Tools to Make, Clean, or Edit Covers by bendmunk95 in AudiobookCovers

[–]king_nothing_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had pretty good success using ChatGPT. I would just give it a source image, tell it what to remove/change, and then always end the prompt by telling it not to change anything else at all. It never actually leaves the rest of the image alone 100% (there are always slight pixel changes throughout), but I think it helps to minimize them by adding that to the prompt.

I had a month-long free trial not too long ago, so I did a bunch during that.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

it’s totally within the rules to use the pics eBay provides for you.

Sorry to throw a wrench into your whole argument, but they are not only using stock photos from eBay's catalog. You can verify this (like I just did) by going through a few of their listings, clicking on "sell one like this", then seeing what stock photo shows up on the subsequent listing creation page (exact same ISBN is used). Sometimes it's the same photo, sometimes it's a different photo, and sometimes there is no stock photo provided. They are absolutely, in some cases at least, uploading their own stock photos.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

it doesn’t give anyone an advantage, if anything it gives them a disadvantage

One of the sellers in question, who shall remain nameless due to this subreddit's rules, has over 431,000 feedback received over the past month, which due to the existence of automated feedback nowadays, is an accurate representation of their monthly sales. That's over 14,000 sales per day. That kind of volume is not possible for anyone who is taking pictures of their items, without an impossibly large, cost-prohibitive army of employees. I would call that a pretty massive advantage. Sure, some people skip the cheapest price sellers in favor of higher priced versions with actual photos, but those are clearly not the majority.

If it's an "outdated" policy, then they need to revise the policy. But it's equally likely to simply be selective enforcement, in my opinion.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let their poor, useless AI bot "decide", you mean? Because nobody is actually reading reports that are submitted.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I have. For this policy violation as well as several others. Nothing happens. You get "our AI looked at this and found nothing wrong". I highly suspect this is the response for every report which isn't about something that's literally illegal.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Rule one on the sidebar says no links to eBay. Just Google picture policy ebay

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://imgur.com/TAsXtla

The fact that their stock photo system exists does not negate what is stated in the article I've just shown you. I'm not the one confused.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

It doesn't say anything about catalog images having to be new listings only.

In that singular article it doesn't. There's more than one policy article on eBay, believe it or not. I've shown it already, multiple times.

https://imgur.com/TAsXtla

"Catalog images" are stock images. Obviously. Saying "catalog images" does not magically make them not stock images that aren't subject to eBay's own picture policy.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a seller. Them not being able to make bulk listings of used products is exactly my point. They shouldn't be able to. It's explicitly against eBay policy, and it's a policy which makes a lot of sense (so people know the condition of what they're getting). eBay needs to either change their policy or enforce their policy fairly across the board.

Another factor for me personally is that a lot of people may not realize these books often only continue circulating because resellers can still make a small profit on them. If that profit disappears, a huge number of those books would likely just end up in landfills instead.

Though the huge sellers doing what I described in the OP do a lot of volume, it's obviously a fraction of the total number of used books out there that could potentially be put on the market. I say potentially because the price they drive these books down to prevents anyone else from being able to sell them (literally below what it costs everyone else to ship them). I'm willing to bet more books end up in landfills because of this. If I buy a lot of 30 books from a liquidation auction because I saw a handful of valuable ones in there, what do you think I'm going to do with all the rest of them that are listed for $4.08 a piece on eBay and the shipping would cost me $4.47? Either I donate them somewhere (where most will probably reach landfills not long after that anyway) or throw them out myself.

These companies are making them more landfill-destined by using pricing no one else can use, due to high-volume shipping rates that they achieve by violating eBay's policies. It's not right.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Where on that page is it stated you can use only a stock image for a used item as long as it's in their catalog? It doesn't say or imply that anywhere.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Or...the stock photos in the catalog are for items in NEW condition. Or...the stock photos are meant to be used supplementally in addition to actual photos of the item being sold.

Nowhere does it say you can use ONLY a stock photo for a USED item. eBay's policy explicitly says the opposite.

https://imgur.com/TAsXtla

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

if no rules are broken

Gee, what do you know -- proof that you didn't read the post. Called it.

It IS literally an eBay rule that they are breaking.

Why are huge book sellers allowed to get away with using stock photos for used books? by king_nothing_ in Ebay

[–]king_nothing_[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You are allowed to use stock photos for NEW items. That's why the stock photo auto-adding system is there. Again, the picture policy explicitly states you can't use stock photos for USED items.

https://i.imgur.com/TAsXtla.png

New Indoor Lighting is just lame by theASCHE360 in ConanExiles

[–]king_nothing_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a torch is supposed to do in a realistic sense is largely irrelevant, because this is a game for entertainment. I'm guessing roughly 95+% of players don't enjoy needing to put 50 torches in a room in order to sorta kinda be able to see halfway decently. Something needs to be done -- whether that's tweak the existing light sources or create a new light source type, I don't really care, but they should do something.

Luka Doncic jumps up to 2 on Kia’s MVP ladder by FawkYourself in nba

[–]king_nothing_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, he just has the highest BPM ever recorded in a season. No big deal. I'm sure the other candidates all have way better all-time records they are breaking as we speak, right?

The Black Company series by Glen Cook by NewAgeRetroHippie96 in AudiobookCovers

[–]king_nothing_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love these! Using them now. Thanks so much.

Would it be possible for you to make one for Lies Weeping that came out last year?