Protect Your Real Photo Postcards

Hello, Delcampers!

This is to let you know that some people capture images of our real photo postcards and sell the copies on fee-bay.

How do I know? It happened to me. I know it was my image because the ebay seller actually left most of my name and the Delcampe URL on the bottom of what they were selling. Now, they only got $7.20 (well, minus fee-bay fees/paypal fees/postage) but I got $0.00. The more I think about it, the more I think it devalues what we do and the postcards (and actual antique photos and images in general) in the long run. The image was sold as a copy--the seller was honest in that regard--and I don't have anything against the owner selling copies as copies but this goes over the line. (or am I getting upset about nothing? I am open to that possibility, too. The internet has changed a lot about how we think about a lot of things after all!)

watermark your images somehow; scan at low resolution (no more 150dpi for me!) I have let the ebay pc community know, the Delcampe Team know and the ebay seller know what happened. (the ebayer says they'd like to buy my postcard but had 'trouble registering on Delcampe'.) I don't know, but it seems like Delcampe wouldn't want their auctions sold like this. On the plus side, a new Delcamper found Delcampe and me by wondering what the name at the bottom of the image was! (always looking for the positive in any situation, you know. . . )

Anyway, if this is of concern to you and you haven't thought about this before, or taken any simple precautions, this post is to let you know that it can and does happen from time to time.

Best regards to all, and thanks for reading ( )
Alan

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I wonder if Delcampe could put some sort of " Link (http) " watermark in the images it hosts? I know condition is important--to stamps as well as photos and postcards--so it probably won't get done. I would expect a world of hurt to come down on me if I captured images from e-bay and sold them elsewhere. . . .

Maybe I'm being naive, but I reported this to e-bay support and I hope to get an answer (something you wouldn't get from the Chinese government! )

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Thanks for the response, upthebaggies!

It's a postcard that has not sold here. The fee-bayer did get someone to shell out $7.20 for the image w/my name and the Delcampe URL on it--nothing a pair of scissors can't cure! (Which is the nice thing about copies; I'd hate to cut up a rppc!) Says a lot about the caliber of buying one can find on that other site, if you ask me.

I understand that it's 'not that big of a deal', I just wanted to let others know as I was hoping I was not the only one out there who naively didn't realize this sort of thing happens.

No answer of e-bay support yet; Delcampe "can't do anything about it" since it's not on their site. (and wouldn't be worth the trouble to pursue, I assume.)

Dear Alan
Please let me know. Is there a simple way to find out if any of my items has an image copy on Ebay?
I think that such a copy and any other modern copies are plain fraud.
There are some new printing of vintage postcards done by honest people. But you have to point it out.
There are also some sellers of clipping photo's of some high value postage stamps from a newspaper or an auction catalogue.

Best wishes
Baruch

Hi, Baruch!
yes, I think it's fraud. it's of such low value (in my case a $30 postcard vs. a $5 copy) and it was pure luck (someone saw the Delcampe URL and thought "hmm, I wonder what that place is?" and came here) that there's not much to do.
except, of course, watermark the image. an artist friend who works for a museum--I also volunteer at one so I know a bit about reproducing images and the paperwork involved when someone buys a copy from an original--says that 150dpi shouldn't make a good copy; well, someone at fee-bay found at least one ignorant buyer. Also, never buy copies--as I've said, the fee-bay listing was plainly labelled as a copy--although the communitiy seems divided on that and you either like copies sometimes or you don't; it has little to do with the ethics involved.

if you search e-bay, checking off 'include description', for: "not pay the huge bucks" you wil see how to find this particular seller. [I hestiate to add this bit; I don't want to give this seller any publicity. From what I can see, there are no more stolen copies, although perhaps someone here can see one of their postcards.] Again, it was pure luck that anyone curious saw my stolen image and that in this particular case the seller was so sloppy that they forgot to crop their stolen image without any identification. (I will add my capture of the e-bay sale image below; it has since been removed so I can only whistle into the wind.) Take a look: hard to believe someone could be so sloppy to post this sale; also hard to believe someone would buy it! This seller has one other sale with a similar paperclip line(?) over the end of my name in the lower left but there is no other identifying mark so it's hard to tell if that image, too, was stolen from Delcampe.

Again, this issue is over for me--in the sense that I'm not going to lose any sleep over it--but I have a 'watch' on the e-bay and will try to catch them before the nest stolen image sale ends.

Alan,
I've been an online hobby seller for quite a few years now and the issue of "pinching photos/item descriptions/reproductions" has cropped up many times on the forums of the sites I sell on.
All you can do is inform the auction site in question and I've found that in most cases they will act in your favour by removing the auction in question.

To be honest I would hate to "watermark" my pictures - I hate pictures with a big line or writing all over the image, as it stops me as a buyer from viewing the details of an item offered for sale, but there are always those peeps who take advantage of that!