Sproutydoll - plagiarism or rip off?
I’ve had a few followers DM me on whether Sproutydoll, the eye maker was plagiarising and also asked me for receipts.
Here’s screenshots from their instagram claiming that they were being unfairly attacked on instagram by cubeco000, where you can purchase the molds here :https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.6639537.1997196601.4.Y8GwAx&id=531226348516, You can read the text here.
She’s mostly saying that she isn’t plagiarizing and merely re-selling them. This is cubeco000′s instagram which did the callout.
However, the question is if she did credit or indicate that the molds were made by herself, or just purchased and she was a reseller. It is very suspect that she is selling the molds at $40, a great markup from the $4 that cubeco000 is selling at.
If customers knew that she was reselling molds, the possibility of them buying such molds and eye-make kits from her would be low as they could go to the source directly. So, after looking through her website I believe she misrepresented herself as having made those molds herself.
Here are screenshots of her website.
She says “molded from 3D printed parts”, leading the customer to believe that she molded them herself.
Her resin kit without the mold consists of these.
Screenshots from her instagram:
She says “Regular molds take around 6 weeks to complete and to ship”, directly misleading customers to think that she is making the molds. Otherwise she should have said that they took 6 weeks to ship to her from her taobao agent.
“I know it is high but it’s all expensive stuff for me to produce and package” - what is she producing exactly, other than maybe repackaging the resin into smaller bottles or making the molds? I can hardly imagine her producing plastic cups or boxes or wooden stirrers. She is DIRECTLY leading customers into thinking she produced the molds.
Finally, on andreja’s instagram
“She was the one who made the awesome mold that you see me using for my custom eyes. She worked super hard on these so show her some love”
Andreja is also directly stating that Sproutydoll made for her eye molds, and so the implication is that her kits also have the molds made by Sprouty. Otherwise, who would buy from Sproutydoll when the whole kit, in its various parts, could all be acquired for less than $10, and they were instead paying $90 for it?
Most of the equipment is available very easily too. Stirrers, non stick mat and plastic cups, who wouldn’t have that?
Lastly, here is Sproutydoll’s justification for the high markup on the molds.
“Again, reselling isn't stealing. I never said I made the molds. I have been dming with Cubeco, and after a few messages they have not responded again. I told them I bought the molds and I can prove it, and where I got them from. They seem to be reading something I wrote months ago and thinking it is about these molds. Again they are saying I am stealing for reselling. As for the price, when you are importing something as a business to sell, you must pay import taxes and fees. Imagine I buy $100 in molds. Immediately add 25% to the price for the agent. Add $45 for shipping to the agent and then to me. Add around 40% import taxes and fees for importing, depending on what it is classified under in customs. Then there is the failure rate, around 15%, molds that have resin stick after they are tested. Then there is the normal retail costs like packaging, issues with orders/refunds, the time it takes to find and prepare the item, listing fees, storage fees etc. Usually for retail, you need the total cost to get the product to you and your customers to be 50% of what an item sells for in order to make a profit that makes the item worth the effort. It's not as simple as "This product cost four dollars on Taobao, you're a con artist for charging so much more". It literally not worth the effort of importing it to sell it for less than 30. It's the same for places like tatas paradise, who sell items for a very high markup on the overseas websites and on their Taobao it is a third of the price. Tata even states they do not sell to agents or resellers, a common practice on Taobao for sellers who don't want their items to be sold by resellers. Reselling isn't stealing, and I never said I made the molds. It's not discrimination or like recasting, it's the standard model for retail businesses. If Cubeco didn't want their molds bought legitimately and resold, they should have stated so on their Taobao store. You don't have to get permission to resell. If you buy something, you have the right to do what you want with it. It would be different if I said that I had created them, that they were mine. It also doesn't make sense for me to have to credit them on the listing page.” (bolded mine) It definitely is disappointing to see her slander cubeco000 and say that there’s such a high failure rate for her products too. Just all around bad business, misrepresenting and ripping off.
Conclusion: Not a scammer, but a liar,
