Hello everyone!

This was posted in a few other threads and I received a several requests to make a separate topic for it.

For the last few weeks I've been working on an eBay buyers guide for fig trees and cuttings.  With so much negative eBay sentiment floating around lately, I decided to put the finishing touches on it yesterday and publish it to eBay.  Here's the link:

Buying Fig Trees and Cuttings From the Internet

eBay really is a great outlet for all of us; buyers and sellers included.  You just have to be careful when buying.  Approach all of your potential purchases cautiously and you'll be able to weed out the bad sellers.

Take a look at the guide and let me know what you think.

Thanks

It certainly does deserve its own thread. Your guide is well done, with good information. Great job!!

Regards,
billy

yes, great job Danny, I sell on ebay and have been thinking about using a watermark but I have no idea about how to do it. Cany anyone help?

Looks good Danny, maybe jon will add it to the "Start Here" thread.

Thanks Danny.

Thanks.  I'm glad everyone is liking it.

Scott - There's plenty of watermark creation software available.  I use a Mac and have an app called Watermark Pro.  It's very simple to use.
If you have a PC, I'm sure there's something similar.  I think eBay can insert a watermark onto your picture when you list.  From eBay's 
Photo Requirements page:

Watermark policy

Watermarks are allowed for ownership and attribution, but not for marketing information, specific details about your item, or customer service. Your watermark should be no bigger than 5% of the total image area, have an opacity of no more than 50%, and never obscure the item. Links are not allowed in watermarks.

To make sure your watermarks are compliant, use the eBay watermark creation service. You’ll find it in the “Bring your item to life with pictures” section of the listing form.

Well done, thanks Danny.

Very well written. It has given a newbe like me more info on buying cutting. Thanks   rick

Thanks again, Danny.  I posted it on my Facebook fig page.

Thanks Danny ,once again you're the man

Watermark Factory 2 is a great tool for watermarks.  A little more comprehensive than a basic watermark, but you can get very creative with it.

I read this from the other thread. Found the contents extremely useful and informative. Great work!

Great piece of information and guidance Danny, very well scripted. I know that you are reluctant to mention how eBay informs on international sales but there are still illegal purchases being done because they think only a few get caught not knowing that all eBay international plant sales are be monitored. You put a lot of time and effort into this guide and it is surely appreciated by all members and even non-members. Thanks.

Danny, that is a very informative article!

The only question I have and this has been discussed here before is regarding the concept of stolen pictures.   

I wonder if the issue with photos used off the internet is more that;
if it doesn't represent the product they said you are purchasing then you have a reason to return it or get some refund?

Thanks again to everyone for reading.  I really appreciate it.

Pino - Thanks for your comments and question.  I don't know the legalities of using someone else's photo without their permission.  I'm not a photographer and the extent of my photo knowledge is such that I can take a picture, get it on my computer, do some light editing, watermark it and use it wherever I need to.  So, I wrestled with thoughts of photos for a long time and here's what I came up with.  Photos are a tremendous part of purchasing anything online, not just fig trees and cuttings.  Being that they're such an important part of buying, pictures should accurately and honestly represent the item that is being purchased.  In my opinion, a stolen picture (or borrowed in your case) may accurately but not honestly represent an item for a host of reasons and that particular auction should be avoided.  In addition to discrediting an auction, the act of using another's photo without permission discredits the seller.  

There are certainly exceptions to the rule and those weren't discussed in the guide.  Because photos are so important, I devoted a separate section to it but tried to keep the issue as simple to understand as possible.  I hope that came through.  

It is a great read Danny.  A timely job well done.

thanks guys I'll look into the watermark thing.

Danny, your guide is very informative and I think it will help eBay fig buyers choose wisely! 

Hello, everyone.

Brent (hoosierbanana) showed me how to search for stolen pictures.  images.google.com is a pretty cool tool.  There are others available, too.  Test is out for yourselves.  I won't get into any technical stuff (not that I'm that technical anyway) but I tested it on sellers with auctions outside of the US.  It's hard to find an auction with a picture that's NOT hijacked.

For anyone that's interested, I updated the "Stolen pictures" section of the guide from:

• Stolen pictures.  How do you know if a picture is stolen?  You don’t unless you're told so.  But the more you shop, the more pictures you’ll see.  Eventually you’re going to say, “Hey, haven’t I seen that picture somewhere before?”  If you know or think a picture is stolen, the auction is discredited.  Move on.

• Stolen pictures.  How do you know if a picture is stolen?  You don’t unless you're told so or search for yourself.  There are many methods of searching for stolen images and some are more advanced than others.  If you're comfortable with your computing skills, Google "How to search for stolen images" and find a method that works for you.  Searching for stolen images is not a necessity and as a buyer you'll be exposed to a generous amount of pictures.  Eventually you’re going to say, “Hey, haven’t I seen that picture somewhere before?”  It happens to all of us.  If you know or think a picture is stolen, the auction is discredited.  Move on.

Glad I could help Danny.

I actually received tree (basswood?) seedlings once. Obviously I could have avoided the hassle if I had looked harder at the image used in the listing. I had missed the original listing the pic was from, Google would have found it for me though.