Websites Using Stamps You Own As Examples Or Eye Candy.

I was looking through that website http://stampsmarter.com and looking at the examples given for Scott #1. I clicked on #1d (brown orange) and boom!...my stamp popped up. It is the first stamp in my album so I know this stamp backwards and forwards. I won it in an auction a year or two ago. I wanted a reference copy for the color and the cancel was very attractive as well, so I bid (and won).

I feel a special honor today. Makes up for my Scott #7 debacle yesterday. Anyone ever have this happen before? I assume web designers get images from auction sites or PSE/PF.

Just thought it was a cool thing.

The owner of StampSmarter has been known to wander the halls here at SCF

Stamp Smarter has over 25,000 images. I inherited some of the content and community members can also upload stamp images. As such, I do not know the origin of every single stamp image.

The origins of any non-stamp image is known; I made them. The origin of any stamp image that I add is known because I always ask for permission (as many in this forum can attest to).

If anyone spots any image which they feel is being used without permission please let me know.
Don

All my images, esp my pages, are free to use for the world.
No request needed.
It is for the benefit of Philately in general.

Personally, I do try my best to indicate the original author of anything that is not mine,
however sometimes this is difficult, esp early scans where is was difficult to add ownership in the naming convention text.

I recall, a great friend of mine, the late Mette Heindorff, gave me permission to use
some of her work, for reference and inspiration.
Now, years later, a lot of her work appears to be missing, which is a great shame,
they were always fabulous early digital work.
The Philatelic community is poorer for it.

I see one of mine every once in a while floating around the cracks and crevices of the Internet.

I usually appreciate that people are finding them useful, and I'm generally pretty generous with giving permission to those who ask to use them for more than a one-off purpose.

The only exception has been StampWorld. Several years ago, I noticed that a large chunk of their Germany section consisted of my images, lifted en masse from my site without my permission. Many had subsequently been watermarked by someone else (I don't use watermarks on my scans). I contacted them, but they wouldn't do anything without me identifying exactly which images were mine. There were >1,000 at the time, and I didn't have the time, so I let it go. Most of those images have been replaced over time, but a few are still hanging around their site.

Images of my stamps and covers are always free to use, I am Always glad to see them in artcles , catalogues or websites.
BUT few years ago a seller from Czech Republic, start selling photocopies of some of my stamps adding sometimes just "sold as is", he never answer my mails, but fortunately eBay kept removing almost every time I complained(but let him keep selling).
The few times an item in my possession sold, I was able to contact the buyer to warn him (now is impossible to do it)
The seller id was kofomir, he is no longer a registered user, but here you can see some of his seller feedbacks:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...mPg=3&page=1

He just kept selling crude photocopies from rare stamps or just reproductions cuted out of an auction catalogue , unfortunatly many got burned by him for more years.

Wait until you sell your collection -- if you ever do. I never thought that I would, but then I had to (you know that small life-changing event called getting-married).

Stamps and covers that I used to have, started showing up everywhere. It gives me something to do, in all auction catalogs - to see if any old friends pass by. I have bought back a number of them, as I have been able, over the years. In fact, I'd say I've bought back at least one of my old items each year for the last 7 or so years.

Important distinction: SwedishTiger has images of a number of items in my collection, but the scans came from other sources, such as the Siegel website. I do not have control over those images, nor should I - I did not make them.

Owning the item is not the same as owning the scan. If I post a scan I made of an item in my collection and someone else re-posts it without my permission, I am allowed by law to ask (or even demand) that they take it down. But scans made by others, of items I own, belong to them and they have the say over whether or not to allow it to be online. That said, they do not have the right to tie the item to my collection unless I give permission, inasmuch as that public display might put me in jeopardy of loss.