Well, I see my simple query has sparked a rather heated exchange. I think it's time for me to step in and give my own opinion on this discussion.
First, to respond to 'ack' -- While I understand your objections to some of the advice given, I think you are mistaken in your conclusions, and unfortunately the condescending lecture on economic theory didn't help (although it did make me smile). You are ascribing much more to this situation and to the responses than is warranted, based on some wrong assumptions.
To be more specific about the situation I presented:
a) This involves two sellers, not a seller attempting to sell goods to a buyer. The other seller contacted me first;
b) The specific goods proposed to be exchanged are not listed on eBay (I'm in the unusual situation of being my own designer/manufacturer, so I can produce as many duplicates of my copyrighted works as I wish);
c) The 8 items (4 on each side) are more or less equivalent in value, and arguably have little or no intrinsic value, so we two sellers could assign any value we wish, or no value at all if that facilitates the exchange;
d) The other seller is in the U.S., I am in Canada;
e) These are not items, by their nature, that will ever be directly resold by either of us on eBay -- the other seller is barred by copyright from doing anything but using my design for her own personal purposes, and her items are virtually worthless to almost anybody but me. (I would explain this in detail, but it has to do with the condition, the age and the type of item, and my skills to be able to interpret the information in them).
Accordingly I disagree with your conclusion that the posters who suggested a straight trade, with no money changing hands, were advocating something that is against eBay policy. There is no exchange of value here, except the specific value to the two parties involved. There is nothing being bought or sold.
I had considered assigning a "fake" value to our items for the purpose of listing them, i.e. so that each of us could buy the items from the other, but why should we be paying fees to eBay for a seller-to-seller exchange of goods that have no inherent value, and that in any case is a zero value sum? Simply because she contacted me through eBay? EBay is worried about fee avoidance in seller-to-buyer sales of items with value. It would not be an exaggeration to say that a $1.00 valuation of each of our group of items is an over-estimate, so fees are irrelevant in this case.
Again, as I originally posted, I am still considering a $1.00 auction on each part, but as some posters pointed out, there is a risk to each of us in terms of DSRs, FB, etc. (or even non-delivery, heaven help me!). We don't know each other -- although I doubt it, it's possible I'm dealing with a competitor who wants to use such a transaction to downgrade my seller status. I'm not a paranoid, but it is a consideration.
As for eBay's policies, I disagree with your interpretation. This policy is intended to prevent sellers from making sales of their (valued) goods to buyers outside of eBay by using eBay contact. This is clearly not the situation here.
The question remains: how to deal with this matter? I am still considering having each of us auction our items at a nominal value (say, $1.00), which would not be an unfair representation of true value -- and who is eBay to say what a seller decides is the value of his/her item in any event? The problem with this procedure (auction) is that we don't know each other, and there is the risk, however small to my seller status, through DSRs, FB or (heaven help me!) an INR case. Now, there is also the possibility I may be dealing with a competitor whose main purpose is to downgrade my seller status -- not likely, but a consideration.
All of the above taken into account, I will probably take Pierre's advice. In any event, my correspondent was able to figure out how to contact me directly, so that option is open. I used to be able to show my website (with its contact information) on my "Me" page on eBay, and direct any personal inquiries there, but eBay has now removed even that possibility.
I do disagree with your opinion concerning circumventing eBay policy by contacting buyers directly. This text (from the eBay policy page) is specific: "Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay" (my emphasis, as the salient word here is "listed"). This is not the case here, nor (as I said) are we dealing with anything that could have an assigned value.
Strictly speaking, you may have a point about the posters who gave advice on how to make direct contact outside the eBay message system. However, I think most of us with any experience understand the meaning and purpose of that policy, and how to recognize situations when it doesn't apply.
As 'jt-libra' mentions, there are times I would like to be able to exchange conversations or send more than 5 photos to some of my customers that has nothing to do with selling an item. Often it's so frustrating and difficult that I've had to give up (for example, type the wrong word and the email gets deleted in its entirety before being sent). Most of us I would imagine have become very frustrated with the unreasonable restrictions and limitations eBay has imposed in this regard. Incidentally, on a related subject, there is nothing to prevent a seller from contacting buyers later on, by using the email addresses shown on Paypal, etc. EBay has no proprietary rights once a transaction is concluded.
This is a very unusual set of circumstances, which is why I posted the details on this board. I want to say I do appreciate all opinions given here, whether I disagree or not. However, I think I have sufficient experience on eBay and understanding of eBay's policies to be able to draw my own conclusions from the views given.
