Bone is a prohibited item on Ebay?

[Sharpnshinyknives]

I think I finally get why so many knife sellers are so skimpy on details about their knives. I was listing some GEC Pocket Carvers this afternoon on EBay and ran into a problem. The one I was listing first is a blue camel bone pocket carver. When I hit “list item”, I got a message saying that I had violated the restricted plants and animals policy. I clicked on the link and it took me to Ebay policy concerning the selling of live animals,insects and plants. It has a list of the things that could be sold like bees, lobsters, certain plants.
This was so bizarre I asked for a call back on this. I had the person from Ebay confirm that camel bone is not prohibited on Ebay. And all she could come up with was that I had the word “bone” in the title. She said remove that from the title, so I did and now the listing goes through just fine. I have checked and the word bone is used quite often for the titles of knives listed, it makes no sense. I guess EBay’s algorithm is scanning for violations of some sort and finding one where it doesn’t exist. Anyone else have listing stories to tell?
I got a message once because I used the word ivory to describe the color of a handle once. And then there was the time I nearly got booted from Ebay for selling an “elephant toe” knife. Endangered species you know.

[Mumbleypeg]

I think I finally get why so many knife sellers are so skimpy on details about their knives. I was listing some GEC Pocket Carvers this afternoon on EBay and ran into a problem. The one I was listing first is a blue camel bone pocket carver. When I hit “list item”, I got a message saying that I had violated the restricted plants and animals policy. I clicked on the link and it took me to Ebay policy concerning the selling of live animals,insects and plants. It has a list of the things that could be sold like bees, lobsters, certain plants.
This was so bizarre I asked for a call back on this. I had the person from Ebay confirm that camel bone is not prohibited on Ebay. And all she could come up with was that I had the word “bone” in the title. She said remove that from the title, so I did and now the listing goes through just fine. I have checked and the word bone is used quite often for the titles of knives listed, it makes no sense. I guess EBay’s algorithm is scanning for violations of some sort and finding one where it doesn’t exist. Anyone else have listing stories to tell?
I got a message once because I used the word ivory to describe the color of a handle once. And then there was the time I nearly got booted from Ebay for selling an “elephant toe” knife. Endangered species you know.

I’ve seen complaints about this same problem before and understand it to be the reason why many sellers either list it as “bovine bone” or have a disclaimer stating it’s bone from a cow. It’s to get the listing past the politically correct snowflakes eBay employs as censors.

Ken

[cody6268]

You know, I'm fed up with eBay.

[herbva]

Mark, I ran into this problem with ebay several years ago. I added this disclaimer, copied from another seller, to all my auctions (bone or otherwise) and have never had that problem since: " Any bone handle scales in my listings are from properly sourced bovine (cattle) remains unless otherwise noted." Sadly, it is much easier to placate them than to try arguing common sense.

[Paladin]

Mark, I ran into this problem with ebay several years ago. I added this disclaimer, copied from another seller, to all my auctions (bone or otherwise) and have never had that problem since: " Any bone handle scales in my listings are from properly sourced bovine (cattle) remains unless otherwise noted." Sadly, it is much easier to placate them than to try arguing common sense.

You are so right about that.
My favorite listing story is when I had a knife with ivory micarta handles to list, or schedule actually. It kept getting kicked out before it even got listed. I tried it several times and finally called in frustration. The lady nicely told me that so long as I used the 'ivory' word, it was going to get kicked. I pleaded to no avail that it was plastic. What I ended up doing was change the word to 'eyevory' and it sailed right past the censors to an active listing.

Ray

[Sharpnshinyknives]

That’s an interesting approach Ray. My wife suggested putting hyphens between the letters b-o-n-e.
I do understand better what I see on Ebay quite often, it’s not a mistake it’s someone playing their game.

[Railsplitter]

I find that pretty strange too considering that when creating the listing there are options to select under "Item Specifics" and one of the options under "Handle Material" is Bone.

I have a couple knives listed right now with the Bone option selected. They both went through just fine but I don't have the word Bone in my titles.

[jerryd6818]

I was under the impression that eBay had resolved their bone "issues". Wrong again.