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@am*3 wrote:

What if you don't break the rules and see other sellers getting away with scamming buyers? Happens far to often..by fraudulent sellers, scammers.. not the  sellers who have  listed an item in the wrong category or cancelled too many transaction is a week/month/whatever, sellers who have sold  on eBay for a very  long time and have 10 000 ( or 10 000's of thousands) or more positive feedback

 

Sellers who don't send items out to newish buyers and give excuses, been sick, its on its way now and keep delaying the buyer with excuses until its to late for them to lodge a paypal claim. Seems a common trick for some overseas sellers. Result buyer ripped off - no item, no refund.

Compare that to a seller who has listed an item in the wrong category? 

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The scammers will also end up with lots of defects so they'll be brought to account, but if we didn't have a defect system they'd continue to get away with it.  Is that what you want - do away with the defect system so they can continue on their merry way?

While a lot of listings in the wrong category are genuine mistakes (eg. forgetting to change the category from the last listing done), a lot are deliberate in an attempt to get more exposure for their items and have an advantage over other sellers, and as such it should be stamped out.  I sell an item in a category that's full of things that shouldn't be there, plus lots more that involve listing violations, and it makes searching so much more time-consuming.  It's a real turn-off for buyers so it probably means the genuine sellers get less sales because of it. 

If something is obviously in the wrong category by mistake I'll often contact the seller and let them know, but if it's deliberate I have no hesitation in reporting the listing.  Once a seller has had one policy violation for listing in the wrong category you'd expect them to be more careful in future.  Clothing in collectables just because it has an animal on it is just plain ludicrous and should be a no-brainer for an experienced seller.