Thank you E-bay

[Gollnick]

I received the following notice from E-bay today:

Dear Chuck Gollnick (gollnick@4cs.net),

Please be advised that the following auction, in which you were a
participating bidder:


133282024 - 2 Benchmade Balisong Knives

was ended early by eBay for listing violations. All results for this
auction are null and void. If you proceed with the purchase of the item,
you do so at your own legal risk and may be engaging in an illegal
transaction; therefore, you as a bidder are not legally required to
complete the transaction.


Regards ,

Booker T. (ended@ebay.com)
eBay Inc.

The items in question were a Benchmade model 35 and a BM model 60 Bali Song knives.

I have responded to E-bay applauding them and encouraging them to keep up their excellent enforcement efforts. It makes E-bay one less on-line auction I have to keep track of.

Until Mike and the boys get the new BladeForums Auction house open, I'd like to encourage everyone to use Amazon.com. While I'm told that BladeForums doesn't get a cut (notice knife reference) from auctions on Amazon even when we go there via the BladeForums link (if you didn't know, BladeForums gets a cut (the good kind) when we buy stuff at Amazon.com if we go there via the BladeForums link, and it doesn't even have to be knife-related stuff), it still doesn't hurt to support the hand that feeds us.

Chuck

 

[theoldawg]

Golinick - Did ebay give you a reason why
they cancelled auction on the two knives you
were bidding on; but, still allowed approx,
a half-a-dozen el-cheapo butterflys to remain?

Do you think it may have been the use of the name "Balisong"?

[This message has been edited by theoldawg (edited 21 July 1999).]

 

[Gollnick]

You have seen what I received from them.

They never responded to my accolades and encouragements.

I strongly suggest we move all knife auctions away from e-bay.

Inasmuchas Bali Song Cutlery made other kinds of knives, it would be silly of them to go only on that name. But, then again, these people may not know much about the products they're selling.

Interrestingly enough, in the case of this auction, the buyer, me, and the seller both live in Oregon, so there would be absolutely no laws violated by the sale. I have contacted the seller and arranged the sale at a handsome price. E-Bay's loss.

Chuck

[This message has been edited by Gollnick (edited 22 July 1999).]

 

[Dannyc]

Hmmm.. this reminded me of what happened to a seller/friend of mine whose rating was already over the 500 mark, but got banned on Ebay because he was selling knives and nunchucks (??) and those were considered deadly weapons (but not where the guy lives, according to him).

What's funny was that when I tried a search, there were tons of other people selling the same things, but were not banned from doing so. Judgement call? I dunno... I guess Ebay isn't as community-friendly as they were before when they were just starting out.

Dan

 

[Dannyc]

Oh.. and isn't Booker T. a wrestler? hehehe!
I didn't know he was part-timing over at Ebay, ending auctions.

lol...

Dan

 

[tobii3]

If you've spoken with the seller, then all is good. I have had the same thing happen....when the seller was trying to sell knockoffs. Bad people.

On another note, SafeHarbor on Ebay is designed to keep the auctions clean.

 

[Gollnick]

I am now told that there are several "members" over on E-Bay who apparently have very little to do with their time and who cruise around the auctions looking for anything questionable and then immediately insist that it be removed. Auction vigilantes, you might say. My understanding is that Ebay would prefer a more laissez faire approach, after all, they make money off of every sale, but that these self-appointed monitors force to this action.

IMHO, you can't fight 'em. Let's just let the beanie baby crowd have E-bay and we'll take the knive trade somewhere else. That's the beauty of the Internet.

Chuck

 

[White Knight]

I've bought several butterfly knives from ebay. Awhile back (same time that they killed their gun auctions) they changed the policy against switchblades and butterfly knives. So, butterfly knives are in the same category (to ebay) as drugs and live animals!

I read on rec.knives newsgroup that ebay changed the user agreement recently to NOT ban butterfly knives. I guess this is not the case.

 

[Gollnick]

Oh, and don't forget the "soiled underwear".
Bali Songs and soiled underwear, we wouldn't want any of that going in, now would we?

Chuck

 

[Mike Turber]

Our auction will not have this problem. We will have a disclaimer and the only knife, that I am aware of, that I will ban from the auction is the ballistic knife.



------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
www.wowinc.com

 

[Gollnick]

One can question if a "ballistic knife" is really a knife anyway. Yes, it has sharpened edges, but a lot of modern bullets are designed to expand and have sharp edges on impact. IMHO, "ballistic knives" are projectile weapons and a totally different type of thing.

Please make sure, though, that all automatic knives offered at your new auction carry a statement such as "This knife is offered for sale only to lawfully qualified buyers." I'm just really concerned that stuff like bladeauction are gonna get paraded out in front of some legislative committee somewhere as an example of how, "the internet is turning into a giant terrorist arms bazaar where criminals, terrorists, and our children can buy any kind of evil weapon they want to 24 hours a day." I don't care who you sell your switchblade to, but we have keep up at least an appearance of legality.

Chuck

 

[Gollnick]

Hey Mike,

Will we be able to sell solid underwear on the new site?

I've been thinking about just buying all new underwear every week and putting the old up for auction. That way, I won't have to do all that wash. Given the prices things seem to be going for these days, I can probably make money on the deal.

But, not on E-Bay. They don't allow that.

Chuck