eBay

jhf0305 · ‎06-02-2020

Why does eBay seem to be selective in their decisions to remove certain lisings that may contain something they consider offensive but allow other listings to remain on the site? Below is an image of an item the was sold by another seller and eBay did not block this listing.

jeanpaulbooks · ‎06-02-2020

It may have to do with the lister's shipping policy; for example, if the listing indicates that the item could be mailed worldwide and some countries prohibit the item, then eBay will block the listing--at least that has happened to me.

jhf0305 · ‎06-03-2020

My listing was a WW 2 German cloth patch which did have a Nazi symbol on it. But before I posted this listing I was able to alter the image to remove the offensive symbol. The item was only listed less than one day and it was sold, paid for and shipped to the buyer. Then eBay acted to remove my listing because they claimed there was an offensive symbol in the listing. How can they say that when I had altered the image so that the symbol was not visible. I searched for other listings and I found a number of listings that clearly had a Nazi symbol on the item being sold yet eBay did not remove those listings. I added one example of a gold pin that had a large, bold Nazi symbol that dominated the piece of jewelry.

bugler1998 · ‎06-07-2020

Several months ago I listed 2 new mexico high school yearbooks from 1941 and 1942, titled Swastika. The covers showed a swastika.

I made a comment in the listing about my wonderment about the high school still using the symbol even though wwII was in full swing. It is still online.

No, I do not ship books outside the US in most cases.

imagine.ink · ‎06-12-2020

Prior to use of the swastika as a Nazi party symbol, the swastika was a Native American motif symbolizing good luck and prosperity.

That would explain why a school in New Mexico may have adopted it as their mascot prior to Hitler's appropriation of it as a symbol of Nazism.

Nazi Germany declared war against the United States on December 11, 1941, four days after the U.S. declared war against the Japanese. Prior to that, the U.S. was still officially neutral during World War II.

So the New Mexico school class of 1941-1942 was apparently still using the swastika in its innocent usage as a Native American good luck symbol.

bugler1998 · ‎06-12-2020

Imagine: I did the math as you suggested, but figured we did not wait until December 1941 to see the germans as an enemy.

I knew the swastika was American indian symbol, but now I know it is a symbol of good luck. Thank you.

imagine.ink · ‎06-14-2020

Bugler (Mike, right?), you're so welcome!

Off-topic: I know you sell a lot of St. Louis area yearbooks. My sister-in-law is looking for a yearbook with her deceased step-dad's senior picture as a gift for her mom. His name is Ralph Werder, and he went to Ritenour High School. He was born April 9, 1920, so she thinks his senior year would have been 1938 or 1939.

If you ever run into a 1938 or 1939 Ritenour yearbook with Ralph Werder's pic in it, could you please email me? I know she will pay a generous price for it.

bugler1998 · ‎06-14-2020

what a coincidence. I also attended Ritenour High, although I graduated in 1973.

I do try to pick up Ritenour books, but books that old are getting hard to find, and hard to sell also.

I have learned that yearbooks from less affluent areas sell better than the private school books. The theory is many kids could not afford the yearbooks then. I know I had a high school classmate try to buy my own senior book. In my class of approximately 800 I did not remember her. Too bad, she was a pretty girl, but I am not ready to get rid of my book.

No promises about the 30's R ite, but one never knows. Just today I picked up 4 Normandy High school books from the early 70's.

imagine.ink · ‎06-16-2020

Normandy High is where my Dad went to school (but well before the 70s)!

I methodically hunted down my father's yearbooks on eBay and that's what inspired my sister-in-law to search for her own step-dad's yearbook.

Finding my deceased Dad's yearbook was the first time I'd seen his senior photo (he died in his 40s of colon cancer), because, like you said, he couldn't afford to buy a yearbook at the time.

taylor_memorial · ‎06-21-2020

In the mid-30's Japan was seen as a bigger threat than Germany, and the Roosevelt Administration was actively praising the Socialist Democrats for their policy up through '37. I had some weeklies that supported FDR's New Deal for sale a while back--as close to original sources as possible.

There was plenty of anti-Hitler stuff marketed as he started causing trouble, to be sure.

eBay recently "updated" their offensive items policy to eliminate whole categories of collectibles include slave related ephemera and such.