E Bay can be absurd

[Russell Smith]

Originally Posted by stephen

Okay, maybe its just me, but are more and more employees from every major company simply "following policy" than ever before? They always follow every stupid rule their employer lays down. They reduce themselves to slave status - submitting to drug tests, background checks and rectal exams - to get a pathetic dead-end job with a company that doesn't know they exist. And all they can do is quote and defend company policy. They have no ability to think for themselves at all, and worse yet, they lack the will.

Do Americans still know how to rebel? Or have we lost that ability completely?

So many people just don't know how to think outside of the box anymore. That takes too much effort. "Just doing my job" absolves me of any responsibility and takes less effort.

[Bulldog90]

Thanks for the advice everybody. Certainly there are 'work arounds' but the policy itself is pretty arbitrary and should be looked at. As one of you wrote, whats really needed is for customer service people to have a brain of their own and be able to discern between real hate material and a photo of someone at age 22.

Bulldog 90

[Jim]

I do not work for Ebay and I have my own criticisms of them from time to time, but to be fair they are just a private company that is trying to keep things under control enough that they do not get shut down by lawsuits, not only in the U.S. but in other countries as well. They have millions of auctions going on every month and I think that it is understandable that they have to have policies that may seem a bit less than highly refined for each and every possible auction that goes on.

By the way, there is a world of difference between Hermann Goering and Adolf Galland. Goering was one of the top leaders of the Nazi party and anything related to him from any time in his life rings all kinds of bells in terms of his years as a top Nazi leader to 95% of the people who go on Ebay. Adolf Galland was a pilot who was known as being a less than enthusiastic Nazi including the time when he openly criticized Goering and was sent back to flight status. I had the pleasure of meeting him and listening to him back in 1985.

It was not me, but apparently someone sent a complaint to Ebay about your auction. As the guy told you, if you or anyone submits a complaint about an auction, Ebay reviews the complaint and the auction and if they agree it violates their standing policies they take it down. I believe this is not just individuals but that there are groups of Ebay watchers out there who spend a fair amount of time doing just that. My guess is the groups are likely the ones who got Ebay to include a ban on items they find objectionable - whether it is Nazi, KKK, anti-abortion, unauthorized trademarked items, drugs, sexual services, or whatever. Frankly I'm surprised the list of "banned" or "restricted" items is not ten times longer than it currently is given that there is hardly anything in the world that someone doesn't like.

I think the easiest thing to do is to sell your non-Ebay-able things elsewhere and forget about starting a personal obsession about finding a way around them. Why not sell your Sanke cards here for example?

Ebay's policy on Nazi related items

[crankcase]

Originally Posted by Bulldog90

You guys are great.

E bay refuses to even acknowledge the scores of factories throughout eastern Europe that are cranking out 'original' Wermacht pots and pans and doo dads. I mean really, are we to believe that there are still unused mess kits being found under beds?

Bulldog 90

Speaking of east europe, i just got back from a wedding in sibiu (hermannstadt) in transylvania and visited a flea market with (among other things) gypsies selling postcards of adolf hitler! the irony never ends!
marc

[Angiolillo]

Speaking about eBay's policies (not about Nazis), I sold some of my own books and the auctions were removed. I asked, and they said that I put them on sale as autographed books, and autographs could be objected as forged (nobody did, but it could happen). I told them that I was the author, as they could easily check from my personal data and the name of the cover, so all I had to do was to sign the book myself for them to be really autographed. In the end they said that it was better to sell them without saying that they were autographed.
Ok but... If this is the policy... Why did they put a "autographed" checkbox in the submission form?

Speaking about laws, in "Wings of War - The Dawn of World War II" I planned to put a 65 x 45 mm card for a Finnish Hurricane. It would have a couple of svastikas on the wings, 4 mm large or so. It would have been one of 140 tiny cards in a sealed pack within a sealed box, and the svastika would have been a Finnish one (not a Nazi plane). Well, we had to give up after strong advice of our local German distributor. After that, we went on very pridently. That's why our WWI Voss' miniature has no white svastika on the fuselage but a cross that you must complete yourself if you want more historical accuracy:



Again, it's a non-Nazi svastika.

Strangely enough (after reading all that), nobody objected at having a Goering plane in the range:

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by stephen

Okay, maybe its just me, but are more and more employees from every major company simply "following policy" than ever before? They always follow every stupid rule their employer lays down. They reduce themselves to slave status - submitting to drug tests, background checks and rectal exams - to get a pathetic dead-end job with a company that doesn't know they exist. And all they can do is quote and defend company policy. They have no ability to think for themselves at all, and worse yet, they lack the will.

Do Americans still know how to rebel? Or have we lost that ability completely?

I'm guessing those folks that actually want their jobs probably do what they can not to get fired. I may be wrong, but I'm guessing those folks aren't rich and don't have principles they can live off of should they get laid off.

[ONEALM]

I'm guessing those folks that actually want their jobs probably do what they can not to get fired. I may be wrong, but I'm guessing those folks aren't rich and don't have principles they can live off of should they get laid off.

I have the same situation at work in many ways. When the people whose job it is to define policy for the company do not stand up for what they believe to be the right way to operate, the attitude trickles down and contaminates those who execute the policy.

Direction of this kind comes from the top ....

[Willi Von Klugerman]

Me- "Ok, I got it. WW1 pilots who became Nazi's are not allowed, right?"

E Bay- "Yes".

Me- " So is the Ernst Udet postcard still up"

E Bay- "Yes, thats fine."

That last bit made me chuckle!

Anyway,it was just yesterday that I was looking for WWI Iron Cross' replicas and I saw about a dozen nazified versions of the award!Looks like their doing "a great job" at taking off nazi products

[rainbase]

Again, I had a couple books "kick out" repeatedly. Luftwaffe stuff (although I sell tons of similar volumes without a hassle). In the end it had to do with the laws in some other nations. In the case of the "offending" books, I simply offered it to US and Canadian buyers and had no more problems.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by ONEALM

I have the same situation at work in many ways. When the people whose job it is to define policy for the company do not stand up for what they believe to be the right way to operate, the attitude trickles down and contaminates those who execute the policy.

Direction of this kind comes from the top ....

Yup. Don't blame the person on the phone that makes $5 an hour who is just doing what they're told, blame the morons at the top making the millions of dollars for giving ignorant and unclear direction.