Do NOT purchase products at Retail for Resale by BULBHEAD (Tree Dazzler,Star Shower, etc)

[daniel-low]

It has been common practice since the internet's beginnings for small Sellers to be on the lookout for heavily discounted items at Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc. for resale on eBay or Amazon.

New items are easy to list and usually in demand.

However, the BULBHEAD company is strongly adverse to this practice, and when they see their products listed on Amazon, eBay, etc, will file a VERO complaint that the item is counterfeit. And the shopping portal will remove it - often with a strong warning to the Seller.

I have gone thru this. I have offerred and supplied Receipts from Home Depot to prove lawful purchase. I have called Bulbead, emailed, even written a letter to the Company President. All to no avail.

I'm not going to say the products of this company are inferior in any way - I do not belive they are. I'm not going to say don't buy them for your personal use.

But if you see a deal after Christmas 50%- 75% -90% OFF - on BULBHEAD products - don't get dollar signs in your eyes. You will not be able to sell Bulbhead products online.

[the_fancy_fox]

Google up Tabberone. Her website will show you how to fight it.

Sometimes I think taking a VERO member to court for violating the first sale doctrine is worth more in settlement money than selling their actual product.

[18704d]

"However, the BULBHEAD company is strongly adverse to this practice, and when they see their products listed on Amazon, eBay, etc..."

----------

After the sale to the initial consumer,

it is no longer Their product.

I agree on the Tabberone suggestion.

And.. some day.. a few buyers will be smart lawyers...

and highly profit off this company's actions.

imo,

Lynn

[daniel-low]

Yeah, I argued FIRST SALE DOCTRINE until I was blue in the face.

Amazon doesn't want to hear about. I wasted a lot of time.

eBay may be more reasonable, but it is no longer worth the effort to me. I sold my Bulbhead stuff (there wasn't much) at a huge loss to be done with it.

And after my infamous fight with eBay about selling a COW HORN (I was stupid enough to state in the Description " This is not ivory". That did not matter. You use a "Key Word" and you are toast), I'm not contacting eBay about this, either.

The purpose of my thread is to just maybe save some honest Sellers here some aggravation, and perhaps to warn them it does not have to be a "ROLEX WATCH" to run into VERO trouble.

[lacemaker3]

@daniel-low, after looking at your listing, it looks like you used the company's photo for your listing.

That is a valid copyright takedown, even if the item was authentic, and the first sale doctrine doesn't change that.

You have to take your own pictures, don't use pictures off the internet. They are protected by copyright. And when you take your pictures, make sure it is clear that they are not stock pictures fromt he internet.

[daniel-low]

What can I say ?

Go for it.

Don't say you were not warned.

[salemcat]

I looked at the pic in question, and it does not appear to be professionally done at all

So in this case using your own pic would not seem to make a difference to the VERO owner.

[daniel-low]

For the curious, you will receive a message like this

After reviewing your eBay account, we've taken the following action:
- Listings have been removed. A list of items that were removed can be viewed at the bottom of this message.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s). 
Your listing or product was removed after the rights owner reported it as counterfeit. We urge you to contact the rights owner directly for more information about why they requested the removal of your listing or product and whether you can sell the item.

For more information on our VeRO program, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/vero/infoforusers.html

If you have more questions, contact our policy experts:
http://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/cusr?query=1337&=PTB1211

Please be sure your current and future listings follow these guidelines, keeping in mind that additional violations could result in the suspension of your account.

The rights owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the rights owner, Telebrands Corporation, notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law.

We encourage you to contact Telebrands Corporation directly if you have any questions.

You can send an email to:
ip@telebrands.com

For more information on how eBay protects Intellectual Property, or for additional information if you believe that your listing has been removed as a result of an error or misidentification, please visit the following Help page:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/programs-vero-ov.html

As you can see, there is no mention of "Copyright" violations. They explicitly complained the products were COUNTERFEIT.

Do Not Sell Them. Do Not be mislead into thinking all you need to do is use your own pics.

[ten_o_nine]

Are you using their image and description? If you did, they can.

[daniel-low · Accepted solution]

For the curious, you will receive a message like this:

Your listing or product was removed after the rights owner reported it as counterfeit.

Do Not Sell Them. Do not be mislead into thinking all you need to do is use your own pics.

I used my own picture, as you can see. And the description was minimal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/183545965848

If you think you can trick a VERO holder by using your own pics, or your own description, check mine out.

It does not work the way you wish it to.

[emerald40]

Posters need to read up on first sale doctrine.  Vero can shut you down for a variety of reasons like certain items cannot be sold Internationally and others have to be stored properly under certain guidelines.

[pjcdn2005]

"......others have to be stored properly under certain guidelines."

Source and quote please.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

I would say this company is being pigheaded about using VERO with a false 'counterfeit' takedown as they've most likely been financed through Shark Tank.

Wouldn't be surprised if they don't even know what the First Sale Doctrine IS and should they come up against a reseller who's willing to fight this would in all probablility lose.

Wasn't this sold through "As seen on TV" as well? Plus all their other bleepy stuff?