Help needed with listing a Newly developed CDC N95 Mask decontamination product.

[damz-inc]

We need help. We have developed a N95 Mask sterilizing unit that meets the new CDC recommendations for decontamination of N95 masks. This is desperately needed in today's market. Currently we have the only portable UVGI unit that meets the CDC's dosing requirements.

We are trying to save lives and Ebay are shutting us down!

We listed it on Ebay and started getting traction. Ebay picked it up that we were selling N95 masks and took the listing down under their price gouging policy!

We have tried re listing but it just keep coming back that we cannot list this item!

We have sent several messages and they just keep coming back that they are not allowing the sale of N95 masks! They are Not reading our messages that we are not selling masks!

[terrycece62]

Since the item listing has already been rejected eBay , it is not a good idea 2 try again
But eBay is not the only selling site "game in town" so try another site
Good luck though hope u find a site u can list it on

[7606dennis]

At this time I believe eBay has prohibited the listing of such items. 

[earlyant-77]

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@7606dennis wrote:

At this time I believe eBay has prohibited the listing of such items. 

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Yep - can't have a new invention made in the USA cluttering up the site.

Now if the OP was in china, they could just use regular light bulbs painted blue in a shoe box and they would be allowed to sell thousands of them.

[treasures-4less]

Right, seems anything from China is allowed to be listed , and they can lie about being in the USA too!

[fashunu4eeuh]

It is beyond maddening when customer service does not respond to the information included in the message. I feel your frustration.

The bottom line is that there is no reliable way to list your product on eBay while they are banning mask products, since you need to use the word “mask” in your listing. Not everything is suitable for listing here, and your product, while promising, falls into that category. It is not personal.

Ebay is struggling with an imperfect policy designed to thwart price-gouging. It is unlikely to change soon.

So i would not waste any more time or energy attempting to market your item here if you value your selling privileges. Going down the current path of trying to get around the ban has the potential of losing those privileges permanently. Once that happens, there is no appeal or avenue to reinstatement. Good luck and hope you will find traction elsewhere soon.

[cynthealee2]

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@shipscript wrote:

@damz-inc 

Have you tried putting out press releases to newspapers and online sites? Contact your local tv and radio and offer interviews and demonstrations. Send your press releases to local politicians and community health services and emergency providers within your state and within hard-hit states. Spread the word. Also promote the idea among businesses who might use UV treatment as an adjunct to their staff safety. Consider a gofundme account to increase production.

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If the OP can build them in bigger coolers their local businesses may want them as they start to "open up" to be able to have them for their workforce.

Since they are sewing handmade masks for health workers in some areas of Alaska they might find Health Departments up there wanting them as well. Some of the villages up there have completely stopped people coming into their villages to make sure it doesn't spread and decimate their people like the Spanish flu did.

Old folks homes as well.

The IDEA works well... he's just not working it right trying to sell em on eBay to individuals... since eBay has BANNED the suckers.

@damz-inc 

[nocoolnamejane]

Meeting CDC guidelines and having actual CDC approval are two different things and I believe that's why OP is resorting to trying to list on eBay instead of going through proper channels.

OP, it might take a little longer, but if you truly believe your product works and conforms to the CDC guidelines, I strongly suggest getting an actual patent and going legit.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@nocoolnamejane wrote:

Meeting CDC guidelines and having actual CDC approval are two different things and I believe that's why OP is resorting to trying to list on eBay instead of going through proper channels.

OP, it might take a little longer, but if you truly believe your product works and conforms to the CDC guidelines, I strongly suggest getting an actual patent and going legit.

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Yeah, that's kinda sorta what I was trying to say, only I didn't do it so well.

Until something like this has some sort of proven certification (from a known legitimate agency), patent and whatever, it's no more than, as someone said upthread, a lightbulb in a box.

[shipscript]

The OP is familiar with the patent process, and so am I.  It costs from $2K to $10K to obtain a patent (depending on the field) and then thousands of dollars thereafter to renew the patent. And the process from application to granting the patent usually takes several years (some of our 30+ patents were recently issued 8 years after application due to resource limitations within the patent office). Since the CDC proposed the guidelines, the patent process can only address the configuration of the box. It light of the urgency of timeliness, the OP could spend a few thousand dollars and apply for a patent and simply state "patent pending", or the OP could start production and skip that process, thus catapulting the design into the public domain. It appears that the OP has already opted for contributing the design to the public domain and is taking on the production aspect due to the capabilities of their shop.

[cynthealee2]

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@shipscript wrote:

The OP is familiar with the patent process, and so am I.  It costs from $2K to $10K to obtain a patent (depending on the field) and then thousands of dollars thereafter to renew the patent. And the process from application to granting the patent usually takes several years (some of our 30+ patents were recently issued 8 years after application due to resource limitations within the patent office). Since the CDC proposed the guidelines, the patent process can only address the configuration of the box. It light of the urgency of timeliness, the OP could spend a few thousand dollars and apply for a patent and simply state "patent pending", or the OP could start production and skip that process, thus catapulting the design into the public domain. It appears that the OP has already opted for contributing the design to the public domain and is taking on the production aspect due to the capabilities of their shop.

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AS badly as this concept is needed (till production on masks ramp up) isn't it better to just get them going now, and catch up on the paper work later? I mean this seems to be something that is needed NOW and may not be needed at all in 1-2 years. 

I mean by all means have some smartical dude with letters after their name look at it to make sure it does what it claims to do, but then get it out there to the peeps that need it now.

I've seen where they are doing this in great big metal shipping containers in parts of WA so the concept itself (for these smartical peeps) can't be that hard to come up with and build.

The fact that it's small and portable makes it great for small and or remote places, and again if he can make em in the bigger coolers would be wonderful in Residential Homes (old folks, adults with disabilities, anywhere we stack peeps like cord wood and they are currently dying).

It's not like MOST of us have any use for coolers right now anyway 😉

[hurryagain]

@damz-inc 

Regardless as how well your system works, bottom line is that eBay will not allow you to sell it here - period.  As @pburn has stated...your listing was pulled and you have been warned - persist and eBay will ban you for life - never to be able to return ever...even under another or a new selling ID. 

They keep your info on a blacklist and you will never be able to register on this site again as either a buyer or seller.   Don't do it.  It is not worth it.  And YES, it has happened to some who have posted here...heart wrenching stories as to how they regretted what ever it was that they did that got them banned for life.

I hate to see another story like that happen again.

I hope you find a way to sell them.

Good luck.

[7606dennis]

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@earlyant-77 wrote:

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@7606dennis wrote:

At this time I believe eBay has prohibited the listing of such items. 

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Yep - can't have a new invention made in the USA cluttering up the site.

Now if the OP was in china, they could just use regular light bulbs painted blue in a shoe box and they would be allowed to sell thousands of them.

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Has the CDC tested and approved the item?  Has it been adequately tested to insure that it actually does what it is being claimed?  Frankly, I thought that the N95 mask was used as a personal protective device rather than a decontamination one.  How is this one used to decontaminate or clean up the contamination rather than merely hinder or block further contamination?

[damz-inc]

Yes you are correct at full capacity their 60 machines can do 4.8 million masks per day with a total personnel requirement of 460 people! ours has a maximum capacity of 4 per hour or 96 or day! So it would take 50,000 of our units. No personnel would be involved as you would distribute them through the facility! Users would simply decontaminate their own mask! The CDC says that its a requirement that the user gets their own mask back! wonder how they plan to do that with 4.8 million masks!

So if you do the math 50,000 of our units to do 4.8 million masks per day would have cost $7.5 million! That's a long way from $415 Mil!

Indeed for $ 415 million they could have bought 2,785,235 of our units! That has a total capacity of 267 Million masks per day!

[andrew547]

I do wish you luck, but my first thought was as neat as this is, it's an emergency measure - a stop-gap while masks are in short supply. Won't it become obsolete when mask production ramps up to meet demand? Those masks are meant to be disposable. 

[earlyant-77]

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@andrew547 wrote:

I do wish you luck, but my first thought was as neat as this is, it's an emergency measure - a stop-gap while masks are in short supply. Won't it become obsolete when mask production ramps up to meet demand? Those masks are meant to be disposable. 

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But they don't HAVE to be made disposable ..... especially if there is an easy and cheap way to clean them.

We already waste too much stuff.

Make a new type of mask - one that is not designed to be disposable, but cleaned and sanitized. All it would take is to make them a bit stronger. And make them in the USA!!!!