(maver's) ebay Experiment

[Tony]

Right chaps and chapesses.

Looking at the money to be made on EvilBay at the moment for any thing remotely "Ray Mears", i thought i would try an experiment, i made a paper knife a couple of weeks ago out of a skanky old lump of birch, im thinking of putting this up on Evilbay to see what people are willing to pay, but and here's the catch, any money i make out of it (if any) i will donate to charity, i will list 4 charities on a poll, the charity with the most votes gets the money, picture of the knife below, the handle is a bit rough as the wood has shrunk a bit and split, it would be advertised honestly on evilbay listing it's faults and also as "Not Ray Mears"

As for charities i thought -

World Wildlife Fund
Sussex Wildlife Trust
RAF Benevolent Fund (very close to my heart)
Cancer Research (also very close to my heart)

Or i could write to Ray Mears after the auction and ask him to nominate a charity of his choice, after all the knife was based on one of his designs.

Whadya reckon?

Evilbay strikes again im afraid, they removed they listing because of the words "Ray Mears", copy of their email below:

"We appreciate that you chose eBay to list the following auction-style listing(s):

6575422550 - Hand carved wooden paper knife (not Ray Mears)


However, your listing was in breach of eBay's Keyword Spamming policy and has been removed from eBay. We have credited all associated fees to your account and notified eBay users associated with the transaction that it has been cancelled.

We would like to take this opportunity to let you know what part of your listing is not permitted.

Your listing(s) contains the following information:

(not Ray Mears)


Keyword spamming is not permitted on eBay. This occurs when members place brand names or other inappropriate keywords in a title or description for the purpose of gaining attention or diverting members to a listing.Sellers are not permitted to make comparisons between items in a listing title.For more information on Keyword Spamming visit the following Help page:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you relist this, or any other item that breaches eBay policy, your eBay privileges could be suspended. We value you as a member of our community and wish to continue this relationship, so we must ask you to refrain from further breaches of the User Agreement and eBay policy.

Please review eBay's Listing Policies and User Agreement at the following locations:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/policies.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/user-agreement.html

For more information on why eBay removes auction-style listings, or to write to us with questions, please review the following Web page:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/confidence/listing-ended.html

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,

eBay Trust & Safety"


I have this morning, whilst sitting at Gatwick waiting for my flight sent them a strong email, in addition i have asked them why other people can list items that are blatantly NOT RAY MEARS equipment and asked why these items have been removed from the listings, will let you what reply i get if any.

I’ve removed the thread, restoring these two points which are the beginning and the end of the thread.

It was a good idea and for a good cause but it’s not worked out. There’s good reason that Ray and Woodlore try to protect the brand name and it seems that this has run foul of that, which is a pain I agree.

It’s not good however when we make fun of people on the forum, especially when I have to deal with it, we’ve got policies on here just like ebay. There were comments made that were unnecessary and that’s why the threads been removed. If people flair up again I’ll remove the whole lot, as it is I’ve left it there as I’m interested in knowing if this goes any further.

This is a hard one for me but I feel it’s sticking to the rules even in light of the fact that ebay don’t want to know at all, that someone is trading as Bushcraft UK on ebay. I find it quite disappointing that it is a rule for some and not for others and I would love to get stuck in, but this is not the place to do it.

Thanks for your understanding

 

[andyn]

Hi Tony, thanks for restoring it as I had just spent 20 mins writing a reply


Maver;

I had the same email from ebay the other day because i mentioned the words "similar to berghaus" on a rucksack i was selling.

I was well annoyed and sent them a particualr terse email containing 20 examples of sales that were completed and had similar compasrisum words in the description and they came back with something along the lines of "We do not actively monitor the items that are sold on ebay, we instead rely on our members to report items that break ebay rules" So I replied and said..."Well theres 20"

Havent had a reply back since that. But i will now be reporting listings that do this as i don't see why, like tony has said, it should be a rule for some but not others. I find that it is the powersellers that get let off, so i have already spotted 6 members to report to the ebay team.

So it would seem that someone would have reported you to their team.

I think it breaks somekind of copyright to even mention Ray mears or Woodlore etc in an ebay lisitng so i'm not surprised that they are starting to crack down on it, just look at ebay sellers like bushcraft_uk that has not only stolen the name of this place but was puting "ray mears/bushcraft" on nearly all his listing. Kind of spoils what ebay is there for, and those bad apples are now why your listing has been pulled. Perhaps we shouldn't slate ebay too much.

So you'll have to think of another description, or contact Woodlore and see if they are happy for it to be listed as a charity auction.

I was thinking "Handmade paperknife in the style of bushcraft knife"

I'm pretty sure you are actually allowed to relist the item as long as you change your description, despite what the email says as I spent an hour reading the "removed listing" rules and it say in there that you can.

You'll have to let us know your ebay name so we can see how it goes.

Goodluck, it would be a shame for a good cause to miss out.

Andy

 

[Phil562]

Tony

I fully agree with what you have said.

However can somebody explain to me, maybe its too early and I'm being thick ,

How come there is still items on ebay saying "Not Ray Mears"

Confused

AAAh Andy you sort of answered this, sort of

 

[moduser]

Tony,

A quick eBay search just now, using "Ray Mears" as the search criteria found 41 items.

Of these 14 items were not either Ray Mears or Woodlore products. These include; Soldier 95 sleeping bags, various knives, Bivi bag, Food for Free book, firesteel and even an army ration pack.

I'll monitor these and see if they get pulled although the oldest item was posted 26/10/05 and it's still there.

I wonder if they police at random or if they only get prompted by certain manafacturers?

Moduser

 

[andyn]

Hi Phil, Moduser
Yeah as i said in my post:

Reply from ebay: "We do not actively monitor the items that are sold on ebay, we instead rely on our members to report items that break ebay rules"

So in theroy if you report these to ebay then they will pull them, however they will not police them themselves.

PS: to report listings you need an ebay account and there is a link at the bottom of this page with a link : http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/keyword-spam.html which i have just completed for 10 listings

 

[moduser]

Andy,

You just type faster than me

 

[Phil562]

So somebody bubbled Maver

Watch your back mate :AR15firin

 

[Kane]

Hmmm sounds like it's a fair cop on the keyword spamming side ... hard to know who is responsible for e-bay finding that one item but I'd think it's unlikely to be Ray or his company or all the offending items would have been removed.

If you want to see a real example of company IP protection try using a Games Workshop product lol

Kane

 

[beachlover]

they came back with something along the lines of "We do not actively monitor the items that are sold on ebay, we instead rely on our members to report items that break ebay rules" Andy

Well let's see if they do respond to individual members. I have just spent an hour or so individually reporting every one of the 101 items under the inclusive search for Ray Mears that used his name as an aid to selling.

 

[andyn]

i did about ten of the ones that were the "Not Ray mears" knife kits.

So will be interesting to see that for sure.

 

[andyn]

Seems to have worked - all the ones i did yesterday are gone LOL

Anyway - Maver have you had any success in getting this re-listed yet?

 

[beachlover]

Seems to have worked - all the ones i did yesterday are gone LOL

Anyway - Maver have you had any success in getting this re-listed yet?

Yep! most of the ones I grassed up seem to have gone too, but did a couple more for good measure too
I think Maver said he was away abroad for a few days, so we'll have to wait to hear I think.

 

[Stuart]

there is currently a person operation on E-bay under the name Bushcraftuk who has no affiliation what so ever with this site.

Ebay has been notified but has failed to take any action, prehapes if we all sent them enough e-mails complaining about this some action may be taken to remove this person.

 

[KIMBOKO]

Is BushcraftUK a registered mark. Is it the same as Bushcraftuk?.

 

[Kepis]

Seems to have worked - all the ones i did yesterday are gone LOL

Anyway - Maver have you had any success in getting this re-listed yet?

Hi chaps & chapesses, just got back from Madrid, where i had no internet access would you believe, so have just spent a little time reading through the replies on this, firstly i will relist the knife later tonight, but will not mention RM or Woodlore in the title or description to keep evilbay happy, btw i have not had a reply to the mail i sent them yesterday.

So somebody bubbled Maver

Watch your back mate

That's alright, when i find out who it was i shall send the boys from Chicago round with their violin cases ( i work for an American company based in Chicago btw).

Will put a post post up later when i have re listed the paperknife, i like the description "Hand carved wooden paper knife in a bushcraft style" surely that can't break any rules, will also add as suggested "all proceeds of the auction to Cancer Research", i did notice that evilbay have a new thing when you add items for sale, you can click a box and the proceeds will go to a charity of your choice, but they only have Children in Need there at the moment, still as stated many times our chosen charity will benefit because it effects so many of us in way or another.

Mark

 

[Goose]

there is currently a person operation on E-bay under the name Bushcraftuk who has no affiliation what so ever with this site.

Ebay has been notified but has failed to take any action, prehapes if we all sent them enough e-mails complaining about this some action may be taken to remove this person.

Its worth a try, I'll start now! :BlueTeamE

 

[Kepis]

I'm pretty sure you are actually allowed to relist the item as long as you change your description, despite what the email says as I spent an hour reading the "removed listing" rules and it say in there that you can.

Andy

Just ploughed through my mails, got another one from Ebay and i quote "If you relist this, or any other item that breaches eBay policy, your eBay privileges could be suspended"

Looks like i cannot relist it after all, will look for another avenue to pursue.

Mark

 

[stovie]

Just ploughed through my mails, got another one from Ebay and i quote "If you relist this, or any other item that breaches eBay policy, your eBay privileges could be suspended"

Looks like i cannot relist it after all, will look for another avenue to pursue.

Mark

Does this not mean you "can" relist as long as you are within their policy

 

[andyn]

Maver, may be an idea to ask Ebay if you change the description as i relisted my item and other are doing the same.

The item isn't against their policy only the wording...I'm sure you should be ok.

 

[Kepis]

Maver, may be an idea to ask Ebay if you change the description as i relisted my item and other are doing the same.

The item isn't against their policy only the wording...I'm sure you should be ok.

I wrote them an email and asked for clarification of their terms, still waiting for a reply, guess i will have to leave them bad feedback