Rail Road keys

[re-sellit2u]

Just read a few posts from last December about selling rail road keys and padlocks with keys on ebay.  It violates (this is good) their "uniform" policy and I understand where they are coming from.  There are RR's out there that still use the old brass barrel style keys - and thus the policy as it makes tools available to someone who would damage rr property and perhaps endange lives.  The problem is, the policy isn't enforced on any kind of regular basis.  Type rail road key or rail road padlock into the search bar and out of 3 or 4 hundred listings, more than a third are for padlocks with keys or keys either by themselves or in a group.   If you try to report a listing, you can't seem to get anywhere near the "uniform" policy in the choices you are given to report one of these "key" listings.   As one December post read, "they should not provide a category to list an item if the item is prohibited".  

[alcoforever]

None of the prohibited item policies are enforced on any kind of regular basis.   Safeway Monopoly lottery tickets, cognac, scotch whisky, bourbon whisky, vaping supplies, etc. are all over the site.  In my experience, reporting them is a waste of time.   Besides, ebay is not paying me to be the listing sheriff.

[timemachine777]

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@re-sellit2uwrote:

Just read a few posts from last December about selling rail road keys and padlocks with keys on ebay.  It violates (this is good) their "uniform" policy and I understand where they are coming from.  There are RR's out there that still use the old brass barrel style keys - and thus the policy as it makes tools available to someone who would damage rr property and perhaps endange lives.  The problem is, the policy isn't enforced on any kind of regular basis.  Type rail road key or rail road padlock into the search bar and out of 3 or 4 hundred listings, more than a third are for padlocks with keys or keys either by themselves or in a group.   If you try to report a listing, you can't seem to get anywhere near the "uniform" policy in the choices you are given to report one of these "key" listings.   As one December post read, "they should not provide a category to list an item if the item is prohibited".  

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I have lots of RR padlocks with keys that go back to the 1800's. eBay can prohibit them but nobody else does. I don't know of one antique shop or mall that doesn't have some for sale. People have been selling them for over a half a century.

[chrysylys]

To my knowledge, it is not illegal anywhere to buy, sell, or posess flashing blue lights of any kind.  It is illegal to use them without authorization.  However, Illinois and several other states mandate them for volunteer firefighters, New Mxico allows (or did allow) them for tow trucks and they were used on snow plows in Canada.

Yet, you can't list them here.

The old style blue Beacon Ray dome (think Hawaii Five-0 of the 70s) hasn't been used on a police car anywhere in the US for at least 20 years (before this site was started).  They are highly sought after by collectors, but you can't list them here.

(And yes, I know listings show up from time to time)

[ittybitnot]

Railroad keys and locks have been sold on ebay for decades... There was an issue once where such sales were a matter of "national security"...Now that was funny because any person (Not a terrorist) could walk the tracks and pick up this stuff for FREE.   eBay is the only one that got their nightie in a knot over this.  and I am sure they are sorry to lose all those sales.