Live Ornamental fish / Appeal Restriction

[lukes_live_fish]

eBay is banning live fish from being sold on their platform. This will cost people hundreds of thousands of Dollars if the restrictions Stand. I hope to get people to help join this issue as it will hurt a huge community of people who have been selling years. Please help by making your voices heard if you sell or in the fish community.

[krazzykats]

Why else would eBay remove those categories? 

Something was wrong if they removed and or/restricted them, right? 

What is your best guess to why eBay would do that?  

[mam98031]

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@krazzykats wrote:

Why else would eBay remove those categories? 

Something was wrong if they removed and or/restricted them, right? 

What is your best guess to why eBay would do that?  

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I agree that they have a reason or reasons to make these changes, but you nor I know what those reasons are.  The site has some very successful live fish sellers here.  IDK that this specific type of item sold has caused Ebay an undue amount of heartburn or not.  They are after all still allowing other live shipments, just not ones for fish.

I'm not going to guess.  I am actively working on trying to get more information and if I get some, I will share, but I'm not going to guess as it would likely be wrong.

[yingling72shrimp]

This is a shame! I'm starting to get a nice foot hold on selling shrimp. I sure hope they reconsider this new policy. 

[wastingtime101]

The eBay policy page is reverted back to include aquatic animals:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/live-animals-policy?id=4327

Pets and most live animals aren't allowed on eBay. The few that can be listed must follow our policy.

Our live animals policy reflects our commitment to animal welfare and the protection of native, endangered, and threatened species.

What is the policy?

Sellers can only list the following live animals:

• Bees, crickets, and ladybugs that aren't endangered or threatened species - opens in new window or tab or species listed on CITES Appendix I - opens in new window or tab
• Domestic (not exotic) aquatic snails
• Fertilized eggs (species must be included in the listing description)
• Live bait such as minnows, shiners, earthworms, and mealworms
• Lobsters
• Mice sold specifically as food for pets
• "Stud" services (including but not limited to dogs, cats, horses, sheep, goats, and cattle)
• Tadpoles
• Tropical fish

Pets and other live animals not included in the list above are not allowed.

Sellers need to ensure that they have the necessary government permits and also guarantee safe, overnight shipping.

[lukes_live_fish]

Thank you to everyone who made their voices heard, Ebay has changed the Restriction! I’m very appreciative to eBay that they recognized such a large community of people it would have affected. 

[wastingtime101]

I wonder if eBay caved to the outcry from sellers, or if the initial reversal was done in error.

Reason I wonder is because they restored not just the aquatic allowances, but also live mice and stud services.

[shortd85]

Invasive species would be the responsibility of the sellers and buyers. As it is within all of pet trade. This won't stop people selling fish, only create another avenue. Cats are invasive and destroy bird populations. Where is the outrage? There is still aquabid. Invasive species is a poor argument. 

[mam98031]

I'm not sure they realized they forgot to have it on the list or the impact of not having it on the list.  When I complained as to how many sellers it was going to immediately put out of business, I'm not sure it was anything they had considered before.  

I'm sure the affective sellers don't really care why it went back to what it was, but are very grateful they are not going to lose their businesses they have worked hard to build.

[gurlcat]

As I said before I have mixed feelings about the whole idea of whether those sales should be allowed here or not .... but here's what I want to know now -who the heck is running this place and making such decisions, a bunch of 14 year olds?!! 

Seriously, how many people, what level of authority, and for how long did they research the idea before they they pulled the trigger to end several whole categories, with only 30 days notice?  And if it was such an emergency that it needed to happen that fast, then what did it take to do a 180 and totally reverse the decision?  -If it was sellers contacting them and voicing how devastating it would be to them .... don't these 'whatever' eBay staff people have research tools to gauge something like seller impact?   Heck, maybe you were wrong @krazzykats; maybe it DIDN'T even occur to them to compare the revenue to costs.  Maybe logic doesn't even figure in THAT much in those meeting rooms.   

I'd like to see a letter from each of them stating 5 bullet points of what they did last week.  🤣

By the way, @wastingtime101 I notice that in both the 'old' and 'new' version, it said sellers must guarantee overnight delivery.  -It doesn't appear they've ever enforced that, at least not for creating listings.  Tons of fish are available with just regular Priority shipping.  Limiting shipping options on the listing creation page for select categories is yet another thing it seems like they could program very easily if they really wanted to.

[iamalwaysright]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

I wonder if eBay caved to the outcry from sellers, or if the initial reversal was done in error.

 If I had to guess, I'd say it was the latter.

[fbusoni]

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@gurlcat wrote:

I notice that in both the 'old' and 'new' version, it said sellers must guarantee overnight delivery. 

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It's a real shame the restriction was reversed, but I am glad to see that it will be more costly -- for sellers and buyers -- to engage or otherwise participate in this revolting and abhorrent practice of shipping living things.  

Hopefully that will really slow things down for this inhumane and exploitative trade... eBay could use more purveyors of frozen fish and shrimp, in my opinion.

[krazzykats]

Does make you wonder how many live fish or aquatic animals die in shipping. 

How many live animals that are shipped are DOA?  

 😿

[wastingtime101]

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@gurlcat wrote:

By the way, @wastingtime101 I notice that in both the 'old' and 'new' version, it said sellers must guarantee overnight delivery.  -It doesn't appear they've ever enforced that, at least not for creating listings.  Tons of fish are available with just regular Priority shipping.  Limiting shipping options on the listing creation page for select categories is yet another thing it seems like they could program very easily if they really wanted to.

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There was a little discussion about the overnight shipping policy here.

eBay does not apply those restrictions when creating listings. They expect sellers to be adults and take responsibility for the shipping services offered.

Besides, limiting options at listing creation will do nothing to make sellers comply with policy. Even restricting options at label purchase stage won't do much. All a seller has to do is buy a label off eBay and upload tracking.

If you see listings that offer services other than overnight, go ahead and report them.

[fbusoni]

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@krazzykats wrote:

Does make you wonder how many live fish or aquatic animals die in shipping. 

How many live animals that are shipped are DOA?  

 😿

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Look at the feedback that these purveyors of death receive... a lot of negatives for precisely that reason.

Karma is real.  And unforgiving.

[fbusoni]

@wastingtime101 

Here is a sample report I filled out.  

Is there a better way to communicate the violation?

(PS: I also clicked the question mark to submit a report, but none of the options in the drop down list mentioned listing violations related to shipping.)

Thank you @wastingtime101