Latest Ebay Inanity

Well I suffered through not be allowed <grrrrr> to sell Cuna and Iran stamps (who do those people think they are?) but today I raised them up a notch on the stupidity bar.

I'm selling a vintage cover that contain a letter and also a Western Union telegram. For those interested in ephemera this is a valuable item - and if interested in the subject matter (professional ballet) it's especially interesting. ebay will not allow me to mention the telegram - because "it appears you are indicating a method of payment that violates ebay rules." blah blah blah.

Stupid.

ebay = The Dumb & Dumbest!

Try to sell antique money order memorabilia. Nearly impossible.

Really stupid- they allow all sorts of fraud on their site and let text parsing run their lives. Wonder if Amazon is interested in the space ebay used to own?

I've been predicting the downfall of ebay for some years now - but that will happen only if someone moves in to establish a sensible on line auction house. Hello! Anyone listening?

Never use the word 'invoice' when contacting a seller to ask for combined shipping quote. They will think you are cutting some deal outside ebay. Never mind that they are ok with the seller using that term in the listing. I got a warning last week re this.

I know here in China people put text in images in order to avoid the censorship. Would it work when using ebay? Mention the words you want to use in an image and the automated system might not pick it up.

TomSwift I do it all the time and so far so good

In the US I can sell Iran as long as I don't offer International shipping. I sold a nice Cuba collection last week, I listed it with Puerto Rico and called it a Caribbean collection. The price was a little low but I'd rather sell it than have it sit in my closet.

It is silly because last week here in Ft Myers they started twice weekly flights to Havana.

Problem with text images is they won't show up in search results. Sure, ebay won't pull the listing, but not many buyers will find it.

I should clarify- I will put text in images in ebay email. I thought that was the context mentioned.

All you can do is search synonyms for telegram and pick one ebay will let thru. They program the computer for certain words and basically you're screwed if those come up. Their game....their rules however stupid.

I have only experienced ebay -- both as buyer & seller -- so nothing to compare to.

How are the other auction markets that post stamps such as bidstart and delcampe?

I agree. I've been affected by all those policies in the past! I was describing an item - a stamp - and the word 'cheque' was used because it was relevant (I forget why) - the item would not list because it said that it looked like I was offering to accept bank cheque as a form of payment. I can't list stamps from Persia or Iran, Cuba, or the Sudan on Australian ebay, even though the Australian government has no policies boycotting products from those countries. (It's the US that does.) Such restrictions are probably against Australian law.

The worst thing that happened was when I went to list a Hitler mini-sheet on the US ebay site. Even though dozens of people have sold the exact same (as well as similar) mini-sheet on ebay over the years, my listing was pulled TWICE (I tried to list it on two separate occasions) on the grounds that it was against ebay policies to sell items that celebrate (I don't recall the exact word they used) the Third Reich. When this happened, at least two similar mini-sheets were listed and three had sold in the period immediately prior.

dcaraz1949, I've never encountered problems with any other websites. It's only the control freaks at ebay who seem to indulge in such madness.

dcaraz, my experience with DelCampe and Bidstart are that they are much less sensitive about "deals on the side." I'm sure they don't like it, but neither seems to have any safeguards in place. I'm pretty sure if someone ratted someone else out on BidStart they would act on it, and for sure on DelCampe they would take action.

On Delcampe, when you ask a question about an item from a seller you've never bought from, the message can only be posted publicly. However I think when they write an answer it's possible to be in touch in email. I've posted my email address in the publicly visible Q&A box and have never been hassled about it.

Perhaps BidStart and Delcampe are concerned with alienating participants given their miniscule market share compared to ebay. But you can still charge $15 for shipping on both sites!