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Apparent double standard on allowed listings?
So, I've been selling exotic cockroaches for a few years now and have recently started selling on ebay. That being said it was going great for a few months but now out of nowhere my listings are getting flagged and removed for violating ebays seller policies, which would be understandable if it wasn't a blatant double standard.
My Madagascar hissing roaches got flagged and removed and if I look up hissing cockroach on ebay I see a ton of other listings for the exact same species I was selling. I know some people use these as pets, but they do qualify as feeders for larger insectivores. I also had another listing removed, a starter culture of American burrowing roach. All the message said was this was a violation of their live animal policy, which.... No? They're not even animals, they pose no known ecological threat, and while generally speaking people would buy this species of cockroach to keep it for entomological reasons, they do function as a feeder insect.
I contacted them directly, the person I talked to said that he would work with me and have that listing reinstated within 72 hours as it in fact did not violate their policy and I just got a message today saying that they looked into it and it does violate their live animal policy.
This is getting absurd. I know it's only a matter of time before more of my listings get flagged and removed and they start restricting my account even though I'm following their policy as much, if not more than others. Literally, not to call out others but this rule seems to apply only to a few people because if you look how many other people have cockroaches listed it's in the hundreds, and if you look into isopods, which are blatantly not feeder insects(fun fact they are technically animals and there are genuine legal shipping restrictions with most species ad I'll tell you now 99% of these sellers don't actually have their PPQ 526 permit or probably even know what that is) but ebay lets them leave their listings up because the revenue is nice.
So what can I do at this point other than start focusing on alternative markets? ebay is earning me ~500$ a month, and I'd rather not lose this source of income.
inceptions
Mentor5 months agoHi @creepys_critterz
Here is a link to the policy:
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/live-animals-policy?id=4327&st=3&pos=1&query=Live%20animals%20policy&intent=live%20animals&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1207
You cannot sell cockroaches on eBay - they are prohibited. You were clearly given the wrong answer by eBay if they told you that you can.
I'll pass a link to eBay of the listings that are in violation to be reviewed again.
(Bear in mind that eBay does NOT want prohibited items listed on their site. However there are over 2 billion active listings on the site at any time and they are continually changing. Their algorithms take down countless listings 24/7 but they don't catch all violations which is why member reporting is so important.