No more virtual items on Ebay

[eseller]

The risk is way overblown - on ebay, at least, you have the protection of FEEDBACK - now that people such as myself have been forced off ebay, buyers and sellers both loose that protection. I have been contacted by several of my customers who want to continue our buyer/seller relationship off ebay. I will do so, but NOW I am a bit nervous also, it takes away the buyers protection, and mine as well. Everyone loses in this.

 

[darkacre]

Feedback offers little protection against the hijacked account. Paypal buyer's protection and paypal seller's protection did. In a marketplace as susceptible to fraud as the sale of virtual goods, codes and emails, that protection was more importation than feedback. The kid that ripped people off for thousands of dollars worth of stuff had perfect feedback until the payments started getting reversed. Then, in about 48 hours, got three or four negs, and his account was shut down by eBay (or it would have been 20 negs).

 

[gangelli]

Here is the answer I got from Ebay: It seems as though someone had to bring their attention to a particular persons listing before they are doing something, who knows but there are still people selling items, even seeing alot of "new users" selling VMK items.

Dear gangelli,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your listings that were removed.

eBay policy doesn't allow the sale of online virtual gaming items,
including game accounts, game characters, game currency, game points or
other similar game items. Although you may have sold similar items in
the past, future listings of such items will not be permitted.
As always, our goal is to keep the eBay marketplace a safe place to buy
and sell. Please understand that violations of eBay policy may result in
a range of actions, including listing cancellation, limits on account
privileges, account suspension, forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled
listings, and loss of PowerSeller status.

I encourage you to read the information available in our Help Topics
about why we restrict certain items from the eBay site. Please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/downloadable.html

Please be assured that your listings have not been targeted in any way.
Although there may be similar items currently listed on eBay, we review
all listings that are reported to us by eBay members or Verified Rights
Owner (VeRO) program participants. If we find that an item or listing
violates eBay policy or infringes intellectual property rights, we'll
take appropriate action.
Unfortunately, some current listings may violate eBay policies or
infringe intellectual property rights without our knowledge. This
doesn't reduce the seriousness of the violations for the listings that
have been reported to us.

We rely on reports from our members to help maintain the safety and
security of our Community. We encourage you to review our list of
prohibited, questionable, and infringing items. To do so, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/item_allowed.html

If you'd like to report a listing, please click the appropriate item
link. Then click the "Report" link at the bottom of the Help page. This
will help us quickly identify and investigate your report.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jarren
eBay Customer Support

 

[Cabelle1863]

Ok now I'm confused. There's currently 294 VMK items for sale on Ebay. Many of them are the actual virtual objects, not the cards. Are we supposed to go through and click "report" on each one every single day? And if so what are we supposed to select as the reason for reporting? Under prohibited items I don't see anything saying "online virtual gaming item."

I just wanted to add that one of the Ebay items is for the Skull Rock room & furniture. Seems a bit insane to try to sell something that players can easily get for free by playing the Kellogg's game.

 

[Cpt.JackSpearow]

It's Disney's intellectual property. Selling something you don't own is illegal.

Technicly its little dots on a computer or cards people """EARN""" so its not illegal.

Same with characters, in game items, and everything else like that. It isn't disney property. It may be part of there game, but if we spend all this time earning stuff, keyword EARNING, its technicly, ours.

 

[cowboys_girl]

gangelli, This is the big complaint a lot of Ebay sellers have with Ebay's system of taking down auctions which violate policy. I know of many sellers of designer items that report counterfeit items daily. Basically if yours were cancelled someone reported you. The problem I have with this is that continue to let other offending auctions run. They have a category for virtual items, WHY?! Also 294 is a small number compared to the number of counterfeit items that are listed, yet they do not have the manpower to go through three pages and take down the ones that are in violation. It makes no sense. In my opinion it is either against the rules or it's not. It is also right there for the world to see. Other Ebayers should not have to police the site for them however that is the case. Whoever is lucky enough not to get caught or reported by the competition keeps selling. To heck with the rules.

-Stacey

Note: I have never had an auction removed by Ebay nor do i spend my days reporting the auctions of others, so please to not take my post the wrong way.

 

[gangelli]

Stacey

No offense taken. I agree that it was probably someone who was outbid on one of my items or someone that was selling the same item which in this case was a Jack Sparrow costume, which is a real shame. no matter what the opinions are about selling VMK items on Ebay, if there is a market for it, then why not. We were just selling a few things to earn money for our Disney trip. My kids had donated some of their rare items for the cause, I certainly was not making a living off of it by any means, I had only sold ten (vmk) things ever. probably bought more than sold (thats where I got the idea from).
Problem now is that some people are going to take it "underground" buying and selling VMK items on the back streets LOL

 

[DaraAllen]

Although you may have sold similar items in
the past, future listings of such items will not be permitted.

So, someone explain to me why a listing for a virtual item was just added three hours ago, and why over 77 VIRTUAL items listed since Monday? Basically, they are randomly removing virutal listings and not enforcing their own alleged rules unless something triggers a removal.

I can understand all sides to this argument. What I can't understand is why only certain listings have been removed and why any new listings are being allowed. This is going to be big trouble. All the unscrupulous buyers and sellers are going to take advantage of this, and lots of ppl are going to get hurt. I'm sticking to buying cards. A nice tangible item, no controversy for anyone!

 

[PrincessDonnaT]

I decided to look this up and it seems PayPal does not recognize digital delivery as a valid form of delivery. I went to the PayPal website to check on the digital delivery protection and found this:

Note: Like other non-physical items, digital items are not covered by PayPal's Buyer Protection Program or eBay's Standard Protection Program.

So it seems that it works only one way in that if an item isn't delivered the buyer can not make a claim on digital delivery items. So maybe that is the reason they want to stop it, because it is too easy for sellers to scam buyers. That in fact happens a lot more than anything else and in a variety of different ways. Digital items being quite susceptible because delivery can't be proven and buyers can not make a claim. I am sure anyone here who sells items on Ebay virtual or not is not out to scam anyone, but people do it on Ebay every single day.

In any case it would be nice if there were a way that was safe for both buyer and seller to sell and purchase VMK items with a lessened likelihood, or possibility of fraud. I have to assume this is their biggest concern, however Ebay has never cared a lot about fraud on their site before as long as they collect their fees.

-Stacey

Hi Stacey!
You totally hit the nail on the head. About a year ago my hubby listed the Herbie code set on E-Bay. A buyer purchased the set and paid with pay-pal, the buyer also said he did not need the card mailed but to just send over the code. My hubby sent over the code, feedback was left for my hubby stating what a wonderful transaction it was and thanks for the items. Imagine our surprise when we get a chargeback to my hubbys account for the herbie items with the buyer stating he never got the item. The amazing thing is that my hubby got actual E-Mails from this guy thanking him for the item. We even forwarded those E-Mails to pay-pal and they said it didn't matter. Since the Herbie items were a code and not a tangible item (we had no proof of delivery) the buyer got his money back and we got nothing. For the item to be backed by pay-pal the item has to be tangible and you must have some sort of proof of delivery....the proof always lies with the seller so sellers beware. And this is for anything you sell on E-Bay. You must have proof it was sent...unfortunately we learned the hard way. Also at this time the buyer had no negative feedback. Right after the herbie transaction negative feedback was flowing like crazy to this guys account. He was buying infernos and had even bought a pair of green flips. I contacted some of these sellers and he had filed a chargeback on all of them and none of them had a leg to stand on since the items were not something you could hold in your hand. So these people were out thier infernos AND their money. I am sure E-Bay and Pay-Pal were having a difficult time dealing with these types of transactions going bad. Now I have noticed some sellers have found a way to get around this problem. They will list for example an Inferno...but in the auction it says you are bidding on the huntsman hamper card and as a bonus you will get an inferno delivered to you in the game. This way the seller is selling a tangible item that they will have shipped and thus have proof of delivery. I am not sure if this breaks the rules since I have never sold an item that wasn't tangible before (I sell clothing and hand made jewelry). Anyhoo...it will be interesting to see how this E-Bay saga plays out in the future.

 

[eseller]

The Chargeback would have been from the persons credit card company, not Paypal. I have had a few of the same, I won them all. I couldnt say why you lost except maybe that CC company was a bit of a pain.

At this time, I have to say, ebay is only removing listings that are reported to them. Which I believe means that certain sellers are trying to tank other sellers. I suggest that anyone here who cares to do so, report every item they see. Of all the people who have had listings removed, most of them were all only the larger sellers like myself and a few others.

 

[eseller]

Get a load of this message I got from ebay concerning VMK items

"Please note that eBay is conducting a pilot which allows certain
pre-approved sellers are able to sell downloadable software in the
downloadable software category. If the pilot is successful, the ability
to sell in this category could be extended to more sellers. "

 

[Maleficent2]

They will list for example an Inferno...but in the auction it says you are bidding on the huntsman hamper card and as a bonus you will get an inferno delivered to you in the game. This way the seller is selling a tangible item that they will have shipped and thus have proof of delivery. I am not sure if this breaks the rules since I have never sold an item that wasn't tangible before (I sell clothing and hand made jewelry). Anyhoo...it will be interesting to see how this E-Bay saga plays out in the future.

Exactly the thing to do. The card is a tangible item.

If the rule is no virtual item then sell a card, code good or not, then after the buyer has signed for the card(send it return receipt)then forward them the code or meet them in the game to give them the more valuable item.

I do not sell on eBay nor have I ever bought anything....so this is just an observers opinion.

 

[mickey@dvc]

Get a load of this message I got from ebay concerning VMK items

"Please note that eBay is conducting a pilot which allows certain
pre-approved sellers are able to sell downloadable software in the
downloadable software category. If the pilot is successful, the ability
to sell in this category could be extended to more sellers. "

 

[Maleficent2]

The Chargeback would have been from the persons credit card company, not Paypal. I have had a few of the same, I won them all. I couldnt say why you lost except maybe that CC company was a bit of a pain.

At this time, I have to say, ebay is only removing listings that are reported to them. Which I believe means that certain sellers are trying to tank other sellers. I suggest that anyone here who cares to do so, report every item they see. Of all the people who have had listings removed, most of them were all only the larger sellers like myself and a few others.

Why? because you can no longer sell?? I totally disagree.

Just do what was suggested in #91 & #92.

If ebay wants to make it difficult then fight back.

It is a loophole use it. Reporting others does not make it right or better.

 

[eseller]

nice thought on the "loophole" but they closed that one a long time ago. You simply cannot do that. You cannot offer an item for sale and piggy back the real item behind it as "free" - that listing mentioned will be removed sooner or later.

And no, not because *I* cant sell, because if it is restricted and only certain peoples auctions remain, then that is wrong. I will not be selling VMK on ebay any more. I am not going to jeopardize my other business for the sake of a few dozen VMK items. It just strikes me as funny how 80 of my items were removed, but 2 other "big" sellers still had ALL their items up. Nice way to "kill the competition" if you ask me. And if you look at everything that is still up, most of the prices are TRIPLE what they were before.

 

[Grumpy_Disney_Dad]

About 2 weeks ago i sent a mesage to teh black hole regarding someone selling their VMK ACCOUNT on ebay and lo and behold last night the black hole spews forth an answer.........

"Hello,

Don't buy or sell accounts or items. We reserve the right to cancel any
player account that was bought or sold, or player accounts that have
bought or sold items.

Thanks,

--
VMK_Shorty
VMK Player Support
http://www.vmk.com

>I thought the selling of entire VMK accounts was prohibited by the
rules of use? You may want to take a look at this auction
http://cgi.ebay.com/My-VMK-user-account-SO-MUCH-RARE-HUGE-LOT-MUST-SEE_W0QQitemZ260076845834QQihZ016QQcategoryZ4596QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"

 

[Maleficent2]

nice thought on the "loophole" but they closed that one a long time ago. You simply cannot do that. You cannot offer an item for sale and piggy back the real item behind it as "free" - that listing mentioned will be removed sooner or later.

How can they close that loop hole....If I want to sell a card and give the buyer a bonus for buying that card it is not allowed?

 

[eseller]

correct Mal, they would, and have, removed that type of auction before. and not just for VMK stuff. for anything.

 

[Maleficent2]

correct Mal, they would, and have, removed that type of auction before. and not just for VMK stuff. for anything.

How? what is their reason for not allowing you to give a buyer a bonus for purchasing an item from you?

 

[eseller]

you can give a bonus, but when it is apparent that the item being sold is the bonus, not the "item" - they remove them. If you sell a pencil for $400 and thow in another item that violates ebay rules, it is apparent that the second item is the one for sale, not the first and they remove. There were 3 or 4 of those removed already.