Inadvertently selling banned or forbidden items on eBay

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

So you do your due dilligence and find a number of other sellers selling the same doodad, whatsit or thingamajig already on eBay. You do what they were doing and list one too. Hey, maybe it was a Dr Seuss book and you haven't watched the news since 1987. Random example!!!

Shortly thereafter you receive a one of those fun and wonderful "Your listing was removed" emails. For some reason you are not amused.

Do you report the other sellers or do you let it slide and double check your double checking next time? Do you wonder why they are getting away with it? Do you investigate further?

-Lotz

“Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.” Thomas Gray 1742

[cumos55]

The most important thing is...

Not what other sellers do...

It is what eBay says... DO NOT DO!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@cumos55 wrote:

The most important thing is...

Not what other sellers do...

It is what eBay says... DO NOT DO!

---

There are many exceptions. The list is fuzzy at best. The majority are discovered entirely by accident. You can only do so much due dilligence. One of the other sellers I spotted has a large quantity of simillar items by same manufacturer with various part numbers. Only they neglect to include the manufacturer and full part number to bypass. In this particular case I am chalking it us as an honest error. Sadly eBay does not always look at things the same way.

The longer a seller sells on eBay this situation will rear its ugly head.

-Lotz

[pjcdn2005]

What was the reason for the item being removed and what type of item was it?   There might be something simple that you need to include or exclude in order to make it ebay legal as perhaps they are mistaking it for something else.

[reallynicestamps]

I think this is just a fuss over the DrSeuss books that are no longer being published because the owners (Estate of Dr. Seuss) and the publisher decided they were no longer appropriate in a multi-cultural society.

Apparently Fox News are using this decision by the publisher and family to make a Big ToDo because the Democrats passed the very very popular COVID Relief bill which will put sorely needed cash into the hands of most American families.

And since no Republicans voted for the bill, they found another "story" to cover along with how horrible Megan Markle was to Piers Morgan. (They had drinks and she was bored to tears. She never returned his phone calls and instead married a handsome, fit guy about her own age.)

The six books have not been in print for over a year now. The publisher made to foolish decision to publicize that recently.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Medical item. On the product pkg RX Is noted in very fine print  which technically means sold by prescription only and as I have now discovered some vendors products are marked with this note, others are not. I just did a search and arrived at identical matches. The other sellers are not including the brand, added photos or full part number so that avoids those types of items being tagged by the bots.

-Lotz

This info is posted so other sellers can file to back of memory bank for future reference and so they don't accidentally make a similar mistake.

[marnotom!]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Hey, maybe it was a Dr Seuss book and you haven't watched the news since 1987. Random example!!!

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Is that a pun based on Theodore Giesel's publisher?  😋

[ricarmic · Accepted solution]

If it is only one item and you only got the one message from eBay I don't think you have to worry anyway.

I can't recall if it causes any kind of important defect, I don't think it does, this same situation has happened to me in the past.

I've observed folks repeatedly finding ways around selling Iran or Cuban stamps, various sneaky ways of spelling it. One kept changing the style of the change, I'm assuming they kept getting caught by the bots and changing to yet another slightly different version. They're still selling today and doing well, so it for sure isn't negatively impacting their selling ability.

In the worst case call the CSRs and explain things, there would be ample evidence you weren't making a profession of selling the problem item(s)....

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@ricarmic wrote:

If it is only one item and you only got the one message from eBay I don't think you have to worry anyway.

I can't recall if it causes any kind of important defect, I don't think it does, this same situation has happened to me in the past.

I've observed folks repeatedly finding ways around selling Iran or Cuban stamps, various sneaky ways of spelling it. One kept changing the style of the change, I'm assuming they kept getting caught by the bots and changing to yet another slightly different version. They're still selling today and doing well, so it for sure isn't negatively impacting their selling ability.

In the worst case call the CSRs and explain things, there would be ample evidence you weren't making a profession of selling the problem item(s)....

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I've contacted CS in the past when it was an honest error.  Hey...Stuff happens. The thing is has any seller ever seen their "eBay personal file" and what exactly is included? Is it 100 % accurate? How many NAD'd were not corrected when a seller was told they would be. Similar to when someone checks out their credit report and finds things noted that were not correct.

-Lotz

[imbuzzy]

You listed a forbidden item and got nabbed and they didn't because they reported you.  They  are your competition.  At least that is what happened to me when I treid to sell trinitite.  It gathered alot of attention and I had a seasoned buyer warn me that I would more than likely be reported by certain other sellers.  It's one of my saved searches and there have been hundreds of successful sales (perhaps even more) over the past decade of this banned substance on ebay.

A simple bot could have easily stopped every one of the listings, but money talks...

[mrdee4097]

It’s one thing to stop the publishing of certain books, but when a you start restricting the sale of books already owned by private individuals, you’re really stepping down a dark authoritarian path that was tread before with very bad results. Not a good look eBay, especially with Me!n K@mpf still for sale.

[clemowbooks]

[reallynicestamps]

On the product pkg RX Is noted in very fine print which technically means sold by prescription only

Welp, there you go.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

This is missing the original question. Do you report the other sellers or do you let it slide?

-Lotz

[mmmcross]

It's happened to me a couple of times with postcards that include images of confederate flags, but only if I used related keywords in the listings. Technically the image is banned too, not just flags or merchandise, but I'm still able to list them as long as I don't use keywords that flag the listing. If I list something as having a Native American theme there is a warning about prohibited selling of indigenous arts and crafts, but because it's just a finding aid I have never had any removed.

I've only ever sold a handful with the flag images and it was always based on the buyer's interest in some identifiable reason that was not the flag image itself. But even if they were looking for those images, as someone interested in cultural history myself, I find it problematic at a certain point. As collectors and sellers it would be bizarre to expect all the material we deal in to reflect our own viewpoints and sensibilities. Many collectors and historians are interested in studying and documenting the history of images and themes considered controversial, and it's ridiculous to assume that by purchasing a historical item you're condoning the content of it.

[bleckbazar]

here is a better example with the same question to report or not.

I have been told that all weapons or anything that can be mistaken for a weapon is not eligible for gsp shipping for canada.

If i see a weapon listed with gsp shipping as an option to canada, do i report it?   because i do not want other ebayers to mistakenly purchase it, or myself even, only to have it confiscated, (happened to me).

would i be doing the other ebayers a favor by saving them the hassle and loss, and would i be doing ebays job by reporting listings that shouldnt be available??

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@bleckbazar wrote:

here is a better example with the same question to report or not.

I have been told that all weapons or anything that can be mistaken for a weapon is not eligible for gsp shipping for canada.

If i see a weapon listed with gsp shipping as an option to canada, do i report it?   because i do not want other ebayers to mistakenly purchase it, or myself even, only to have it confiscated, (happened to me).

would i be doing the other ebayers a favor by saving them the hassle and loss, and would i be doing ebays job by reporting listings that shouldnt be available??

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For the seller they create a listing. The part about what is allowed or not allowed(for most sellers) is an afterthought. Many have not fully researched the applicable help page for GSP. That page has been updated a number of times in the past few years. Same goes for sellers that don't check what is or isn't allowed with old eBay, Managed Payment Sellers, Canadapost, USPS and country to country. The list is long and varied. Often what happens when something sells(and requires the GSP program, they pack it up and send it on its merry way. Some items get flagged there or when it reaches customs. Customs can inspect any shipment they so choose. All a seller can do is as much due diligence as possible. (Or a seller can find out just as they are about to ship.)

For your example, you can pass the info on to the seller. They may to choose to listen.....or not. If they were to get caught down the road, pleading ignorance is not really a valid defence. They could have the book thrown at them(lose selling priviledges) or let off with a warning. Up to them if they want to take that chance.

-Lotz

https://www.ebay.com/help/global-shipping-program/default/global-shipping-program?id=4646

[rosscd57]

I sell vintage radios.  There are lots of ivory coloured radios. If I try to list an ivory coloured radio, the listing will be refused. This was a few years ago and it took me a while to figure it out, as they did not tell me exactly what the problem was. So I tried changing the "ivory" colour to "off white" and guess what  - the listing was accepted.

Maybe I should have said: an elephant coloured radio.

[sylviebee]

I have this happen to me now and then, and one problem I have is trying to figure out what was removed.

There is no record of what the item was.  It's just wiped from the system.  I had an item removed a few weeks ago and I still have no idea what it was.

[darak10]

bootleg live recordings are the biggest one I see.  They are all over ebay to the extent that I figured months ago they dropped the gauntlet and let folks list them again.  They are literally all over the place.