I have seen so many wonderful paintings listed on eBay go unsold, most without even one bid. Others are sold for so much less than their true value. Having sold a few paintings myself, and listed many more that didn't sell, I can identify with the other artists. I know how satisfying it is to get a bid or two, even if the auction ends without a sale.

I was wondering about the etiquette of buying and reselling other artists' works. What if I bought a painting on eBay for $10 and then relisted it on eBay and sold it for $50? How would other artists feel about seeing their own paintings appear in someone else's listing, with someone else's description? And sell for 5 times more than they received?

As an artist, I would not mind seeing my art resold. I would be happy to see that someone else had bought it. I would also be interested in how the reseller had photographed it, described it and marketed it. And I would not expect to get any percentage of the reseller's profit.

But as a reseller, I would probably wish to give back to the artist some part of my profit, because the last thing I would want to do is exploit some poor starving artist. The European Union has some kind of droit de suite that requires each reseller of a work of art to give back to the artist a percentage of all subsequent sales of that work. I'd never want to see this kind of law in the US, but I would think that a voluntary system along these lines would be desirable.

Does anyone have any ideas or opinions about this? Or is this even allowed by eBay's rules?

If this has already been discussed in a previous thread, forgive me.