are taboo! Why? I've read and re-read your rationale, and it makes NO SENSE.

You may want to rethink this or lose in in the process.

Liz

diamonds_and_ice · ‎09-27-2017

Hey eBay:

Why do you constantly make changes compelling your Sellers to re-enter all of our listings, wasting countless days of our valuable time.

This time around its all about "watermarks".

All of a sudden, they are taboo! Why?

The photos in MY listings are MY photos. I have taken the time and effort to create each and every photo.

I've read and re-read your rationale against watermarks, and it makes NO SENSE.

eBay, If you insist on continuing down that path, you will lose many Sellers, or is that your real intent here?

Michael

ians_vintage · ‎09-28-2017

If eBay forces sellers to retake pictures for all the items that Turbo Lister added watermarks to during its upload, I will be quitting eBay.

That's almost 10,000 pictures I'd have to retake, as I do not keep the originals.

As a member of eBay for almost 20 years, it really seems the juice is finally not worth the squeeze.

I hope some moderators are reading this thread.

momcqueen · ‎09-28-2017

Here here. I almost suspect that is the point is this whole no-watemark exercise. One is to make any photo on ebay property of ebay to use for its product catalogue to the benefit of competitors looking for an easy, quick buck; the other point is to force old listings from the site. ebay knows most people won't bother to re-take 50,000 photos in order to continue selling here so the old stock gets jettisoned and the old sellers with it. Out with the old, in with the new. It's a brilliant business tactic to strategically turn the ebay of yesterday into The River of Tomorrow. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I won't be here to see it. I'm one of the Olds.

blackranda2 · ‎09-28-2017

Here is a good one! I went to a link which was posted in the community board about how US sellers feel about the new no watermark policy. While I was on the site a window came up asking for my feedback when I was finished viewing the comments. I thought more than happy to do this. When I was finished I took the survey. I was very to the point voicing my displeasure with the update and explaining that watermarks were important to because of a previous issue with another eBay member copying my photos and using them on his listings. When I was finished I clicked the submit button. A screen came up which said: Authentication Failed. You do not have Java installed or enabled". What is up with that? Isn't Java not allowed on eBay anymore. So thanks again eBay. You managed to waste another 10 minutes of my time for nothing! I should know better by now!