OMG! Did they take your picture?

JoJo

Yup, some poor slob is gonna bid on it and receive an A. americana pup or some such. Can you imagine browsing eBay and seeing a plant in your yard for sale? :-0

Intellectual property theft - I'd report it to Ebay.

Oh my! I would not be happy seeing that! Now if it were my plant, i would write the seller and ask how and when they were planning to dig it up out of my yard, so i could know when to expect them, and how much of a % your going to get of the sales! lol! then report it to ebay!
JoJo

Already did -- on both counts.

LOL! Good!!! be sure and let us know what the seller says! ;-)

German, you mean I can't come over and dig up your agaves? I requested a photo of actual agave.

Gorgeous agave I will be receiving there. So glad you have nursed it along for me all this time. Will try to send the excavators around 2am so as not to block traffic on your street. LOL!

I like Dz's idea in addition to the others mentioned. However, are you even ALLOWED to add to his feedback page without being a buyer?

Don't know if this is just a lazy eBay seller or a dishonest eBay seller. The seller makes little attempt to tell you what you would be buying. Does the seller at least respond to questions?

I think this is pretty funny... seeing your own plant for sale on eBay. If the seller refuses to change this habit, they deserve to get crap. They may have opened a new account to start fresh without negative feedback.

hysterically sad.

I'm sure it is someone either too lazy or doesn't have a camera, and found your pic on the web and they had 1 like it.
really happens all the time on Ebay. looks like they have good feedback so they must be finding pics that resemble what they have. and no you can't leave feedback unless you are the buyer. but Ebay will take it down when they get around to it. I did send a ? to seller and ask if that was the exact plant i would receive if i bought it. Will see if i get a answer back. I have a pic now floating on Ebay, they did change the angle of the pic tho and got 3 different plant names.LOL
I take it as a compliment myself
cliff

Paul! You made me laugh! LOL!!!

Well, I sell on ebay from time to time , and I don't think you can leave feedback unless you have won, unfortunately.

Awhile back I came across something similar with a quail. a group of us ganged up on the seller sending endless questions!! Only to find out is was a kid selling the quail eggs!! Told Daddy we were all mean! lol.. but finally took down the picture. :-)

chadec~ let us know what you hear. I will write and ask the same a little later. Need to go shopping in a few with mom. Ugh! lol.

JoJo

If I actually get pic from the seller I'll post it. Would be nice to know if he actually has A. zebra for sale.

The copyrighted photo is still up and the fraudulent eBay seller is (just for the search engines) agaveroad561.

Just got a reply from this seller. I just think he/she just don't know how to take good pic. which i have a problem with myself
cliff

(
Dear cahac,

Hi. We have ended this listing and created a new one with the pic. of the actual plant you would receive. Sorry for the confusion and trouble this may have caused you.

Have a nice day!

- agaveroad561)

Yep. I had a photo taken once. Wrote the seller and told him to knock it off/take it down. He did. I've kept an eye on the guy to see that he hasn't done it again...though no telling if, after I told him to stop, he just went on to find someone else's pictures to steal. Probably. Unfortunately, this happens. People are too lazy to take pictures. I know not everyone has a great camera, but come on.

I just looked in on the new listing. As I suspected, the plant offered is definitely not A. zebra. Not certain what it is, there are two pics there, the second (another "borrowed" pic, perhaps) looks like A. ovatifolia. I know there are plenty of good eBay sellers out there, but this is the kind of crap that gives eBay a bad name.

As small as the pictures are on Ebay, a good camera is not necessary. It is lazy morality and that is that. Maybe fear of ones picture taking ability. Any picture can be doctored into attractiveness on half decent free picture program. If it is deviousness to hide the size and condition of the actual plant selling, I would imagine it would appear on his ratings.

Two things would be all the seller has to do. One, ask permission. Two, give credit when posting it. Simple and effective. Unless you are too lazy. I would give permission if credit were given, most folks are the same I suspect.

I was watching that agave in its original listing, too.

Should have known, too good to be true. Probably best to wait for the end of winter to start looking for a nice A. zebra anyway...which I definitely will be doing. Seems to be a tougher one to find, though.

Thanks for busting them on this one before I did something silly.

Tom

@ Dzitmoidonc: In a case like this, I disagree. This is/was a fraudulent listing. The guy is trying to solicit bids on a plant listed as A. zebra. And it is definitely not A. zebra. So by giving permission to use my pic, I've become an accomplice, and by receiving "credit" in the listing, my good name is soiled.

@ tom_termine: I can give you three sources to try next Spring:

B & B Cactus in Tucson, AZ
Arizona Cactus Sales in Chandler, AZ
Starr Nursery in Tucson, AZ

Given that (I assume via 5b) you'll need to keep the plant potted, I'd try Starr first. He lists them as out of stock right now, but my experience is that Greg keep a few of just about everything lying around.

@GS: much obliged for the leads!

Tom

I'd be kinda flattered. But only if what they err selling actually was what I took a pix of.

I might be in Tucson in February for a high school reunion of my husband.(actual school is in Frankfurt Germany) I might be doing some wondering around and I will tuck this info away.

You should probably stop by and see Greg, and stop at B & B Cactus Farm and Bach's Nursery. Be sure to bring a truck. There are other good places also, but the truck should be full by the time you leave Bach's.

I will be in the a large van. I am in trouble. I was planning on stopping by greg's. Only problem is I am trying to finnish building our house (no loan) and I made a vow to have all the appliances and plumbing fixtures bought before I buy one more plant . My "personal" recycle man, one de-contructionionist par excellenté just called up and a guy is tearing down 4 mansions to build one really big one, so I might have my wish at pennies on the dollar. I am a bottom feeder. I gave him my wish list. LOL. So far , I have not bought a plant in a month and a half. The plant jonesing has been excruciating but I bought a fancy contemporary sink faucet off of craig's list today, a bathtub and a washer dryer last week.

Bach's Cactus Nursery is so big, you could get lost on the driveway. And Tucson is 8b, just like you ("one of each please!"). B & B is far more intimate and out of the way, but you'll almost certainly see Agaves there you've never seen offered for sale before.

Besides, they wouldn't be plants, they'd be souvenirs. ;-))

Good luck on the appliances!

I love B & B's!!! can spend a day there!
Where is Bach's?

JoJo

You're in Tucson and haven't been to Bach's?? Oh, somebody's in for a treat. It's about 20x the size of B & B.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bach's Cactus Nursery

Hi all....from what I understand,(and I could be wrong),
any pictures or anything for that matter that is posted on the 'INTERNET', is free for the taking....that is part of the battle now with all theses photos sites that want to sell photos of the people that keep there pictures on line...will be interesting to see how this all comes out...
it was on the news and they said if you delete your photos they still have them and can still sell them....
I guess if you don't want others using your photos, don't post them on line..........linda

You cannot use the intellectual property of others toward an end of commercial gain, regardless of from where that property was usurped.

Agaveroad561 may have also lifted his/her photo of Agave isthmensis Ohi Raijin from this blog:
Spiky Obsession
Clearly the same photo...you can draw your own conclusions. :-)

Linda, I'm glad you posted, because I think this is a commonly held misconception. Photos or other intellectual property are not free to use if published on the internet. GermanStar is right.

This has happened to me as well. An eBay seller used a photo from my greenhouse blog to sell Harbor Freight greenhouses on eBay. I contacted eBay and the seller directly, and was able to get it resolved, but in that case the seller then proceeded to lifted photos from the posts of other GardenWeb HF greenhouse owners. We led a merry chase for a while, to convince him it was not OK to use photos without the permission of the owner.

I am stubborn on this issue. I understand that some folks think it doesn't matter, but it's an especially sensitive issue for anyone who has made a living in any creative arts field.

Glad you posted this, GermanStar, and glad you took action! You have a gorgeous plant there (I'm jealous.)

One last point that bothers me about all this is the user name of this individual: Agaveroad561. By assuming this moniker, the individual is essentially suggesting that he is reliable and knowledgeable in regard to Agaves, hence the name. IMHO, this adds a level of culpability; this listing cannot easily be written off as an oopsie. Either his user name is intentionally deceptive, the listing was/is intentionally deceptive, or more likely, both.

GS,

Sometimes the snake oil is polished, if you will, and sometimes it isn't. Horsewhipping still should be a consideration, however.

Hi...its all as they say walking a thin line, and all advertising and many many low-life do it....
I often google plants in images to see what they look like and there is always lots of pictures from GW...there not GW's pictures there the people on this sites pictures but they are taken from here and used by who ever, because if you click on some it takes you to all different sites, having nothing to do with plants...so whats that....
and the world of words...you can put anything into words and what is discribed is not what you think was discribed...has that ever happen to anyone???
and where do you go to get this undone???? to get your justice???? I agree with you what you post is yours, but there is no respect, there is no keep your fingers off others stuff...........
I see lots of so called good people in church every sunday..and I guess that makes up for their actions the rest of the week.....
Please don't chop me up for this post....
I grew up when there were no locks and you respected all your neighbors the ones you knew and the ones you haven't meet yet....linda

I had someone use one of my pictures on eBay once. Only they didn't just take the picture, they actually linked to it on my web space. So I replaced it with a version that said "BUY ONE GET TWO FREE!!! FREE OVERNIGHT SHIPPING ON ALL PURCHASES!!!" The listing got taken down pretty quickly.

WallyD,
Will have to remember that! It will certainly work!!LOL
cliff

THAT was hilarious, Wally!

@ tom_termine: Here you go -- in stock, no waiting. A. zebra, like many Agaves, is rather variable. The form offered here is a bit unusual and larger than most, in my experience. I have one, and it's actually been gaining on an A. americana marginata a few feet away.

Here is a link that might be useful: Agave zebra

Very clever, Wally!

@GS: That is definitely a nice specimen at AZ Cactus...I just don't know if it is safe to send that baby across country to me at this time of year. I would hate to lose it that way.

I may check with them to see if they will do the heat pack thing, but it still feels a little risky. How cold hardy are these guys?

Thanks!

Tom

A. zebra is considered 9a, good down to 20ðF. Here is a shot of my example of that particular A. zebra strain. As you can see, it's a little different.

Nice teeth!

T