Bootlegging Ebay stores to FB place

[dsad1971]

Hi

I used to sell here and am friends with a lot of sellers here. Recently I have thought about selling on FB. I was browsing that site and came across people bootlegging entire stores off of Ebay. I have friends here that spend a lot of time on photos, put their name on them, custom make items, and spend countless hours working on their craft. I was surprised to see a seller on there offering their entire stores at 2x to 3x prices on custom pieces I know for a fact they do not own using Ebay sellers photos and descriptions.  I wanted to contact my friends here and let them know but before I do can anyone tell me is this allowed? Or not allowed or can anything be done to stop these hijackers through either Ebay or FB ? Thank you for your time.

[espresso_warehouse]

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@dsad1971 wrote:

Hi

I used to sell here and am friends with a lot of sellers here. Recently I have thought about selling on FB. I was browsing that site and came across people bootlegging entire stores off of Ebay. I have friends here that spend a lot of time on photos, put their name on them, custom make items, and spend countless hours working on their craft. I was surprised to see a seller on there offering their entire stores at 2x to 3x prices on custom pieces I know for a fact they do not own using Ebay sellers photos and descriptions.  I wanted to contact my friends here and let them know but before I do can anyone tell me is this allowed? Or not allowed or can anything be done to stop these hijackers through either Ebay or FB ? Thank you for your time.

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eBay doesn't do much to drop-shippers on it's own platform I doubt they will take action on Facebook. You could try contacting Facebook if you want specific listings removed.

[dsad1971]

Yes probably not, but I was thinking maybe I could advise them to report the seller on FB for intellectual property theft for not having permission to use the photography work (Custom backgrounds that fit their items) which I know takes them a ton of time.  

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

Is it possible that the FB Marketplace listings you found are your friends'?

There is no reason to think that every site a seller uses will have the same prices.
It's like shopping for tomatoes at the supermarket, the farmer's market and Chinatown. Same goods, possibly the same producers, different prices.

EBay does allow, even encourage dropshipping, but that's when the eBay seller has a contract with the supplier to use his photos and descriptions, and the supplier packages and ships to the customer.

What eBay does not allow is "retail arbitrage" where a reseller  is advertising an item found on eBay or AZ or WalMart, getting an order , buying from the seller and having the seller  ship to the dropshipper's customer.

One reason is that the original seller may use packaging and packing slips that reveals the actual source-- which makes eBay look bad.

Another is that the reseller may not be able to buy the item he "sold" because the original seller is out of stock. Again eBay looks bad.

And of course selling something you don't own is a form of fraud.

The original seller has two things to consider.

He got a sale at a price he was happy with.

His products commanded a better price elsewhere and he is leaving money on the table.

But I would tell my friends and let them make decisions for themselves.

[dsad1971]

Ty, I know for a fact they are not my friends, one of my friend is in California and one in Washington, this FB seller is in New Jersey. I wanted to let them know because as a seller it used to anger me when people would steal my photos, I had almost no Google shopping exposure for 2 years because my photos were being uploaded from different venues and when I tried to relist items they wouldn't show for me, but did show for the thief stealing my photos. I am really just looking to spare them that same frustration.

[downunder-61]

Unless Facebook has the same policy regarding purchasing an item elsewhere and getting it shipped direct to a buyer to fill an order, not much you can do.

Look at it this way, your friends are the ones who will receive the orders and get the payment, they sell their item, why should they care who is getting it in the end so long as they are getting what the price it was listed for?

[forward-motion]

You came here before talking to your "friends"? I don't believe this story. 

[dsad1971]

Yes I did. Ebay used to be a community, you must not have been here or do not remember those days. I wanted opinions before adding stress or work to my friends. I'm sorry that you find that unbelievable.

[powell-memorabilia]

I guess I do not see the problem. Your friends are selling on eBay. They are not selling on Facebook marketplace. An enterprising Facebook marketplace seller is basically doing the sales work for your friends. Sure, that Facebook marketplace seller is making profit on top of what your friends make.  Why is that a problem? Everyone wins.

[dsad1971]

I guess I'm old fashioned. To think the copy and paste guy might get repeat business on someone else's sweat and creativity bothers me. Maybe if their items weren't  being scalped other places, the people who actually produce and possess the items would get more first time and repeat business here, and be able to maybe raise prices a little and profit more themselves, actually grow their following. Instead someone steals the entire listing and pockets 100% or more markup, and couldn't answer one question about the item if they had to, because they have never even seen it. Yes, that seems wrong to me. It just seems to me that your business should be your business and not someone else's. I'm glad I don't do this anymore, either time has passed me by or no one gives a hoot about morals anymore, or both.

[fern*wood]

I would inform my friends about what you found.  They may be able to raise their prices or they may be happy with any additional sales this has caused.  

[espresso_warehouse]

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@dsad1971 wrote:

I guess I'm old fashioned. To think the copy and paste guy might get repeat business on someone else's sweat and creativity bothers me. Maybe if their items weren't  being scalped other places, the people who actually produce and possess the items would get more first time and repeat business here, and be able to maybe raise prices a little and profit more themselves, actually grow their following. Instead someone steals the entire listing and pockets 100% or more markup, and couldn't answer one question about the item if they had to, because they have never even seen it. Yes, that seems wrong to me. It just seems to me that your business should be your business and not someone else's. I'm glad I don't do this anymore, either time has passed me by or no one gives a hoot about morals anymore, or both.

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Ethics huh, here on ebay? If you post a photo, you can't watermark it and any other seller can use it if they choose to. Unless you are VERO.

Companies can VERO your listing if you use their marketing photos based on these rules;

"Items that bear the rights owner's trademark—such as a logo—but were not authorized by the rights owner."

"Unauthorized copies of audio, video, or other media."

"Unauthorized use of a rights owner's images or text in a listing."

I wouldn't get too worked up about these kinds of technicalities. Maybe your friends can VERO their product photos but is it really worth it?

[forward-motion]

Then they aren't friends. You don't ask strangers their opinion first.  I find it amazing how many people go to social media first. You must not remember the days when people talked to each other and there was no online community.