Legal question or not?
 

I have been going through all my quilting stuff that I have purchased over the few years that I have been quilting and it seems that I have purchased an over abundance of quilts kits and patterns. I was was wondering, if I decided to sell some of them (obviously they haven't been opened) could I do it on ebay or am I breaking any copyright laws or any other laws that might be out there? Right now I am not sure what I want to do with some of them but as I go through it all I realize that I could live to be 110 years old and not finish all that I have. Any help or suggestions on this would be appreciated.

You can sell you kits or any other quilt supplies you have. Just take a look on E-bay. All those sellers are not breaking the law.

You can sell them or give them away or throw them out -- you bought them, so you can dispose of them as you wish.

Copyright would only be an issue if you decided to photocopy/scan/photograph/mimeograph the patterns and directions and then distribute those (either for money or for free). If you try to sell many, many kits and patterns, you might trigger the attention of the original author or publisher, and they might contact you -- that has happened in very rare cases. But once you established that you were simply a big fan whose eyes were bigger than her estloe (estimated stitching time left on earth), I can't imagine that there would be any issue.

Well done going through the collection and passing along some goodies for another person to take on. I always find it very freeing to reduce the backlog.

You have a right to resell things you have bought (or been given). What you cannot do is make Xerox copies of a pattern of someone else's to sell or give away.

Used, new, open or unopened, it doesn't make a difference in selling. Have a yard sale.

You can almost sell anything on eBay except for copies made of quilt patterns. That is why it is legal to cut up a quilting magazines and sell the patterns individually.

If you bought them legally, you can resell them wherever, whenever & for whatever price you'd like per the First Sale Doctrine as long as you keep the original copyright information with what you're selling (e.g., must also include the packaging of a pattern or the copyright page at the front of a book/magazine)
https://www.justice.gov/usam/crimina...-sale-doctrine

Should I take it out of the original packaging so you can't tell who the original vendor is?

I think most people would pay more if it's in original packaging.

Would love for you to put them in the sale section of the Quilting Board! I don't buy a lot due to limited income but you might have something I'd splurge on!

How fun! I hope you will consider selling them here too. I love to buy the kits for those days I don't want to have to think or worry about having the right fabrics on hand to sew. The nice thing about selling here is you don't have to pay commission to anyone for the privilege of selling your things.
If not at least let us know if you put them on ebay (or somewhere else) so we can look and buy from you.

You could also sell them on SewItsForSale. They have a facebook and a yahoo group page. Another one is QuiltersFleaMarket (yahoo group).

As long as you are not selling copies, you are fine.

Why don't you try to sell them here on the QB? They have a section for things to sell. Where else could you have such a captive audience. Good luck

Whatever doesn't sell, please consider donating them to a quilt group who makes charity quilts. Our little group here in Fla. was blessed with a donation of several large kits ( king)... since we make quilts for childrens' hospitals & homeless vet shelters, we were able to get 3 to 5 small quilts out of each kit!

You bought it, you own it, you can sell it. Leave it in the original packaging---you will get a better price selling it as new, unused/unopened as opposed to used/opened. As long as you are selling the original item you purchased, not copies of it, you are safe.

Both RST, donnajean and Prism 99 are all correct. I worked as a legal secretary for a number of years and also the Quilt Guild that I used to belong too had a long discussion on this very topic. You may certainly sell, or even give away any patterns, quilt kits, etc., as long as you DO NOT copy the pattern instructions and sell or distribute them, as that would constitute a copyright infringement. I am in a similar situation and it may be time to go through patterns that I bought that I know I will never use.

Like others have stated. You bought it and you can sell it. I recently purchased a kit on ebay. And like your situation, when I purchased it, it just thought the seller chose not to make it or whatever. The kit arrived, clearly she is photocopying the pattern. It was a little tiny, blurry pattern. I told my friend about the purchase and she said " I think I have that pattern. I bought it in Vegas when I was visiting." She showed the pattern to me, and yes the same one. Only hers was not blurry and tiny. The cover photo on mine was 1 1/2" x 2 ". The seller is still selling this kit on ebay. Some of us follow the rules and some don't I guess. I'm kind of a safe than sorry girl. Plus I would want to be fair to the pattern designer.
Just thought I would add: On every page of this pattern it states that the pattern may not be copied.

If you report this to eBay, they will stop the seller. Please report it! Here is how to do it:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/...violation.html

I would think you would reach a better target audience here on QB.