Stolen photos in eBay auction?

W

WDG

Guest
Found an auction for a Yashica GX, and two of the photos are from Stephen Gandy's article. I've posed the question to the seller, and also notified Mr. Gandy. Maybe it's the same camera from the article, but if not, then what you see is NOT what you'll get.

eBay auction #7591438942

Seller: dakotaal

IMHO, a seller who sees nothing wrong with using stolen photos (IF that is indeed what these are) in an auction probably also sees nothing wrong with fudging the truth in the description.

Hopefully, I'm mistaken.
 
This happens to Gandy all the time. It's usually a Leica M6J offered by someone with zero feedback who steals the images and description. This seller is stupid; he has a lot of experience and is mixing pictures from different sources.
 
I've been through that article several times, and the photos on CameraQuest tend to have very warm shadows, so these two really stood out when I glanced at the auction. They are very different than the seller's own photos, and he's gone to the trouble to rotate the first one.

The seller's response (I had noted the photos and asked him if this was the same camera featured in the article): "I BELIEVE I FOUND CAMERA IN A FARGO USED STORE SOME TIME AGO."

Hmmm. Guess it's not the same camera, though the seller doesn't seem to be grasping the nature of the question. Anyway, Stephen wrote back that he will have eBay take down the auction. Too bad he has to waste his time on such things. *** (It just went down. Expect I'll get a nasty-gram, next.) ***

The only reason I can think of to use photos in an auction that are not of the actual item for sale, other than maybe multple identical brand-new items, is that there's something the seller doesn't want to show. He never does show the front of the actual auction camera.
 
This camera has some history bumps scratches and wear. The gallery picture is not the camera being sold - the pictures that follow are of the actual camera being sold please take this into consideration when bidding - I have no idea if it even works.

this is his quote from a different camera Nikon F....
 
WDG said:
I've been through that article several times, and the photos on CameraQuest tend to have very warm shadows, so these two really stood out when I glanced at the auction. They are very different than the seller's own photos, and he's gone to the trouble to rotate the first one.

The seller's response (I had noted the photos and asked him if this was the same camera featured in the article): "I BELIEVE I FOUND CAMERA IN A FARGO USED STORE SOME TIME AGO."

Hmmm. Guess it's not the same camera, though the seller doesn't seem to be grasping the nature of the question. Anyway, Stephen wrote back that he will have eBay take down the auction. Too bad he has to waste his time on such things. *** (It just went down. Expect I'll get a nasty-gram, next.) ***

The only reason I can think of to use photos in an auction that are not of the actual item for sale, other than maybe multple identical brand-new items, is that there's something the seller doesn't want to show. He never does show the front of the actual auction camera.
Click to expand...

That is a manufactured response - not from a real person.
 
Last weekend while looking at info on the oly 35rc I noticed that a ebay seller had cut and pasted the entire opening paragraph of gandy's page on the 35rc, so I figured I would shoot him an e-mail just to let him know. I got a reply in about 5 minutes thanking me and saying he would have the action pulled - sure enough it was stopped.
 
Not to defend any copyright infringers - rather the opposite-, some do believe stupidly but honestly that they are using factory promo-shots or public domain stuff and react exactly like the one bcs89 mentions: pull the auction immediately with a red face. It would be nice in cases like that if they would apologize to Stephen.
 
Wow, I figured the other guy selling a GX ((http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7592068070&sspagename=ADME:L:RTQ:US:1)) stole them from the guy mentioned by the OP.
I asked him if he had any actual pictures, since his were apparently taken from another listing. He wrote back offering to send me some via email.
He apparently missed my point. How in the world would I be able to trust that the ones he sent me were actual when he's already established himself as a liar? At least, that's how I think of someone that lists using a stolen pic.

I'm interested in a GX, but I won't be bidding on either of those auctions.

Disclaimer...I hope I'm not just mixed up with whom owns what.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom