Image theft is a reportable offence on Ebay. While I agree that copying is the highest form of flattery, stealing photos is just plain lazy and .... well .... stealing.

So when I discovered that a seller had stolen one of my photos, indeed, he has stolen not only the photo, but he's so lazy he has just linked to MY photo on MY website, so he's stealing MY bandwidth as well, I just replaced the photo. I know I could report him to Ebay but this is really so much more fun.

I think any potential buyers will get the message not to deal with this little thief.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-2-HARDCOVER-HARRY-POTTER-SCHOOL-BOOK-BY-J-K-ROWLING_W0QQitemZ170159174702QQihZ007QQcategoryZ2227QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I read blogs every day - food blogs, online retailing blogs, Ebay blogs - and have finally decided to 'take the plunge' and start one of my own. Welcome to my blog, thanks for joining me.

A bit about me ....

I'm an RN / Midwife by profession and worked 'in the industry' for 26 years, as a hospital-based nurse. My most recent position was 3 years as an Oncology RN working on night shift, nursing people with cancer, and people who were dying. Hard work but very rewarding and usually enjoyable. I started selling a few of my own books on Ebay 3 years ago, which rather quickly expanded to selling new books across a range of interests. At the end of last year, I'd had enough of nursing and working night shifts, trying to stay awake when all I wanted to do was crawl into the nearest bed, and being permanently sleep-deprived, so I quit to concentrate on online selling.  For me, it was the right decision at the right time, and I haven't regretted it for a second.

I set up my own website earlier this year and while 80% of my sales are still via Ebay, my website is looking good, has almost 100 books listed and is getting good results in search.

So, where does the 'Playing with Bubblewrap' come into all this? Almost every book I sell and post is sent to its new owner wrapped in bubblewrap. We buy 1.5 metre x 100 metre rolls which last approx 6 - 8 weeks. We buy cellair in similar quantities, although that lasts longer. And we buy huge boxes of Maxipack (white bubblewrap) bags in 6 sizes. These and our scissors, sticky tape and sticky address labels are some of the tools of our trade.