The Power of Ebay

[Stitch Up]

I'd never really used eBay to sell our products but at the begining of this Grand Prix season we designed some patterns and stitched out a shirt. I purchased a peice of software called Listing Factory (assists in creating attractive ads) and on the thursday before one of the races we posed our first advert.

By the Sunday of the Grand Prix, we'd sold 56 shirts!!! The orders were coming in thick and fast and to be honest, we were getting a bit scared as we'd not anticipated this. Keeping records was so important so we could ensure the right shirts went to the right people.

This was a good seller

Front


Back


BEWARE: Ebay & Paypal fees are a killer and you must factor them into your costings.

Anyone else?

John

[Justin]

I used to use eBay as my main selling arena. Sales were ok but then when the fees went up I pulled back from it a little. I've sold a few larger items recently and between eBay and PayPal they took a huge whack of the selling price.

I have some ready made transfers that I imported from the US at a silly price. Very simple single colour designs but look nice. They were selling on eBay at £5.99+postage. A decent but not huge profit on each shirt. The idea was to sell large numbers.

I think selling on eBay could still be profitable but it takes up so much time. You have to be very organised and be available to answer questions. Someone always wants a size or colour that you don't do! Listing software is a must. I used to use Shooting Star to keep on top of things but it really is a full-time job!

Your designs are great, can I ask how much they sold for? How is the reverse printed?

Justin

[Stitch Up]

Your designs are great, can I ask how much they sold for? How is the reverse printed?

Justin

This is where the Gerber Edge FX earns its money - it hasn't yet!!!

Print a picture to vinyl and then cut out the design, quite simple really. I can't remember how much they sold for, I'll have to look it up and post back.

That listing got pulled by Ebay following a complaint from BrawnGP.

Here's a better picture of the front showing the silver foil used in the design



John

[Justin]

Complaint from BrawnGP...cool I had a cease and desist order from Zamboni in Canada, great talking points. I did wonder about that when I saw your designs, lol.

Where I used to work we had a 60" HP printer. I used that for printing onto Dorotape vinyl for a similar result, fantastic stuff. My 'boss' was alwyas on about getting an FX though. I have access to a Versacamm now so may have a go with this, I'm sure it can do it.

Justin

[JSR]

Great design. I've been a bit of a Jenson fan for ages. Glad he's finally got his first WDC!

I did wonder about the copyright issues you'd have with that design. I'm picturing a little man in an office at BrawnGP with Ross Brawn standing over his shoulder saying "search for the word 'Jenson'..! Now search for 'Rubens'..."

Saying that, we've seen images of Hamilton browsing the web during the weekend. Maybe Jenson does the same? "Naah, the car's fine, I'm checking for any t-shirts with my name on them on ebay!"

[Stitch Up]

But is it against copyright to use a name like Jenson? I know copyright is a very complicated subject but when the ad was pulled, I wasn't told specifically why!

[JSR]

But is it against copyright to use a name like Jenson? I know copyright is a very complicated subject but when the ad was pulled, I wasn't told specifically why!

I'm not a legal expert by any means, but this is my thinking -

It wouldn't be illegal to use the name "Jenson" (although BrawnGP might argue that, as it's in the context of F1 racing, it's fairly obvious who you're talking about), but it's more likely that the issue is with the design.

In the lettering of "Jenson" you have the BrawnGP car and the 'Virgin' logo. Both BrawnGP and Virgin would be concerned that your design is using their trademarks and/or identifying marks that could suggest to the customer that the t-shirts are endorsed by both BrawnGP and Virgin.

In legal terms, it's for the owner of a trademark to decide where and how their logos, trademarks, identifiable marks should be used. The reason for this is because the use of such identifiable marks on products that the owner doesn't want them on would diminish the brand.

Even if BrawnGP hadn't waved the heavy stick, I would still expect that you'd get a call from Virgin. I wouldn't be surprised if the owners of Silverstone didn't have a quiet word either.

At the end of the day, companies like BrawnGP have their own merchandising outlets (such as http://www.grandprixproducts.com/files/prods.asp?c=109&d=27). While I'm sure they wouldn't worry if you mocked-up a t-shirt for yourself to wear on race day (let's face it, I'll bet none of those "Jenson" flags we see waving are proper ones!), it's a completely different thing to put them into production without first having a license to do so.

In many ways, I'm rather relieved that BrawnGP had a quiet word with eBay and had the listing removed. There are many callous entities out there who'd throw the legal bods at you at the first step, or send demands for £xxxx - which is not something you'd want to happen when all you're really doing, when it comes down to it, is celebrating your support of a fine racing driver and a marvellous F1 team.

[Karen.]

We use ebay when we want an increase in business. Generally if you are careful and don't get too greedy with sales on there then you can front the fees, run for a month or two, get your name out there and pick up lots of repeat customers and business by word of mouth. When you see the sales rolling in though it is easy to keep on listing until you break it down and realise that the fees are clocking up.

[gorgall]

If you have a shop on ebay then the fees are not that bad, each listing only costs me 5p.

[AJLA]

What is your shop gorgall, I have no interest in setting one up but i'd like to have a peek if I may