Sell a similar item feature (this allows other sellers ) to STEAL Seller's WORK & listings in part

[mustanggirl64.5]

Ebay needs to discontinue their ' Sell similar item ' feature

Sellers are stealing my work, my listings in full and part with this feature,  I find these sellers to be thieves, cons, lazy, rude, and should be reprimanded by Ebay , I should not have to fill out lengthy forms with VeRo program,  often I see titles with exact wordages as mine, then i scroll down these sellers are using all of my item specifics, listings take a lot of time, so now, Ebay has been allowing lazy sellers to STEAL our listings in part/ or full,  and make a laughingstock of the true , hard working SELLERS on Ebay, I do not see any great reward selling on ebay, stress, competition, dealing with thieves, and basically liars and cheats who steal my work.   I am calling them out via messages, but often they cry , 'oh I didn't know'.. EBAY is 99.9% at fault for not ending the 'SELL SIMILAR ITEM FEATURE' , so pipe up hard working sellers, often your listing is being stolen by a non working 'seller' who is lazy , plus a big,  fat THIEF!

Ebay should shut down thieves not allow this feature to be present. 

MustangGirl64.5

 Painted Pony Boutique   

[chrysylys]

Once you upload the listing, it really isn't your property any more.  It becomes part of the site catalog.

[chrysylys]

I glanced at a couple of your listings.  Nothing I would want to copy.  Too wordy, too many negatives and 'don't do this'  type admonishments.  Poor layout, cluttered, hard to read, bad font choices, etc.

Not even listings I would want to buy from.

Just my opinion.

[lookng2015]

It's not the 'sell similar' feature - it's the "sell one like this" function and it does NOT copy your entire listing btw. If they've done that then they've had to actually copy & paste from your listing.

Just as a heads up, like movie and song and book titles in the 'real world' you have no rights over the title of a listing. There are only so many ways to describe the same thing in 80 characters or less.

[lookng2015]

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@chrysylys wrote:

Once you upload the listing, it really isn't your property any more.  It becomes part of the site catalog.

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Not actually true.

[kattinsanity]

I recently had a buyer who purchased a coffee maker new in box.  He left me positive feedback but saying it wasn't what he expected so he was going to sell it.  GREAT~~he didn't try to return it to me for a refund or fake a SNAD case.  I looked and he had used my pictures and some of my description.  I didn't care.  It wasn't mine anymore and he was doing me a HUGE favor in selling it himself.  He listed it for more money and it sold~~I didn't care about that either.

It used to bother me when I searched for something and found pics of my own items in other sellers listings.  Then I thought that they may not have a good camera  or may not have a camera at all.  If they want to use my pics I'm flattered that my pics are good enough for them to choose to use.  If my pics help them sell their items and make them some money all the better.  It isn't as if their using my pics is going to cause ME any problems.  If my pics result in them getting a SNAD case against them it's their problem.

You can't stress over little things like this.

[kattinsanity]

The OP's TOS is a joke, right?  No buyer loses their right to file a case or to get a refund.  To state that ebay and pay pal agree with the OP's terms is a downright lie.  Pictures?  Pictures are terrible~~the OP is trying to show off her yard more than taking good pics of the actual item.  The purse body should be the main focus~~too much of the pics are taken up with the strap & yard~~the purse itself is a little blob in all that background.  I can't see anyone wanting to steal the OP's pictures.  Descriptions are taken from ebay catalog~~not anything there the belongs exclusively to the OP.

[lookng2015]

Apart from anything else, I'd think if it was the same bag well of course the IS would be the same.

[chrysylys]

I just glanced, didn't look close or try to read.  I was expecting something more unique, artistic and flashy.  All I saw was blocks of text in weird fonts.

C'est la vie.

[thatsallfolks]

@mustanggirl64.5

The function you’re ranting about doesn’t copy description or photos. 

And who are these incredibly needy sellers who are stealing your listings?

[rolenboy01]

It's not worth losing sleep over you have no control over it let it go.

[a_c_green]

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@thatsallfolks wrote:

@mustanggirl64.5

The function you’re ranting about doesn’t copy description or photos. 

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I was wondering if anyone was going to point that out. 

If you choose Sell Similar on one of your own listings, you will indeed get a fresh copy of it with everything included. If you choose Sell Similar on someone else's listing, you will get only the category and the title. Try it and see.

If you really want to steal the content of someone else's listing, you will have to do it manually.

[omgitlightsup]

Try to get used to it.

eBay does not allow you to take ownership of your photos, description wording, or anything else you contribute to the site. In fact, they want  your content to become generic so they can organize sales by item identity, not seller identity.

Basically,  they want to be like Amazon, where you can search for a Nintendo Switch and see "deals starting at $299 from these sellers."

In the future, your photos and descriptions will probably appear on all items matching a buyer's search. That is the reason you are getting nagged to enter UPCs and versions and all that specific data for your sales. It's also the reason you cannot add text or watermarks to your photos.

If you want to establish any kind of identity as a seller, you have to do it by making tasteful compositions with your fonts/colors/etc. Please don't turn it into an unreadable wall of fruit salad.

[solarshift7]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@thatsallfolks wrote:

@mustanggirl64.5

The function you’re ranting about doesn’t copy description or photos. 

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I was wondering if anyone was going to point that out. 

If you choose Sell Similar on one of your own listings, you will indeed get a fresh copy of it with everything included. If you choose Sell Similar on someone else's listing, you will get only the category and the title. Try it and see.

If you really want to steal the content of someone else's listing, you will have to do it manually.

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I too wondered that.  Seemed to be the OP was implying it was just that simple.  I've had a few stolen listing descriptions from one of my accounts that sells some very unique items.  I spend the time to word everything my way aggregating info from many sources, I was one of the first to resell said items...in time others did.  One guy copied my entire (uniquely written) decription area.  I decided eBay probably wouldn't do much but I do now watch him like a hawk.  While he hasn't copied my text since I think he can tell by my pricing he's being watched.  I buy in bulk and doubt he does-so this limits his pricing and profit.  Imitation being the sincerest form of compliment...

[tunicaslot]

I'm a purse fanatic - have more purses than I could ever use in a lifetime and was thrilled to see you sold purses! But sorry OP - you're listings with long TOS - threats and conditions put me off - I never did find the item description I was interested in. Someone copying all that would be foolish!