Price gouging for Minnie Mouse The Main Attraction Ear Headband Mad Tea Party

[collectiblesdude*]

Im totally shocked, is this an Essential item?

[kittykat.949]

AHHH---Now close your eyes & imagine that instead of gouging the issue is ---Managed Payments & something to do with YOUR hard earned money-----Won't that be fun

[jerzee908]

I'm guessing I've been a little on edge lately and should of recognized you are just breaking (censored). My best to you, too my friend. Unfortunately the shore is closed, but I can't wait to get down to Pt. Pleasant and Seaside and it's killing me that we are having nice weather, but nowhere to go.

[ittybitnot]

 I am not suggesting that you must contact Customer Service to get approval to list an item or for pricing guidance,

Could you please provide a link to "acceptable prices" for such NON-ESSENTIAL items such as minnie mouse ears,  matchbox cars, electric power saws and video games?  Then nobody will have the need to consult customer service.  Since ALL items on ebay will be subject to the new "fair and reasonable" price guidelines mandate. it seems imperative that such information be supplied to your sellers.  Unless, of course, the usual 'trial by fire' program is preferred. 

I was thinking of selling some thigh high rubber wading boots.  On this forum they would likely be deemed ESSENTIAL to one's personal sanity. 

[ainpie-10]

YES!! It has gotten ridiculous and now people seem to think they can click Price Gouging on anything that they don't want to pay for. I knew this would happen. On one of my other stores I listed a bottle of perfume and it was pulled for Price Gouging! There were people on this board that told everyone to spend their time doing nothing but reporting items and so they did, now all sellers may get the backlash from it! Be careful what you wish for!

[gramophone-georg]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@dhbookds wrote:

@Anonymous 

I understand that you can only do what you are allowed to do.......but your suggestion sounds like we contact CS to get approval to list and at what price which is going to be more than a bit bothersome.

Can you please pass along seller concerns to Harry and/or Jordan? 

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Hi @dhbookds, definitely want to clarify any misunderstandings - I am not suggesting that you must contact Customer Service to get approval to list an item or for pricing guidance, I am simply confirming that I won't be able to engage in a discussion of hypothetical examples, nor will I be talking to specific listing removals. I recently attempted to provide more context related to these two policies on a different thread, and the conversation ultimately was unproductive. Though these policies are not new, they are thankfully not something that commonly comes up. Customer Service may be able to address your concerns in a way that helps clear up any confusion about attempting to profit off of disaster or tragedy, or for potential price gouging issues. 

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Trinton, nobody can ever get the same answer twice from CS. But- I can tell you this- if this policy is going to be enforced like this on collectibles and antiques, when things like edition, pressing, or type of item, plus what condition the item is in can have a HUGE impact on the selling price- eBay just cooked its own goose. No way should this policy be applied in any way, shape, or form to any sort of discontinued collectible, vintage item, or antique- nor should it apply to auctions.

The probability of this program being abused by buyers who get upset that their lowball offers were turned down, or selling competitors is beyond massively huge.

eBay is correct to apply this to listings for NECESSITIES that are in short supply during these times- but with a broad overreaching policy like this, eBay will be spending ALL of its time playing whack a mole and price fixing on non essential items like this headband, and thus have no time to pursue actual offenders of the INTENT of the policy- or what the intent SHOULD be.

If this policy is going to be applied across the board the way we see here- this place is DONE for antiques, vintage, and collectibles. Seriously.

[jerzee908]

I was just thinking about something. I sometimes go to Record Store Day at a record store here in New Jersey. Record Store Day is a day when independent record stores get limited releases of certain records. Each record store gets a limited amount of each of these releases. In some cases, they will only get 5 copies of a particular record.
The last time I did this was on a Black Friday. I collect records and I also sell records. There was a record I wanted for my collection and my intent was to buy other records to make a quick flip on here. I arrived at the record store around 8 PM after eating Thanksgiving dinner and passed on desert. I was the fourth person on line and had my radio, coffee thermos and sleeping bag to get ready for a long 10 degree New Jersey winter night. About 6 hours in, I was regretting my decision, but as more people came, I was happy about my line position and kept my eye on the prize. By the time 7 AM rolled around, there was close to 150 people on line with the line wrapping around the strip mall. Once 8 AM came, I got in the store, gave them my list of records I wanted, I got everything I wanted and I was on my merry way.
This is something Ebay will NEVER understand or take into account. Time is money. It doesn't matter what the item is, but there is time involved with getting the items they don't own to get onto Ebay. I had no problem selling one of those records I purchased for $15.00 and selling it on here for $75 and Ebay didn't care either at the time. As far as I'm concerned, the buyer is not only covering that $15.00 for the record, the are paying for the convenience and paying for my time to purchase that record. They didn't have to wait in the cold or waste 12 hours of their time to get the record.

If this is the route eBay is going, lots and lots of luck to them. It's like they are forgetting they don't own not one single item on their site at all. They do not have time and money wrapped up in inventory. A higher up at eBay really needs to come forward and address all of these sudden changes as soon as possible.

I think $14.83 is expensive for a laser pointer that doesn't work........would that get pulled, too?

[gracieallen01]

..

[equid0x]

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@ainpie-10 wrote:
YES!! It has gotten ridiculous and now people seem to think they can click Price Gouging on anything that they don't want to pay for. I knew this would happen. On one of my other stores I listed a bottle of perfume and it was pulled for Price Gouging! There were people on this board that told everyone to spend their time doing nothing but reporting items and so they did, now all sellers may get the backlash from it! Be careful what you wish for!

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I've been checking in about once a week and still keep finding these ridiculous price gouging threads. All kinds of people whining and whining about price gouging on items that are not restricted... whining about items they think qualify as essential but are not... and now I've checked back this week and so far I'm seeing that a Nintendo Cube Game, bottle of perfume, a switch console, and a pair of Mickey Mouse ears have now been pulled for "price gouging." Frankly, this is a complete affront to the lawmakers who created these price gouging laws, absolutely not how they are intended to be used, and there are NO DA's offices that are coming after ANYONE for selling items like Mickey Mouse ears. 

Furthermore, I agree with your sentiment that there is account after account posting on the seller board doxxing, insulting, stalking, harassing, and slandering sellers who haven't legally done anything wrong. 

The situation seems to have escalated far beyond (allegedly) critical needs healthcare items like N95 masks to the point that buyers (and probably other competitors) are now feeling empowered to report as price gouging any price that they do not agree with, regardless of merit. 

I find it interesting that eBay seems to be stating that anything over 200% MSRP is price gouging given that I am totally unaware of any law that states that a seller must sell an item for 200% MSRP or less. I also find it frustrating that blues seem to be claiming that this is a long-standing policy when myself and many other sellers have never seen nor heard of such a policy being enforced in the multiple decades we've been present on eBay. 

I also agree with another poster's sentiments about the deflation of cash value over time leading to higher prices as well as the fact that some, particularly vintage or no longer produced items may have a true market value in the year 2020 substantially higher than 200% of the MSRP from when they were produced. 

I really have to wonder when eBay management is going to realize that these boards and the crowdsourced complaint system they've implemented are being severely abused with endless fake outrage and when they are going to finally decide to do something about it?

[earlyant-77]

Over the years they seem to have gone from 'the place with the most unique items' to 'seriously, we have everything' to 'the place with the lowest prices'.

Unfortunately, we don't need more dollar stores.

[ittybitnot]

 I had no problem selling one of those records I purchased for $15.00 and selling it on here for $75 and Ebay didn't care either at the time.

Well, it appears ebay "cares" now.   No more of that allowed?   New super secret policy change that nobody at ebay can discuss in detail.   Going to look to see if those $700 red sneakers are still active.  That photo has been 'burned' into my brain just like the old PanAm bag. 

[gracieallen01]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

 I had no problem selling one of those records I purchased for $15.00 and selling it on here for $75 and Ebay didn't care either at the time.

Well, it appears ebay "cares" now.   No more of that allowed?   New super secret policy change that nobody at ebay can discuss in detail.   Going to look to see if those $700 red sneakers are still active.  That photo has been 'burned' into my brain just like the old PanAm bag. 

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It's called 'Brand Recognition'.  That way people will know what is popular and pay more for it (somewhere), FVFs will go up and the bottom line will be happier.

[a_c_green]

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@gramophone-georg wrote:
eBay is correct to apply this to listings for NECESSITIES that are in short supply during these times- but with a broad overreaching policy like this, eBay will be spending ALL of its time playing whack a mole and price fixing on non essential items like this headband, and thus have no time to pursue actual offenders of the INTENT of the policy- or what the intent SHOULD be.

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All the way back to the start of this thread, I've had this idea rattling around in my head that this Minnie Mouse listing removal might have been triggered by the presence of the word "Headband" in the title. That's obviously one component used in PPE face shields. A bot searching for any listings using such hot-button keywords as "N95," "mask," "faceshield" and the like would probably hit on the word "Headband" as well.

It's easier to yank any and all listings containing problem keywords first, then wait for the seller to complain and perhaps let them reinstate the listing, than it is to actually review each flagged listing by hand to see if it's really a violation. 

So when the aggrieved seller calls up (or emails) to complain or appeal, they're confronted by a CS rep whose first response, upon seeing that the topic is a removed listing, will be to call up a canned reply explaining why price-gouging listings are being removed. Even if they give some kind of verbal assurance that the listing was removed in error and the seller can put it up again, I'm not aware of anything that they can actually do within the system to flag that entry as "safe" or "approved" to prevent the re-listed item from falling down the same rabbit hole a second time.

This will probably blow over in time, in the same way that, for example, any listing showing the Confederate battle flag (e.g. any item relating to the Dukes of Hazzard) was getting removed left, right and center for a short while a few years back, but those have now quietly returned again. I would suggest not re-listing the headbands right now, but waiting a few months if possible, until it's safe to bring them back.

[bar-29368]

Given the responses from Trinton, I don't think that's it unfortunately.

I think ebay has taken it upon themselves (finally) to try to tell sellers what prices they're allowed to list "any item" for.

[jerzee908]

I'd agree with you, but there's over 2,000 listings up now when you search "Minnie Mouse headbands".

The OP would be better off acquiring fake Minnie Mouse ears and sell them for under $10 with free shipping like "others".

[a_c_green]

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@jerzee908 wrote:
I'd agree with you, but there's over 2,000 listings up now when you search "Minnie Mouse headbands".

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That's true; perhaps Step 1 in this fiasco was a rival seller reporting the Minnie Mouse listing(s) for price gouging, after which the removal process rolled downhill all by itself, with no further assistance needed.

Nevertheless, I would not relist those until the current flap over price gouging has subsided. I assume those collectible ears have been sold here for years without a price gouging complaint, and will resume at some point in the future to be determined, but for right now, I would say that immediately relisting an item that's been removed (rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason) would be too much of a risk.