EBay Bonehead Or Bone Handled?

Ebay Bonehead Or Bone Handled?

Ebay have riled me again.  I had an email from them to say that one of my items had been removed from my eBay antique silver store as it had breached their Animals, Plants and Wildlife policy.  It was a boxed pair of Silver  1913 Fish Servers with Bone Handles.  Now I know that you are not allowed to sell items made of ivory on eBay but before I listed this item I did check that other items with bone handles were allowed.   There were items listed at the time so I listed this lovely set.

I was quite surprised to find that it had been removed and again on checking, there were items listed with bone handles so I was quite annoyed and wanted to find out exactly why my item had been removed.  Well if anyone has actually used ebay’s customer support, it is like hitting your head against a brick wall to actually get answers to your questions.  As emailing them now takes about 3 days before you receive a reply, I wanted to get on the case quickly so decided to enter the ebay customer support chat room.

The first person I was connected to, couldn’t answer my question so I was transferred to the correct department. I asked why my item had been removed. I was told that unless you could actually identify the animal from which the bone came from it was not allowed.  I pointed out that there was no way possible of identifying which animal the bone had come from. The fact I did not identify the animal it came from had caused the listing to be removed. If I had put Buttercup or Daisy a cow then it would obviously have been allowed.  So unless you put the actual animal eg cow, ox, horse, pig, sheep etc. just the word  bone is not allowed.  I queried the fact that some items listed were showing faux bone, which is crazy, as it is either bone or not bone, to which the Customer Service rep answer was “faux bone is resin”, so if it is resin, why are these items not listed as resin.   He did during the conversation suggest I went to an antique dealer who would be able to tell me what animal bone it was made of.  That was like red rag to a bull, as I informed him I was an antique silver dealer, to which he then ate humble pie.  I did say that unless you were present when the animal was slaughtered you would never be able to identify it.  My item was made back in 1913, so to identify the animal would be absolutely impossible.  I could however just put anything eg cow, horse, ox etc it would have been listed as ebay do not physically check each item. This makes a complete mockery of their policies.  To add a statement that is not true is obviously acceptable to ebay.

This particular Customer service rep had an answer for everything but unfortunately none of them made sense. EBay Bonehead Or Bone Handled?

After a lengthy chat, I basically had to admit defeat as I was getting absolutely nowhere.  There are still many items listed with just bone handles, without confirming exactly what animal it came from. This leads me to believe ebay’s policies regarding animals is a complete waste of time. It is also unfair as all sellers are not being treated the same.

I could have re listed this item to say it was cow bone, but as I cannot confirm this I would be misleading a potential buyer. As a result I have listed it on my Antique Silver Website and ebay  have lost out on fees as a result.

You can read more about my ebay selling activities here.

EBay Bonehead Or Bone Handled?