Anyone else tired of having your listing copied word for word and pics for pics?

[d-eberly]

Venting here... And I am well aware of ebay's policies on this subject and the fact NOTHING will be done so please don't bother to explain them as I've been here a long time.  BUT, I am so sick and tired of doing the work of gathering the photos, enhancing them and writing the Item Specifics only to be COPIED by some other seller who then UNDERCUTS my price.  Of all the things that bother me about this site, this is probably #1 on my list. Just really fed up with doing free work for others with nothing in return. If anything, I lose business to those undercutting sellers who copy as they have put in no effort to list at all.

Anyone else?  Again, just venting because this is so frustrating. I love to give my customers all the info I can about my items and I care how my listings look. but........

[krazzykats]

No.  I don't have time to see if others are copying my listings but did accidentally find an image of mine that was modified from its original form used by someone else.

[mam98031]

I've seen it and I know other sellers it has happened to.  Not a great deal you can do about it.  Some seller write to the offending seller in a nice professional tone and tell them to change their listings.  And they might say or they will report them to Ebay.  Not a real threat, but one that may just help.

[sapphire_studio]

I don't think the sellers are to blame for your item specifics being stolen. When you scan a UPC I think it's great when a lot of that stuff is filled out (for me selling beauty products its like the type of size, the volume, the brand, and if I am lucky some more details about the ingredients etc.).  I will look over everything that was autofilled (by scanning the UPC) and edit it of course if I need to (usually adding a few more specifics they left out or changing to a format I like). 

 Stealing someone's pictures is a whole other matter and pretty fr3aking annoying. It happens to me all the time and I've just had to ignore it since Ebay doesn't care.

[mam98031]

You are correct that the ISBs will fill in if it is in the Catalog and you can use the description from the catalog as well.  But it will not take a word for word copy of someone else's listing the same item that this other seller wrote.

No such thing as stealing someone's pic on Ebay.  It is in our user agreement.  It is how Ebay is getting all those pics for the catalog.

[sapphire_studio]

I'm only referring to item specifics not the description (which I didn't think you could copy over easily). Copy and pasting from someone's listing is a lot more like stealing than using the item specifics that eBay gives you when you scan the UPC.

[joseh1445]

People that take the easy road will not last.  And if they do, I just don't bother.  As I set my prices.  I have sold the same item 2x the price of other people and some times even higher.  Good luck on your selling journey.

[mam98031]

Sorry, ISBs = Item Specific Boxes.

When we enter a UPC code and the item is found in the Ebay catalog, you are correct, the ISB information will fill into the listing.  The catalog also contains a description that the seller can opt to use or not to use.  But the description will not pull for other sellers listings unless they too are using the description from the Catalog.

I don't disagree with you about the "stealing" stuff.  

[doug_5857]

I have seen Sellers put their name in their pics. Maybe this will help a bit I hope.

[onlinecentral]

The last line of my descriptions is:
Visit our eBay store OnLineCentral to view more hard to find xxxx xxxx accessories.
The x's could be the brand name or the selling category.

Once in a while, I will go to the Advanced Search Screen.
I will enter my seller ID as the search word.
Select Search Including Title and Description.
Then enter my seller ID again in the area down the page to Exclude Sellers.

The search results reveal some knuckleheads sometimes put my seller ID into their description.

That kind of egregious plagiarism, when they are caught Red Handed with my seller ID, should cause eBay to delete the offending listing and give that seller some amount of suspension.

[kensgiftshop]

You're complaining about other sellers using your photos, while you're using stock photos from Hallmark?

[baydistributionllc]

Anyone is welcome to use my photos if they have exactly the same item. I would prefer they weren’t used to deceive people but nothing I can do about that. They can offer it for less as well.

More sellers > more items > more buyers

They generally will have one and I don’t mind to wait until they have none. I, like the other replies, don’t have time to check or care. Life is to short. This is a battle you won’t win and shouldn’t fight. List more items instead, you will be better off.

[d-eberly]

Hey all - thanks for the comments.

Going to clarify a few things here...

I know I agree to all of my info and pics being used by others when I list on ebay. It's in the TOS.

I've been doing this a long time. I know it's not a winnable battle with ebay. Wasn't my point.

I've adjusted which is why I use manufacturer stock pics when my item condition matches.

Watermarks or borders on pics are also not allowed in the TOS even though they are used frequently. 

This was just venting and to let other sellers who feel the same know they are not alone.

But here's an important point  - when you encourage wholesale copying of someone else's listings, especially the item specifics or pics for that matter, it is possible that the customer loses out. Does the other seller really have the same item or packaging quality?  If not and the customer receives a substandard item often enough, they may not be back to this site. While the offending seller may not be around long, a like someone will replace them. There are several major selling sites I will not buy from for this specific reason. And check some of the collector chat boards to see how customers feel about this very thing.