I have heard different stories about ebay and balis, basically, if they don't see it, it gets through, but I thought if they caught it they would pull it.
Because they are a California company and their equipment is physically located in California, eBay seems to feel that they must apply California weapons laws. (I've asked them several times why they feel that CA weapons laws apply, but that CA sales tax laws do not. They've never answered that question.)
CA weapons laws do not allow balisongs with blades longer than 2".
Ebay will terminate the auction if someone complains about it. Ebay also has a search bot that is contantly searching new listings for key words. Bali-Song, Balisong, Benchmade, butterfly knife, are some of the key words they look for. When the bot finds a potentially troublesome auction, that auction is added to a suspect list. Ebay has a staff of people who spend their whole day just looking at auctions that either people have complained about or that the bot has tagged. Complaints get priority. So, if there's a lot of complaints, the auction police may not get around to looking at the bot's list and an auction may squeak by.
If you want to successfully sell a balisong on eBay, do this: Do not use one of the hot words in the title or the description. Do not post a picture. Keep your auction short.
But, if you want to get maximum money for your knife, you need to make a good title and description, add a nice picture, and let it run for a long time.
I have a friend who collects beer cans (don't get me started. What a stupid thing to collect...). Anyway, he doesn't want your Bud can, though you'd be surprised how many seemingly identical Bud cans he has, "This one is from March of 1993. They changed the silk screens and they made an error. See? There's a little red spec right below that e."
"Ok, are you sure that's just not a little bit of the ink that splashed or something?"
"Oh, no no no. There was an error in the silk screen. They corrected in in April. There's only a few million of these babies out there. This can is worth a fortune."
"If you say so." (You know, if I wasn't so @#%$ honest, I could make a fortune with a red Sharpie pen.)
Anyway, one of the places he often picks up these wonderful cans is on eBay. One of the real prizes is to find a can that still has the beer in it. Yes, that 1993 misprint can is worth more than other 1993 misprint cans because it still has the "beer" in it.
Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think Bud's very good to begin with and nine year old Bud must just be horrible. Furthermore, some of his cans are fifty and sixty years old. I really don't want to even think about what sixty year old beer tastes like. The people who pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars for these cans are not buying them for the beer.
If you read eBay's rules, you can sell alcholic beverages on eBay even though eBay does not have a liquor license. Wow! That is a blatent violation of not just California state law, but Federal law too! Ebay openly flaunts these laws. Why? Their reasoning (and it's just their reasoning, not any legal ruling or permit or anything, just what they want to be true) is that the value of these items comes from the label or the container, not from the alcoholic beverage they they happen to contain. Auctions of alcoholic beverages are acceptible as long as the majority of the value of the item comes from the label or the container, not from the alcoholic beverage.
I've argued and argued with them that in many cases, the value of a balisong comes not from its potential use as a weapon but from its collecible value. Just as no beer can collector is going to open his 1993 misprint Bud can and drink the beer thus cutting the value of his precious can in half, no knife collector is going to use a one-of-a-kind Bali-Song Cutlery High Hollow with ivory inserts to roll some guy for his wallet. But, they've never bought it.
Damn !!!!
, a Billings & Spencer Balisong for sale! I've never seen one offered before, good luck Mr. Gollnick
