Have you ever spent a significant amount of time taking pictures for the item you are selling on eBay, only to find another eBay seller (sometimes referred to as an "image thief") has stolen your pictures and listed an item identical to yours? This may happen for one of two reasons. Either the seller is too lazy to take pictures of his or her own item for sale, or the seller does not actually have the item for sale and is attempting to defraud other buyers.

The Problem

Any eBay guest or member can easily right click pictures in an auction listing and save them to his or her own computer. The guest can easily register for an eBay seller account and begin selling identical items just like yours, even though the seller does not legitimately have the item available for sale. How can you stop an image thief from stealing your pictures? After all, it is your obligation as an eBay seller to do anything possible to reduce the amount of fraud on eBay.

The Solution

Put a unique watermark or other piece of identification in your pictures that contains your eBay user ID, identifying the pictures as your property. There are a couple ways you can do this. The most basic method is to take an index card and sharpie and write your eBay user ID on the card and simply place the card in a prominent place within the frame when you take your pictures. The more sophisticated method involves adding a digital watermark to your pictures as in the example below.

The watermark is basically just some text set at a semi-transparent level, making the watermark visible, but not overly obtrusive to take away from the picture itself. In the tutorial below, we will use Adobe Photoshop to add a watermark to a picture (applicable to both Windows and Mac).

Creating a Watermark in Adobe Photoshop

Step 1

The first step is to create the watermark text, which can be comprised of different fonts and effects such as a bevel or shadow. Because most auction pictures are sized around 600 pixels x 600 pixels, we will create our watermark to the same scale. Simply begin by creating a new Photoshop document (File > New).

Step 2

For the sake of convenience, begin by making the background of the new document a darker color in order for the watermark to show up more easily while we create it. Simply use the paint bucket tool to paint the background a darker color such as black. The next step is to create your watermark text. Using the text tool (T), type your eBay user ID exactly as it appears on your eBay account. Make sure your text is a lighter color, preferably white. You can choose any font, adjusting the font size to your satisfaction. When you are finished typing your eBay user ID, it should look similar to the screen shot below.

Step 3

Next, we make the watermark a little more elegant by adding a bevel and shadow to it. Simply right-click on your text layer and select Blending Options. The layer style window will appear. Begin by checking the Bevel and Emboss option, and adjust the settings under the Structure settings to add the desired bevel effect. In this example, we leave all the default values, except for the Size = 1 and Soften = 1. You can of course adjust the bevel to the desired look.

Step 4

In order to make the watermark stand out on lighter backgrounds, we add a shadow to the text. At this point you may want to change your background to a lighter color such as gray or white in order to see the effects of the shadow. Simply check the Shadow box and adjust the settings to give the watermark a light shadow without overpowering the rest of the image. In this example we tone the Opacity down to 30%, making the Distance equal to 2, and the Size equal to 3. Again, you can adjust the values to get the desired look. Be careful not to make the shadow too overpowering, as it might take away from the actual image you overlay it on.

Step 5

Next we alter the transparency of the text layer to make it semi-transparent. In the example below, we use 20% transparency for the text layer. Then we also liven up the image by rotating the text at a 45 degree angle.

Step 6

Next we copy the watermark text numerous times in order to create a grid of the text. This way when you drop the watermark on top of your picture, it covers the entire image and not just a small area. Doing so will prevent an image thief from saving your picture and just cropping out the watermark. To copy the text with its effects applied, simply right-click on the text layer and select Duplicate Layer. Then simply drag the duplicated layer to the desired position. You can continue duplicating the text layer until you have filled your image to your satisfaction. The end product will look similar to the example below.

Step 7

Since we will drag the watermark text onto actual pictures multiple times, we need all the text to be on a single layer. But since we copied the text layer over and over to create the grid as shown above, we need to merge the text layers into a single layer. Simply hide the visibility of the background layer (your darker color, black in our example) by clicking on the Eye symbol next to the background layer. The background should disappear, leaving just the text visible. Next select any of the text layers by clicking on the layer name. From the top menu, select Layer > Merge Visible.

Step 8

At this point, go ahead and save your Photoshop document so you can access the file in the future. After you save your document, keep it open while also opening your first picture of the item you are selling on eBay. Crop your picture to frame the actual item, and re-size the image to approximately 600x600. You can resize the image by selecting Image > Image Size from the top menu. You can size the height and width to approximately 600, keeping the resolution at 72 pixels per inch (the standard screen resolution).

Step 9

Now that your auction picture is sized properly, the next step is to drop the watermark created earlier onto your image. You should have both your auction picture and the watermark document open simultaneously in Photoshop.

Step 10

Select your watermark document, and copy the text layer to the clipboard (Select All, Edit > Copy). Select your auction picture and paste the clipboard into your picture (Edit > Paste). The clipboard only copies the actual layer though, so you will also need to right click on the layer and Copy and Paste the Layer Style (to retain the bevel, shadow, and transparency effect). Alternately you can just drag and drop the text layer from your watermark document to the auction picture.

Step 11

After pasting the watermark, your auction picture should contain the watermark similar to the screenshot below.

Step 12

You can adjust the transparency of your watermark on the layer properties until it looks satisfactory. Make sure the watermark is visible, but not overpowering to take away from the actual picture itself. Once you perfect the transparency to the desired level, you can save the transparency setting to the original watermark document to avoid having to adjust the transparency level each time you use the watermark. When finished, be sure to save your auction picture to save the changes with the new watermark. You can repeat the process for your other auction pictures.

Step 13

If you sell a lot of items on eBay, you may want to automate the process completed above to save your valuable time. Adobe Photoshop has a unique Action feature that permits you to automate tasks by saving sequences of commands and edits. Since you only need to create the actual watermark document once, you can record your actions from Step 8 through 12. To record your actions, first create a new action by selecting the New icon from the action window (if the action window is not visible, simply select Window > Action).

Step 14

You can name the action and even assign a shortcut such as Shift+10. Once you have created the new action, initiate the record procedure by selecting the Record button.

Step 15

Proceed by repeating Steps 8 through 12. When you are finished select the Stop button from the action window. Adobe Photoshop has saved the sequence of commands you just completed, so in the future you can just play the action sequence back by selecting the action and Play, or if you assigned a shortcut, simply type in the shortcut key. Your sequence of actions might look similar to the sequence below.

Congratulations! After a little practice, you will master placing watermarks on your auction pictures.

Benefits of Using Watermarks

Your eBay buyers will appreciate your hard efforts to eliminate potential fraud by using watermarks in your auction pictures. Buyers typically bid higher amounts when they feel confident in the item you are selling based upon the description and pictures. Using watermarks may even increase the closing prices of your items as buyers will feel confident the item you are selling is actually an item you physically possess. Watermarks will also prevent other image thieves from stealing your pictures and selling non-existent items. Using watermarks will help contribute to a reduction in fraud that takes place on eBay, caused by image thieves.