Can anyone help identify please : )

[ready2wear2020]

Just wanting some help please ..I listed these items under asian antiques  yesterday ..I think they are antique vegetable ivory (I see their is a similar item on ebay.com and the listing currently is active and has a bid ) but they were removed  today due to listing practices.(Ivory ) Whoops didn't know ..Am I correct in my identification ? Any one have any thoughts if not ?? And Is their another way to list ? Hope my pic attaches thanks : ) 

[imastawka]

Vegetable ivory is a product made from the very hard white endosperm of the seeds of certain palm trees. Vegetable ivory is named for its resemblance to elephant ivory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_ivory

I don't know how you tell the difference or how you would even

convince ebay that it was vegetable ivory.

You would have to have excellent provenance I would imagine.

Maybe try listing as palm tree seed carving - Phytelephas carving??     

Dunno,  Sorry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytelephas

Maybe someone else will come along who knows more

[siddieswans]

Can't help you with your identification - I am not expert enough. However I can help you with the listing. USA (ebay.com) and ebay.com.au operate under different rules as far as endangered species listings are concerned. While it may be OK to list "vegetable ivory" on ebay.com, it would seem to me from practice that the only acceptable use of the word "ivory" on Oz ebay is either "faux ivory" or "ivory colour". If you look in Asian Antiques "Australia only" you will see a fair few things listed as "ivory colour", and a few "faux ivory". They have stopped people listing things as "ox bone" because they said it was a "synonym" for ivory but "cow bone" seems to be OK - there is lots of that around. We all know it is completely ridiculous - I have had a listing for Royal Worchester ceramics pulled because I correctly identified the design as "Blush Ivory"!!!!

Anyway it is the TITLE that is vitally important. You could try "ivory colour" or simply say antique hand carved whatever it is (and don't mention what it is carved from). Then in the description just say "carved from some natural material" or some such. Modern vegetable ivory carving seem to be listed as tagua (which is one of the botanical names for the seeds it seems.) Don't worry about people missing your listing - most people who buy such items are aware of Oz's silly rule - your pictures are lovely and clear, someone will see them. But just in case, I would start at a price you would be happy with, rather than at a "come and get me" price. If you have a couple of items, and you think they are potentially quite valuable, it would probably be better to take them to a bricks and mortar auction house for a valuation and possible sale there - Asian Antiques are hot property at the moment.

Whatever you do, don't hazard another try without changing the title. You don't have very much Feedback and another listing violation could see you suspended from listing by eBay.

[imastawka]

Siddie, while I think the OP should change the title, after a search

there still seems to be quite a few listings on ebay Australia

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_odkw=vegetable+ivory&_from=R40|R40|R40|R40|R40|R40|R40|R40|R40&_o...

[siddieswans]

I can only see 9 listings on "Australia Only" - a few are for vegetable tureens. A few buttons (listed in crafts). The vegetable ivory tape measure is listed under "crafts" - it may be because the OP's items were listed under Asian Antiques that she was unlucky and got pinged. There is no arguing with eBay - some of these listing removals are done by "bots" - ie automated programs that trawl the listings, other times the listings are reported by concerned people, who make it their business to police such things as the "endangered listings" policy. In any case it is pointless arguing the removal in my opinion - the OP may feel differently. I have certainly listed vegetable ivory buttons in the past, but would hesitate to do so again - I recently had 2 vintage scarfs removed by Chanel under VERO - I cannot afford to aggravate eBay at the moment!

[siddieswans]

Oh and it's perfectly possible that under eBay's "selected viewing" policy, you can see quite different listings from me!

[ready2wear2020]

Thanks so much for your help and  the very detailed replies , very much appreciated : )

I don't think I would try relisting , and if I did I would do as suggested and remove the offending words ,even though the buttons seem to be ok ..I will have to give it more thought ..cheers : ) 

[imastawka]

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@siddieswans wrote:

Oh and it's perfectly possible that under eBay's "selected viewing" policy, you can see quite different listings from me!

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Well, well, well.  That certainly gained my attention.

 On a second look,  I too can only see 9 for Australia as well.

Sorry, didn't look that hard the first time,

But what's this about?  Selected viewing policy???

[siddieswans]

Oh OK; possibly you're not a seller. It is always a red-hot topic on the PowerSellers Board - don't know about the ordinary Sellers board. It is a well-established fact that different people, using different IDs, on different computers, can do exactly the same search, and get different results. Or the same person, with the same ID, can do the same search on the same computer on consecutive days and get wildly different results. Very frequently sellers will complain that their own items are not visible. Often people will report that buyers are asking them what's happened to their items, as they can't find them (has happened to me once.)

There are all sorts of theories for this - from the wildest conspiracy (eBay doesn't like me), to believable conspiracy  (eBay doesn't value small sellers and will promote big sellers at their expense), to believable (eBay does not have the bandwidth to support the zillions of items that are listed with it and copes by blacking out particular regions, particular sellers or buyers IDs, particular categories or sub-categories.)

For example (and these are real examples from me) - I might not sell anything for 4 days and then sell to 5 people whose first name is Barbara, or who live in a street starting with Mc, or who live in Norway (never having sold to Norway before.)  Or I will sell 4 movie posters in one day, where usually I would be lucky to sell 1 every 6 months. PowerSellers constantly report similar happenings - way too many to be coincidental.

Anyway I could go on and on. When you sign the eBay selling agreement now, it does not guarantee that your items will be visible at all times. Or to all potential customers.  Personally (disclaimer - I am a complete dodo)  I think eBay is seriously lacking in both bandwidth (it got rid of a lot of its bandwidth some time ago to save costs) and technical expertise (the password fiasco and very recently the "blackout" last week which affected me personally and millions of other eBayers.) eBay claims "250 to 300 million searches are being made on eBay each day"

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y14/m09/i05/s02

Many PowerSellers report that their sales have nosedived in the last few months, compared to results from last year or even several years ago. And that their sales are very patchy, with nothing for a week then a great day or 2 of sales, as though "The Tap" was being turned on and off. However it's their platform, you play by their rules, and you stay here for as long as it is the best site for you.

[imastawka]

Interesting.   I do sell on another id.  I visited the power sellers board

a long time ago and was bored with the chit chat.   Sorry, didn't see any value there

and never went back.  Slow day perhaps?

But what you say makes a lot of sense now.   Very slow and then suddenly POW!

I thought that was weird.  It's still happening. As you say 'like a tap'

I do believe the bit about the band width though.  I think that's what's behind a lot of the strange changes, e.g. fb time and date changing to last month etc.

Thanks for the info.   I can stop scratching my head now