Advertisement: Why did my Estes Classic Collection Auction Get Deleted?

[Scarletdown]

Hi! Apologies in advance for my first post here having to be a grumble, but I just have to show off an annoyance I was greeted with this morning when I checked my email...

Anyway, last night, I had put up my Estes Classic Collection on eBay. This is just a compilation of Estes Technical Reports.

When I checked my email this morning, I had this notice from eBay:

We regret to inform you that your eBay auction:


3142372738 Estes Model Rocket Classic Collection - OOP

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.

Fireworks or pyrotechnic device may not be listed on eBay. These items are heavily regulated or banned in most states, and postal regulations prohibit the transmission of these items via the postal system.

Under California law, fireworks include "any device containing chemical elements and chemical compounds capable of burning independently of the oxygen of the atmosphere and producing audible, visual, mechanical or thermal effects which are useful as pyrotechnic devices or for entertainment."

Pyrotechnic devices include "any combination of materials, including pyrotechnic compositions, which, by the agency of fire, produce an audible, visual, mechanical or thermal effect designed and intended to be useful for industrial, agricultural, personal safety, or educational purposes."


This is what the auction listing looked like:

www.oz.net/~otter/Bunker/estes-cc.html

As you can see, it is simply a book. There were no actual rocket motors or anything illegal involved. Anyone here have any suggestions on how to reword this listing so that it gets bypassed by eBay's censorbots?

Thanks for letting me rant.

 

[jflis]

No need to appologize. Oh, and welcome to the forum. Hope you can stay around.

I know exactly what happened. I even had long trails of email with eBay over this, but they are a stuborn lot, they are!

Your ad has the phrase MODEL ROCKET ENGINEs in it. That's all it took.

One thing that needs to be understood is that eBay has FAR too many auctions going on at any one time to monitor them all. Rather, they have robots to monitor most of the activity. The only time it would come to someones attention is if you were trying to do something that was against the law (sell a human organ or hire a hit-man, etc). Selling rocket motors isn't against the law, just against eBay rules.

Hence, the robot locked onto the keyword "Model Rocket Engines" and kicked your auction and sent you an email. I assure you that there isn't a single person at eBay that is even aware that it happened.

Also, it is possible to have such an auction and never get caught. The robots (worms?) don't check everything, all the time, but they have a good hit rate.

I'd be willing to bet that if you re-submitted the auction but removed (or mis-spelled) those sections, that it would go without problem.

Also, you could send an email into eBay (they should have provided you with an email address where you could contest the decision) and inquire about it. THIS would then bring it to the attention of a REAL person. They would see the error of the robot and allow the auction to be reinstated.

hope this helps!

Sorry that you're going through this mess (i've had a field day with them!).

Have fun here, you will find this to be a very helpful and enjoyable forum for everything rocketry!!

jim

 

[Scarletdown]

Originally posted by jflis
Your ad has the phrase MODEL ROCKET ENGINEs in it. That's all it took.

Hence, the robot locked onto the keyword "Model Rocket Engines" and kicked your auction and sent you an email. I assure you that there isn't a single person at eBay that is even aware that it happened.

hope this helps!

Have fun here, you will find this to be a very helpful and enjoyable forum for everything rocketry!!

jim

That did prove to be the case. Surprisingly, it didn't take Customer Support long at all to respond to my email about this. They looked into it, realized that it was a mistake, and reinstated the listing as an ended auction.

Of course, by that time, I had already listed it again, showing the table of contents as an image instead of a text listing; and before the old auction had been put back in the database, the new one ended with a nice $15 Buy It Now.


Anyway, I am looking forward to _eventually_ getting back into model rocketry, once time and the budget allow me to take this hobby up again. And I just know that once I do, I am probably going to regret selling my old Teleflite "Build Your Own Rocket Motors" book a few months back, as well as the old 1968 RDC catalog about a year or two ago. Still, they were both "delicious" and the sales were much needed at the time...