Listing Removed - eBay Providing an Unfair Trading Platform

[joe71_240-z]

I recently listed a VHS Video Cassette tape with an R18+ rating and to my surprise, after approximately 5 hours of it being live, it was removed by eBay, their reason being that it violated their "Prohibited Adult Items Policy".

The reason I was surprised is that there were another 33 listings currently on eBay in Australia and several hundred worldwide with exactly the same title/content, albeit VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray formats.

I have been in-touch with eBay directly through their help/chat facility and they refuse to remove all of the other items with the same title/content or allow me to relist mine. I believe that eBay is now not providing me equal opportunities to sell items on their platform.

I have been a member of eBay for 11+ years, with a very good record as both a buyer and seller and have never encountered issues like this.

I would like to ask the community if anyone has had a similar problem and if so how did you manage to solve it?

[imastawka]

Yes, a couple of items actually, but not dvds

You can't win. 

List it elsewhere - FB or Gumtree maybe

[gutterpunkz05]

No idea why your item would be removed while others remain.

But removal is at ebays discretion

Most adult items are subject to some form of restriction or prohibition. We'll review the content of the listing description, images, and categories, to determine if an item is allowed.

What is the policy?

Sexually-oriented adult material is not allowed. This includes the following:

• Films and video games classified as RC (refused classification), X or created for an adult audience
• Adult magazines, books, comics, nudist publications or adult anime/manga that include sexually-explicit content, nudity, or sexual stories
  • The following magazines and books can be listed as long as the listing and product don't contain nude images or explicit content: Playboy, Playgirl, Mayfair, and Penthouse
• Listings containing nudity (other than nude art)
  • eBay defines nudity as male/female genitalia, anus, or female breasts where the areola or nipple is visible

[asporty]

Why even indulge in such dirty practice?

There is enough dirt in the world anyway without contributing to spreading more.

[davewil1964]

Your prejudice is showing.

[asporty]

Yes I guess I am proud to be prejudiced against dirty minds, and against people who support this filth

[p9games · Accepted solution]

I had a similar issue.  An item I listed was flagged by some Ebay algorithm as violating a policy relating to the sale of prohibited religious and nazi artifacts.  I raised it with the 'support' team and noted that other sellers had the exact same item for sale without a problem.  The support agents could not tell me why the item had been flagged.  They could not tell me anything about the algorithm other than to say it's automated and nothing they can do.

Not to be deterred, i looked at other listings of the item and noticed my description included some text from the item (I have a highly automated system which builds very detailed listings, including full text).  I removed the text and viola the item appeared.  It seems the text contained a word or phrase that triggered some algorithm.

Chances are you can tweak your listing images and/or text and escape the automated systems that block illicit items.

Cheers

Denis