eBay does it again, this time to a DUer!

[dmr]

This week, a DUer, began an eBay auction of Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure. This action figure was true to form - W is awol in the box. (So what you're bidding on is an empty box, with the winning bid being either donated to DU or the winning bidder's choice of charity).

Here is a Lounge thread about it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=88736&mesg_id=88736

I placed a few bids on it and yesterday I checked (Thursday) to see how it was doing, I think the bid was up to $75.00, and it probably was even more as the day went on.

I just opened an email from eBay, and this is what they say:

Dear xxxx xxxxxxx ([e-mail]),

Please be aware that auction:

3141998098 - Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure

in which you were a bidding participant, has been ended early by eBay for violating one or more of our listing guidelines.

Because the auction was ended early, you as a bidder are not required to complete the transaction. Since this is a listing violation, the seller is free to relist the item in the proper format. Should you wish to do so, you are free to bid on the item again if it is relisted.

If you care to review our listing guidelines for a better understanding of our auction policies, they can be found at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-ov.html

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have on our existing policies.


Regards,
Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay

WTF? Trust and Safety Department? Oh, PLEASE! I am so pissed right now I can't see straight - and this wasn't even my auction, but by God, after a quick review of their policies, I certainly don't see anything where this is in any violation, unless they don't like charity donation auctions.

Nothing like being fair and balanced, eh eBay?

[CanuckAmok]

1. Hey, all...straight from the horse's mouth...

here's Ebay's response to my inquiry as to why my auction was ended...

We regret to inform you that your eBay auction:


3141998098 Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure



has been ended. All fees associated with this auction have been credited to your account.

The item you have listed does not appear to be consistent with eBay guidelines.

We have determined that your item is inappropriate for listing on eBay.

For further information about eBay's guidelines, please refer to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/items-ov.html

Future auctions listed that fail to meet our listing guidelines will be ended early and repeated violations may jeopardize your account status. We value you as a member of our community and wish to continue our relationship, so we respectfully ask you to refrain from any violations of the Listing Policies or User Agreement in the future.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay


BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

*****THIS IS AN AUTORESPONDER. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE*****

Thank you for writing to eBay Customer Support. We sincerely value you
as a member of our trading community and understand your concern
regarding your recently removed listing(s). Please note that when a
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We realize that there are times when you may have additional questions.
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To ensure that eBay remains a safe and fun venue to buy and sell, all
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If you are a bidder and received a notice about a listing you were
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Please include your user ID, the item number(s) in question, and a
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appropriate department addresses your concerns.

Thank you for taking the time to write to eBay.




MmmmHmmm...

So, as I understand it, the only possible breach of guideline I has with Ebay was a possible infringement of copyright or trademark.

So, let me see if I have this straight...

Unlicensed "Pro-Bush" action figure made, no doubt, by slave labourers in China is not a violation of copyright, but

a non-existant "Anti-Bush" inaction figure not manufactured anywhere but markeded through a NAFTA trading partner is a violation of copyright or trademark, even though it's clealy marked as an empty box...

What?!?!?!?!?!?

I give up.

Freedom is slavery, war is peace. 2+2=5. Good night all.

[Democat]

4. You don't need a license to make a Bush doll

That's bullshit. You need to respond to them until they give you a very specific answer. Please post here what they say.

They are trying to get out of telling you why they cancelled the auction - don't let them get away with it.

[PsychoDad]

12. Offensive materials (such as Nazi or KKK items),

Ebay has plenty of those..... Lots.

[dmr]

15. Canuck, what was the last bid

before eBay yanked it?

[HFishbine]

16. Maybe

it's because you were advertising a doll, but selling an empty box? Yeah, it was funny as hell. I even searched for it this morning hoping to email the listing to a friend. But, I can see why E-bay removed it. Maybe if you had identified it as an empty box that would have included a Bush action figure had he not gone AWOL, it would have passed muster.

[SoCalDem]

18. double posetd..oops

deletsd

[SoCalDem]

19. Apparently they equate our fearless leader with the KKK or Hitler...hmmm

"Offensive materials (such as Nazi or KKK items"...

You should write them back and tell them you are surprised that they lump our PRESIDENT in with the KKK & Hitler :evilgrin:


AND since the information you listed has NEVER been refuted in a court of law, it has to be assumed to be TRUE.. You have documentation for EVERY bit of information you used.. THEY should be the ones to prove you are wrong :evilgrin:

[in_cog_ni_to]

24. The reason your auction was pulled

is because you had a rabid band of repukes, emailing each other to report your auction. If Ebay gets enough complaints, they will cancel your listing. It's the repukes from Ebay. I'm telling you, they're all over that place and they are Psychotic! They will go to the ends of the earth to defend the shrub. I have learned, from past experience, that Ebay is DEFINITELY a repuke owned and operated place. They're also hypocrites because a repuke could have the same auction up, with Clinton as the doll (box) and they wouldn't do sh*t to them. I LOVED that auction, BTW! Did you receive any nasty letters from any repuke Ebayers?

[Cthulu_2004]

2. What did you expect?

Ebay is a government whore...

[izzie]

3. I think that this is funny. Keep it up

n/t

[Cthulu_2004]

6. I'm not joking....

their privacy policy is a complete joke, and their "cooperation" with law enforcement is really very, VERY scary.

[DEMActivist]

5. OK, so what should we do about this DUers?

Any suggestions?

[DUreader]

7. This Could Be a Big News Story, Even The Whores Might Run with It

Some Kind of Media Blast Is In Order

Maybe Scoop to start with?

[bpilgrim]

34. mall.GlobalFreePress.com

http://mall.GlobalFreePress.com - for starters :hi:

peace

[soup]

8. Don't have any answers, but

this just doesn't seem right to me. If the item was clearly labeled as an empty box, where's the problem? How could it be copyright infringement?

Was it removed for political reasons? Sure seems like it to me.



pic from: http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/22/bush.boxes/

By the way, the idea is pure genius. Sorry I missed it.

[molly]

9. Yep - I got the same email

actually I was surprised at how long it lasted. I wonder how they caught it?

[RetroLounge]

10. Well of course they pulled it.

Selling a Bush* (in)action figure violates their anti-nazi policy, and since Bush* is really a nazi, there you go.

[Mairead]

11. But Ebay doesn't catch some genuinely fraudulent ones

See http://forums.maestronet.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB4&Number=217514&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=all

Especially Michael Darnton's response and his pointers to the guitar-fraud site. That site has some amusing reading, if you ignore the fact of the intent to defraud. It's almost like the ever-hopeful Nigerian scammers. Unfortunately, some people will actually be caught by the crooks because they trust ebay and imagine--falsely--that ebay vets the sellers.

[MuseRider]

13. Can we help?

This should not go unchallenged. It is purely political. Can't you sell stuff taken from you during surgery on that site? I don't pay it much attention but have used it once or twice. I would like to be able to use it again if the need should arise but I will not if this is how it is going to be. Let us know if we can help, I may send the an e mail to inquire. BTW, great idea.

[soothsayer]

14. I imagine some brown-shirted freeper bugged ebay about it

I doubt ebay itself had a problem with it, but they prolly got piled on by those humorless lemmings.

[graham67]

17. eBay....

doesn't police the auctions listed on their site (eBay is only the venue, remember? /sarcasm). An eBay user filed a complaint with Trust and Safety to get it yanked.

on edit: please don't give up. Keep emailing eBay until you get a real answer to why it was ended early.

[bpilgrim]

20. GlobalFreePress will sell any liberal, progressive merchandise you have

to offer ESPECIALLY if it makes fun of bush and yall will be helping create a TRUE peoples newspaper.

please PM me if you wanna get in Business together :hi:

http://mall.GlobalFreePress.com

peace

[saganaki]

21. It is clearly political satire

and protected free speach. Think Fox News v. Al Franken. We should start blasting Ebay. We can out-freep them any day.

[Brian Sweat]

22. He should just make a web site to sell the thing.

Then he could make a cheerleader doll from his Yale days and a drunk doll from his youthful indescretion days.

[bpilgrim]

25. all ready done...

http://mall.GlobalFreePress.com

peace

[corarose]

23. Can you relist is & follow all of the guidlines to a T & we will bid on it

eBay's playing politics!

[BigDaddyLove]

26. Rather than trying to make a statement...............

maybe this seller should stick to using Ebay for what it was meant to be used for (i.e selling things....actual things), and maybe he/she won't have this problem again.


Best flame wins............

[corarose]

28. Why don't they stop the IDIOTS from selling Clinton bashing products?

I guess it doesn't work both ways does it?

[CanuckAmok]

27. Hmmm...

Still no response from Ebay, but I'm not surprised.

Apparently this little auction made the headlines at Bartcop, but I missed it.

Someone who was following the auction is working on piecing the auction URL togehter from her cache, and making it into a Jpeg or other type of image file for me. I'd like to post the URL on a blog site, or...

Maybe it'll do the rounds as a t-shirt, sold on, you guessed it, Ebay! Proceeds to DU, the DNC, the ACLU, and AMFAR.

What do you think?

Incedentally, Ebay has no problem hosting ads for reproductions of "Nigger Brand" sundry items from the turn of the century, or SS badges.

I'm thinking of starting another "empty box" auction, but with an anti-progressive slant, just to see how long it lasts. Maybe "Noam Chomsky's Hipness", or something like that (just to play devil's advocate--please don't flame me!). I'm sure it will remain up for the duration of the auction.

By the way, the last time I looked at the auction, it was US$75, and had over 14,000 hits.

[dmr]

30. That would be an interesting bid, Canuck

I wrote to them too but no answer as yet.

[St. Jarvitude]

29. I used to host pictures for my mom's auctions on ebay...

But now I had to tell her that I'm going to join any eBay boycott I can find (she supported me btw :)). This is shameful behavior. I am very pissed right now. :grr: :puke:

[zekeson]

31. Create a Movement!

With apologies to Arlo Guthrie…

Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure

there's only one thing you can do and that's log onto Ebay,
wherever you are, log on and post your own copy of
CanuckAmok ‘s* " Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure."
And wait for it to get yanked.
You know, if one person, just one person does it
they may think he's really sick
and they’ll consider him a disrupter.
And if two people, two people do it,
in unison,
they may think they're both faggots
and they won't know what to make of it.
And three people do it,
three,
can you imagine,
three logging on to Ebay
and posting a copy of CanuckAmok’s
Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure
and then waiting for it to get yanked?
They may think it's an organization.
And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,
I said
fifty people a day logging on to Ebay
and posting a copy of CanuckAmok’s
Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure,
and then waiting for it to get yanked?.
And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

*Pending, of course, CanuckAmok’s approval.

I don't know what good it would do, but it would certainly be an interesting method of protest for the shoddy way CanuckAmok was treated.

[CanuckAmok]

32. Hey, what can I say...?

Except my empty box/inaction figure is your empty box/inaction figure!

If anyone still has this in his/her cache, please feel free to use it as you see fit (blogs, new auctions, etc)...

[bpilgrim]

35. or we could start our OWN store... -------------------------- LINK

http://mall.GlobalFreePress.com ;->

peace

[Twenty3]

33. Waaaah!

I wanted to see it, and by the time I looked yesterday it was gone. Can you put it up somewhere else for those of us who missed all the fun?

I'd even host it for you, if you want. Stuff like this should be preserved for posterity :) (and I say this not having seen it, but judging from the reactions)