I too think this is very important. One does have to read and understand what exactly the auction is for.....many people don't throughly read the entire description before they get in on an auction. That is the buyers responsibility to do. If you have questions or are not sure about the item/items being auctioned one should be ask the seller prior to bidding...that again is the buyers responsibility. Use only the Ebay messaging system to do this and not personal email thus providing Ebay with an accurate account of what transpired with the buyer & seller. If my memory serves me correctly Ebay will not use personal email messages as they can be changed, some omitted to serve the purpose of whomever has a problem.

I just feel there is no violation here as the needs of a diverse people are being met without fault to anyone.

I have stopped buying from Ebay, because I got burned a couple of times. Will not chance the 3rd time.

Ebay is a great marketplace but you have to read everything as
quiltmaker states. They have gotten a lot stricter with bad sellers. I also check feedback before I bid on or buy anything. I read it carefully as well b/c sometimes new buyers or just plain nasty people can hurt a good sellers score. READ READ READ :D

I have gotten 6 or 7 patterns (pages torn from magazine) on e-bay. I also got 1 pattern (copied from the pages of a magazine). I don't think that should be legal. If you are getting the pattern from a magazine you should get the actual pages. Don't want to think of how many "copies" she made of the actual pages. Say, you could make a lot of money doing that.

Lynn

I agree. If they were the actual pages and not a copy I believe it is legal. If they copied them, that may violate copyright laws.

I think the seller should have told you what is was first though, even if it is legal.

Legal or not...I would still feel cheated. I think it is a slip shod way to make money. Look at the way they cut them out..they represented them in a dishonest manner. Why not just sell the whole magazine. When I was in business...I never ever did things like that. My business was important to me and how it was represented. I would complain to Ebay and to the seller.
Best of luck with this one.

your right on...

Out of extreme curosity I went on Ebay and put in "Quilt Patterns" and there are many. There are "Top Ebay Sellers" that write in their descriptions that these patterns are out of magazines, etc., etc. It's easy enough for anyone of us to go look, see & check for ourselves.

Many of these people have been selling on Ebay for years and have been selling patterns from magazines....have exceptional feedback and very satisfyied customers. I cannot imagine them selling for over 10 years and not knowing what they are doing. If it were illegal I doubt very seriously that they would be doing it all these years. The vast majority of Ebay sellers are very reputable and do not want to have any controversy whatsoever to diminish their good name. After all that is how they became "Top Sellers" in the first place. They are caring sellers who have a business and want to take care of their customers. I personally didn't find anything offensive about the way the pattern was as carefully as possibly pulled from the magazine (we all know how hard that might be) nor the way the templates were cut from the page. I imagine that was they only way to do it without sending a part of the magazine that did not pertain to the quilt pattern.

It's up to each individual to decide if they want to purchase a product or not and because one might choose to purchase singular pattern/patterns out of convenience for themselves does not make it wrong.

By the way I am NOT an Ebay seller but a person who has purchased many, many things off of Ebay and only had one bad experience many years ago.

It depends -

The first thing I would do would be to go back and read the auction description.

If the auction description was accurate - and I didn't catch that it stated that it was pages from a magazine - I would be mad at myself.

If the auction description did not say that the pattern was pages from a magazine, then I would be upset at the seller.

Sometimes the description is "accurate" - but my mind was "seeing it" as better than it actually was.

also notify ebay

Thanks, Candace. That occurred to me but too late. When I said I copy a pattern, it's for my own use only since I hate to tear up a magazine. In my day, we were taught to respect books & for me, that includes magazines. Thanks again for the advice. There is so much to learn in this grp.

This also happened to me once. I bid on what I thought was a packaged pattern of a historic quilt. I was shocked when it arrived and was pages cut from a magazine.

I see nothing wrong with selling pages, but it should be clearly stated in the listing. Mine was not..

So, I am a bit more careful now, leason learned..

Yes, this is exactly what I expected. An actual pattern in a 5x7 clear envelope. I was even surprised to receive such a lg. envelope.

Thank you all for your input & advice.
You made me curious so that I went back to read the description. She does state twice that the pattern is orig. pages from a magazine. Guess I need to read more thoroughly in the future. I usually do but it was so cheap I didn't bother. Must be legal then. Oh well, I've learned so much from all of you about it.

I have bought patterns from Ebay this way. It tells you on the site that you will get actual pages from a magazine. I was not disappointed or upset. I would rather buy only a pattern I want, then buy a whole magazine I don't necessarily want. The pattern comes in a clear plastic sleeve that makes it easy to store.
I have so many magazines that I have kept and will never use the patterns from them...I think it's a win win deal.....JMHO :D

That isn't right. Contact E bay too.

That is just downright deceitful. It really takes the cake.

I am probably a bad person for doing this but.... Every once in awhile I go thru my stacks of magazine to clear them out. If there is a pattern I want out of the magazine I just rip it out. I then put them in a pile for a garage sale. I figure I bought the magazine and can do what I want with it. I could just pitch the rest of the magazine but there may be someone who might want one of the patterns I don't. I usually just ask 25 - 50 cents on them.
If I tear too much out I just pitch the magazine.

Am I a bad person??????

No, it wasn't deceitful. The customer "didn't read the fine print" before bidding.

Ebay has a policy that the posting must state if it is cut from a magazine. If you go back to the original listing you will probably find in the smallest of small print the wording stating that it is cut from a magazine. If there are 15 patterns in a magazine and even 10 of them are complete when torn out that person just took a $5 magazine and turned it into at least a $10 profit!

It is frustrating and infuriating if you bid and don't notice it....,I've fallen victim multiple times. I now know to look for it.

I just went to Ebay to their "Contact Us" area. I just got a list of things that sellers can't do. This one seems to address what we're questioning at the moment.

" OnPotentially infringing items may be in violation of certain copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights. So some items are not allowed (even though they may be legal) because they often violate copyright or trademark laws. This also applies to certain types of information that appear in listings."

This sounds a little broad to me. This buyer I got the pattern from lists a lot of things so it must be ok with everybody so I'm just going to let it go. I'll let you all know if I ever hear from the organization who puts out the magazine my pattern came from. I'm beginniing to feel uncomfortable about even discussing it anymore. Thanks for all of your help & support on the subject though.

e of them was

Only if you present it as a complete magazine when selling them.

If you advise your customers up front that pages have been removed, then I will think you are an honest person. If I KNOW it has pages missing, I'll look through it first and decide if I want to take it home.

If it looks "perfect" - and I find pages missing after I get home, I tend to be a tad irritated. (I'm Scandinavian - "tad irritated" translates into "quite po'd")

When one buys at a garage sale, it is probably wise to go with a "caveat emptor" attitude and look for flaws - and under the price sticker to see if there is a chip or ding.

You are so right. This was my fault. I usually read them all carefully but didn't in this case since I didn't really care if I got it. I will definitelly be more careful in the future. I've done a lot of Ebay for my glass collection & always read their descriptions carefully.

Same thing happened to me and I wrote to the seller and explained that their description of the book was not accurate. When I told them I was going to dispute it and give negative feedback, they offered to return my money, plus shipping fees. Needless to say, I got my money back. I hope you do too.

I used to sell a lot of patterns on E-bay. I would purchase a large lot from a wholesale company that had the House of White Birch booklets and the ones that used to be sold via mail (where you would get six patterns to put in a three-ringed binder). I started out at a very low price, usually a dollar. I had a few auctions that got up as high as $22.00 for a pattern I paid less than fifty cents for. I finally quit when a buyer won over a hundred dollars worth of patterns and then claimed that the box of patterns did not arrive, even though I paid for delivery confirmation and got confirmation that they had. She left me negative feedback because I refused to refund her money, even though I did send her more patterns if I had duplicates, even though I had paid for the delivery confirmation and could prove that they had arrived. She filed a complaint. A few months later, I noticed that she was re-selling some of the patterns she had supposedly not gotten from me. Some of the patterns were not the duplicates I sent her, so I know she did get the original box and also got about fifty dollars worth of patterns from me in the second box I sent her. Never again. That was one of the last times I sold on e-Bay.

I had a few people who also had issues with my patterns because they were from those collections that go in the binders, even though I CLEARLY stated that the patterns where from a collection and showed the holes and the plastic templates. I bought them individually, so I didn't see anything wrong with selling them this way.

Mistymarie, that is the saddest, most disgusting thing I ever heard. No wonder you stopped selling. That's enough to make you sick. How low can somebody go to make a $? Thank goodness most of us are honest people.

I ebay for an pattern too and got 2 pages torn out of an magazine! I thought how tacky is that ! Well, it was .99 but the shipping was over $1.29 and did come in a clear insert. Never again........

Yes, I can understand being frustrated when it costs more to ship a few pages from a magazine than the pattern itself cost.

you are not a bad person. your customers are able to see what's left before they decide to buy. you aren't hiding anything so are not doing anything wrong. :-)

ok, folks. time to move on from this topic. the member's question has been answered.

selling pages from magazines is legal.

buyer should double-check the descriptions.

if there's no mention that the patterns are pages from magazines, and you don't think you got your money's worth, then the most drastic appropriate action is a "not as described" mention in the ebay feedback.

this topic was not intended to provide opportunities for complaints about ebay or "the ebay buy/sell experience".

I do this too and then put them in a notebook...I share with my DD and tell her one is missing and then she does it if she sees something she wants. I figure I buy them, I can do what I want. as far as paying .99/pattern plus shipping of 2.00??? for $3.00 more you could get the whole magazine. :roll: Why does it cost $2.00 to ship magazine pages...can't figure that out. :thumbdown:

Yes me too, I think somewhere in the fine print it must say that is what they do, but then the picture always portrays it as a regular pattern, I see that and forget to read thoroughly. So.........I am always disappointed, plan to be more careful in the future.
Nancy

[quote=PatriceJ]ok, folks. time to move on from this topic. the member's question has been answered.

selling pages from magazines is legal.

buyer should double-check the descriptions.

if there's no mention that the patterns are pages from magazines, and you don't think you got your money's worth, then the most drastic appropriate action is a "not as described" mention in the ebay feedback.
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I agree with you, Patrice, & I did not intend for this to become a long drawn out discussion. You are right that it was my error for not reading the description closer. I also never intended to bash Ebay since I've done Ebay for yrs.

I received a reply from the magazine that the pattern came from this morn. & I want to share it with everybody.

Dear Pat,
Thank you for your e-mail. While it doesn’t seem a great business practice for this seller or company, it is actually legal for them to do this. What is not legal is if they had photocopied the pattern and then sold it (copyright infringement).

Thank you for bringing up your concern to us—I appreciate you letting us know.
-Elizabeth

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no harm done. we wandered a weeeeeeeeeeee bit off track there, but my dramanometer didn't blip at bit. ;-)

how great that you got a reply from the magazine. thanks for sharing with us. :thumbup:

********
folks ... i don't want to lock this topic because it will disappear into the back pages too fast if i do. however, please consider the subject closed now that we have the final answer from the magazine.

if we keep adding our opinions and comments, this very important information will get buried.

many thanks! :-)