eBay User ‘pictsidhe’ and Stolen Images

pictsidhe of Ammanford, United Kingdom stole our 2005 QEII Proof Sovereign photograph to use on eBay, without our permission, to try to sell his own. Totally dishonest.
Image theft is endemic on eBay, and most sellers appear not to care whether their buyers are deceived.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member’s feedback was 976 with 100% Positive Feedback according to eBay.

eBay Copyright Thieves
Many eBay vendors use our coin photographs to sell inferior quality coins on eBay. These eBay members are dishonest and should be avoided.
We believe eBay profits from IP rights infringements (copyright theft), and does so knowingly, only removing infringing items reluctantly, if at all.

What’s Wrong?

We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin and gold bar images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us.

Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers.

It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar bar, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.

The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.

Sample Listing

“2005 Proof Sovereign, still in Mint sealed bag, the first two photos are stock photos of the contents, the 3rd photo is the actual item, still in it’s Mint sealed bag.
This coin has the one-off design by Timothy Noad and features a depiction of St George slaying the dragon, with the date 2005 beneath the the dragon.  Sovereigns weigh 7.98 grams are 22 carat and contain Fine Gold Content, 7.315 grams / 0.2354 troy ounces of fine gold. They are 22.05mm diameter. It comes with all the offical Royal Mint packaging as issued, which includes the capsule, plush inner case and the outer card box as well as the Mint sealed bag, It’s becoming rare to see them unopened, which this is. Also included is the official certificate of authenticity, I don’t know the number without opening it, but another from the same lot was 12438, so it is probably high.
Only 12,500 of these 2005 full Sovereigns were issued in gold Proof, and like the 1989 and 2002 coins, these one-off designs have become very collectable and are increasing in value each year, especially with gold prices hitting an all-time high again recently. This is brand new and unopened, grab a bargain while I am raising cash! They are priced at £405 online from the dealer I originally purchased it from.
FREE POSTAGE FOR UK BUYERS – Special Delivery which is fully insured with next day delivery.
I do accept PayPal, but much prefer to have a personal cheque or bank transfer if at all possible please. I will send abroad, but owing to the declining postal service, it could take a few weeks to arrive, and I cannot get it fully insured for loss, (some countries are zero compensation). Although I have yet to have an item go missing, but have had airmail take 6 weeks, it is usually 5-15 days to the USA. In  a nutshell, I will send a well packed item by signed for airmail delivery (Airsure now seems slower than airmail), supply a tracking number, but once I’ve done that, I am no longer responsible for anything that happens to the item.”

Seller ID:  pictsidhe
Item Number: 120797678835
Date: 20th November, 2011
Description: 2005 proof QEII Sovereign, boxed, COA, Mint sealed pack!

Price: £370.00.

Price
The seller was asking for a starting price of £370.00.

Even after eBay’s greedy 10% selling fees, and possible PayPal charges, the seller would almost certainly have been much better off selling the coins to us, instead of stealing our photographs.