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Please review our eBay policy below. Thank you!
eBay flippers are NOT welcomed. If suspected and caught reselling prints via eBay, your order will be automatically refunded and you will no longer be permitted to purchase from OBEY.
Shepard and the rest of us at OBEY are overwhelmed by the stories we hear about how much people are paying for prints on eBay the same day as they are released on our site. We are, like most people, disheartened and disgusted with this situation. We are taking responsibility for the eBay situation and have taken action against those who simply purchase prints to instantly auction on eBay for the highest price. There is a difference between a print collector who purchases a print, archives it for months, years even, then decides to barter or sell a piece with the intention of getting more cherished artwork THAN a “collector” who purchases a print then has it posted on eBay before the print is actually received in hand or the moment they receive it the mail. We do believe such action is wrong and unjust and we stand by what we believe and are proud of our mission to keep OBEY accessible to all.
A Message from Shepard to eBay Flippers:
Dear eBayer,
I think it is great that you are speaking your mind, but you are misplacing your frustration about the OBEY eBay policy. You fail to understand that my eBay policy exists precisely to protect my valued supporters from having to pay high secondary market prices for my prints. My prints are priced well below market value because I want them to be affordable to true fans of my art. I have no problem with people collecting my prints and selling older prints to free up funds to purchase newer prints they prefer. However, some people buy the prints just to re-sell them on eBay immediately. I call these people “flippers” and they keep a true fan of the piece from being able to purchase it at a low price. YOU are displacing people who want to keep, and not re-sell the art. For every letter like yours, I receive five that are complaints that people really loved and wanted a particular print, but it sold out too quickly. YOU force those people to buy on eBay at a higher price. My goal is to make my work affordable to people who intend to keep the art. I am sacrificing a huge amount of money I could be making by selling the prints below market value. I do that for the people. I was broke throughout my twenties but I wanted to collect art, so I’m trying to provide that for people now. There are a lot of other supporters I’m trying to take into consideration as well. Your perspective is very selfish. Your thoughts about your “hard earned” money is very interesting. Is flipping a print on eBay for triple, quadruple, or more of what you spent on it “hard earned”? Where were you with a financial subsidy for me in the 90’s when I slept in my car in Boston or went literally without food or heat in Providence R.I. because I was pursuing my art, but failing to make enough money? I snuck free copies to make posters at Kinko’s, but do you think if I got caught I would have said “but I’m entitled to free shit because I’m an artist who has it tough”? So you work 60 hours a week… so do I, if not more. I built what I have from a $4.25 an hour skate shop job. I treat everyone fairly. I checked into your eBay record to make sure you were not banned unfairly, and you have flipped multiple prints the week after their release before the print has even been shipped to you. For each one of those, YOU made someone else suffer. Basically, you are sensitive to your own suffering, but not to the suffering of others. Oh, and the ban policy is not based on anything other than someone being a flipper. Yes, I do believe in freedom. You are free to buy and sell whatever you want, and I am free to choose not to sell MY creations to you. Of course, you are still free to buy my work on the secondary market like you have forced others to do. There are people who will cherish a reasonably priced piece of my art and they are my priority.
Sincerely,
Shepard Fairey
