Someone Re-Branding My Craft Items

[suspiw]

being retired and not of pensionable age, I make handcrafted items and sell on line. Some times listing at a 99p start, which just about covers the cost of materials, auction charges and paypal. Fortunately some of my items sell quite well others hardly rise above the starting price. I have for some time suspected that repeat buyers are re-selling the bargains they buy, not a lot I can do about that, and quite accept you take a chance and some you win, some you loose.

However I have now discovered that one bargain hunter is selling them on as her own handicraft and labelling them as Handcrafted by Herself. She sells at
Tynemouth market and also on line via her own web site. I have visited her website and she is selling fellow crafters work I recognise from the auction site and in her blog mentions she has worked on them. and her own labels can be clearly seen in the photographs.
My action so far , has been to rise my start prices to discourage this sort of activity and with this particular person I have blocked them from bidding on any of my items.
I'm also thinking along the lines of contacting the other sellers she is buying from just to warn them , so they can decide whether or not to sell to her, purely their decision. Obviously I will have to give Her ID and website details in doing this.

How do I stand legally on this. I dont want to inform others only to find myself in some legal proceedure, if she finds out. Many thanks in advance for any advice.

[suspiw]

Many thanks 237sj.

Coke Tulip many thanks as well and too all who have contributed.

I'm sure there are many others are doing the same. But this one has been block from bidding on my items. The only way she could buy again would be to open a new account, but her address would be the same. She wont be doing it again to me. I just wanted to make others aware without getting in a legal stew.

[suspiw]

roopower,
That happens with the auction site. They are hard to copy and not as good.
All I can say is I now find it flattering, used to make my blood boil though.
No imagination, some people, have to copy LOL xx

[roopower]

I hope you can get it sorted to your satisfaction. My handicrafting was just for fun and other things took its place. It must be very frustrating and annoying when you're trying to make a bit if income.

[Tuvok]

Why not take a stall next to hers.......

Have some photos on display of you making the products.....

[suspiw]

thanks roopower

[suspiw]

Tuvok, she lives at a guess 300 miles away lol. but what a great idea if petrol wasnt so dear.

[bravejordy]

suspiw, on a positive note, if you're no longer selling to her, her supplies will soon run out and as she is not the one who is genuinely making them, her customers will wonder why she is no longer selling them. Beware though, she could get a friend with an eBay account (assuming you are talking about eBay) to bid on her behalf. As others have already mentioned, the only way to prevent this from happening is to mark your merchandise in some distinctive way so that the items in question are undeniably your handcrafted products. Legally, I don't think there's much you can do about the ones she's already sold but you can learn from your mistakes and stop it from happening again in the future.

[suspiw]

brave jordy, she is already buying from a mulitude of people. I seem to recall that (without looking) her last 12 months buyers feedback is approaching 2000. so losing me as a seller would have little affect on her supplies, she has plenty of others to buy from. Incidently she never sells her booty on ebay, that would be too obvious to sellers, very crafty of her. Excuse then pun, bet she has never handcrafted anything. ;-)

[bravejordy]

Apologies suspiw, I didn't mean to imply she was selling on eBay, I assumed she was buying from you via eBay with you saying you'd now blocked her from bidding on your items. However, I am shocked that she has been allowed to buy so much and for so long from you and others if she's such an unscrupulous person. Why is it that you've waited all this time to complain about her?

[suspiw]

brave jordy, I have only just discovered what her activity was, within the last few days. I did a search on the internet too see how much similiar items sold for and came across her site by accident. She tends to buy the lower priced items, I have now raised my starting prices to discourage others doing the same thing. Which is a shame for the genuine buyers who are short of money .
No need to apologise, I did understand your point. Only put the the not sells on ebay herself to point out her craftiness. thanx

[Hypognosis]

@supiw

If we put ourselves in this other person's shoes for just a moment, we can see that she perceives you and these other eBay sellers as mugs, selling under-priced goods.

You said yourself that you put hundreds of hours effort into making the pieces so why don't you set an asking price closer to what it cost you, personally, to make the thing?

If this were Dragon's Den, they'd be asking you "how much does it cost you to make this? How much profit do you make?" Based on your responses in this thread, they'd probably tell you to stop wasting your own time and do something more profitable instead.

However, you are not trying to run a business and the expression "it's a labour of love" seems to be more appropriate. You do it because you get enjoyment out of it. Fine by me.

However, I think I can infer that you are using eBay because you live somewhere where there are too few customers, with too-small wallets to make a market stall at all viable. Chances are the woman you're complaining about lives in a major metropolitan area with access to a large customer base who aren't short of money and are accustomed to paying handsomely for labour-intensive, exclusive-design products.

Needless to say, rich idiots can't impress other rich idiots using these products unless the "designer" item has its easy-to-see label.

Charge what these things are actually worth and you won't have to block this woman any more because she won't have any profit margin left, after paying delivery, eBay and PayPal fees.

[boxtops]

I understand by suspiw is selling at low prices - I knit, and it's really hard to ask a price for small things which also reflects the costs of your time and skill. I tend to cover the cost of materials plus perhaps a bit extra, and treat the making time as a hobby. You'd never sell anything if you factored in an hourly rate, unless you are selling really high end stuff.

[boxtops]

Hypo has quite a point - try listing some of your items on eBay for the same price this woman is charging, and see what happens....

[jno]

Hypo, you're right, but I don't think money's quite the issue here. suspiw has acknowledged that others will sell her products on and will make whatever profit they can from it - that's normal commercial practice, and could certainly be stopped if suspiw raised her own prices.

The real problem is that they are being sold as if made by the new seller. That's not just personally unsatisfying for someone involved in a labour of love, it amounts to theft, and it appears the buyer is doing it on a wide scale.

[Hypognosis]

//it amounts to theft, and it appears the buyer is doing it on a wide scale. //

Well, we're discussing the differences between "cottage industry" and post-Henry Ford mass manufacturing. The person working alone has the overheads of a home to keep and a family to feed. The factory owner is able to churn out quantity and easily afford the land, buildings the workforce and, most important of all, the business of patenting their creativity.

Other types of "intellectual property" are even harder to protect, in the digital age, like music, which is easily prone to being downloaded, sampled and passed off as fresh material.

Basically, if you are creative and ahead of the game, then you have to work hard at getting yourself known and recognised for what you do so that, when a faker turns up on the scene, everyone recognises them for what they are. (It always used to be "cheap imitation" but this seems to be an unusual case of "pricier imitation"!)

[EDDIE51]

Two points,
1 If you are a private seller trading standards will not be intrested, they only deal with traders (as the name suggests)
2 If the other seller is buying your stuff and selling it on at a profit then you are under charging. Put your price up to match the other seller.