Re: Question on new e-Bay rules.


"Bruce Remick" <remick@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"John Mazor" <mazorj@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:rYyRj.12440$Rk6.7664@xxxxxxxxxxx

"gogu" <golanule_VA-DA-MUIE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Ï "Bruce Remick" <remick@xxxxxxx> Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
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I've seen and heard of auctions being pulled for the precise things you mention, and
I've seen other auctions skate through with the same things included. It all seems
to depend on whether someone complains to eBay or not. In some cases, a photo of the
non-approved slab that includes the label details can be grounds for a pull, even if
there's no text at all.

Cooper and RF - are you listening?

I would examine some completed eBay auctions of coins slabbed by the same company as
yours in order to get an idea of what people have been getting away with lately.

Given e-Bay's spotty enforcement record, that's not really good advice! That's like
telling someone "Go ahead and claim your dog as a dependent on your taxes, I know I guy
who's been doing it for years and he's never been audited, let alone caught, so it must
be okay." If I had to boil it down to a short, pithy adage, I'd just cite the Golden
Rule. It works well in practically every business ethics situation.

Since reading the new eBay rules still leaves some people scratching their heads, I
merely suggested taking a look at some completed auctions to get a feel as to how these
new rules are being interpreted. Specifically, has showing a large photo of the data on
a slab label been interpreted by eBay as listing the name of the non-approved slabber
and implying that the SEGS or PCI coin in the slab has been (gasp!) certified?

Has it? Maybe I misunderstood your earlier remark but it sounded as though you've seen it
happen both ways. If that's the case, the logical conclusion is that it's prohibited but
only spottily enforced when someone complains, as you noted. And if that's the case,
well, just because the cops haven't enforced the speed limit on your street for months
doesn't invalidate the speed limit.

Unfortunately, the relevant e-Bay rules here do look as though they were drafted to create
the most confusion for the most people. I'm basing much of my interpretation on the
common sense conclusion that if they want to prohibit sellers from using lower-tier
graders as an authentication of a coin's condition because of documented problems with
some of those services, then it makes absolutely no sense to prohibit certain behavior in
the written text but not in accompanying photographs, or vice versa. That's like
prohibiting students from bringing pornography to school - but only written porn.
Pictures are okay.

Now if e-Bay were to surprise us and issue an official clarification, and if the
clarification said "Yes, against all logic, photographs were deliberately not mentioned in
certain exclusions or prohibited practices, therefore you can show pictures of
non-approved slabs even though you can't mention them in the title or description,"
well... I'd say that e-Bay tried to have it both ways. They took an action intended to
create the appearance of protecting buyers (the "white list" of approved graders) but in
order to minimize the alienation of their sellers, they gave a wink and a nudge to them by
leaving loopholes big enough to shovel their entire inventory through.

Given their recent emphasis on improving relationships with their sellers, I can't
absolutely rule out that possibility. e-Bay has conflicting priorities in that they get
their fees from sellers so they want to keep them happy, but as their recent speeches have
stated, they also have to create a "positive buying experience" to attract the buyers that
sellers need. Those two imperatives sometimes are in direct conflict so it wouldn't be
totally surprising if the current rules are another example of the saying that "a camel is
a horse that was built by committee".

However, unless and until they do that, a combination of Occam's Razor and common sense
leads me to believe that my interpretation of the rules is the best fit.


.

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