Can other sellers copy and use my auction photos on their offers?

Wulfmann

I noticed an auction for the same thing I recently sold and thought the picture looked very much like mine.
Clicked on it and it actually was my picture and at first I thought GB had relisted an item of mine that had sold but of course it was a different seller.
Now, this has no adverse affect on me and being a case of ammo it was generic enough but still just curious.
Is this OK to do as i against the rules?
Should I have reported it?
And, who would i report it to?
By that I mean someone that will actually reply, no offense

Ricci.Wright

I have had people steal entire auctions from me. They have copied my entire presentation, words, photos', everything, and listed them on another firearms sales site at a low fixed sale price. The last one was a few months ago and the guy had my gun and two other listings for sale. I found the other two guns and their real listings on Gunbroker. I contacted the gun shop that owned those two guns and let them know what was happening. As far as just taking your pictures, I don't know. Send Gunbroker an email and ask.

nmyers

There's no way to prevent someone from copying your photos.  However, it's a reportable (criminal) offense for someone to "hi-jack" your auction & get the payment sent to them.

To discourage photo copying, some folks put a "watermark" on all their photos.  I don't know how they do it, maybe someone will volunteer that information.  Absent that, you could put a unique item with a little sign reading "Wulfmann's garden gnome" or something like in every picture to identify your genuine auctions.

Neal

bustedknee

Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Locust Fork

I wouldn't worry too much about it if they are actually SELLING an item.     If they are using your pictures and copying your wording to pull a scam, that is not cool at all and they need to be stopped.    Just using what they can to get a sale done isn't terrible.....just lazy.      I get notices from people every once in a while asking if I'm also selling something I have listed on another website.  Its always the same place.....they must not do much to keep the scammers off their site.       

bambihunter

I don't know when they started, but GunBroker watermarks all auction pictures with the sellers user name. When I purchase an item, I download the "complete webpage" so that I can pull it up down the road. It is very handy down the road if I go to relist. I generally don't re-use their pictures from when I bought it, but sometimes there is some history or info that I somehow missed in my listing.
So, as eluded to above, my personal feeling is if it is a legit auction, especially if they acknowledge the picture is not of the actual item, then I don't see a problem with the pictures. Now, to copy the formatting too, they could be trying to emulate you to trick buyers. That could be potentially shady. But, then again there is obviously not many sellers that know how to do proper HTML formatting. There are some sellers that have every word all in one paragraph in all caps. Those I generally skip right over. So, perhaps those people are trying to make it usable. I don't know the answer even to my own mind. I think it boils down to intention and how does one prove intention in an online auction?

MrMag00

DMCA

4205raymond

Many times I have seen whole auctions (pic,description,price) from GB listed on the A list. Contacted sellers on GB and at first they don't believe you. Then in less than a hour they e-mail back, apologize and thank me. Risky business dealing with that site but after careful research I have done it once or twice a year.