Violating rules by putting “1996 HOT WHEELS.COM SPECIAL EDITION BUS” in caption

[bigeightwheel]

Received the following message from eBay today, March 18, 2025:  “Hello! Your listing didn’t follow our Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay policy.  Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay, including sharing direct contact information prior to an eBay purchase, is not allowed."  (finally got in touch with eBay, and the representative indicated the problem was that I had put a direct contact address in my listing (THAT, OF COURSE, BEING THE  “HOT WHEELS .COM”  IN MY CAPTION).  I asked to speak to the the President of eBay, or someone in charge; but the representative explained to me that one of their “guru’s” policed this listing, and turned it over to the proper eBay authorities for corrective measures--not their exact words, but my interpretation.  Anyway, I explained that the item for sale was a HOT WHEELS.COM VW BUS---and this was NOT a contact website.  Well, to end this story; it is supposed to be put back on my FOR SALE LISTINGS sometime tomorrow--missed all day today, tonight....and whatever time they ALLOW it to be reinstated “For Sale”.  In the meantime, I looked through other similar listings and found no less than a half-dozen HOTWHEELS.COM  Drag Busses for sale.  After 25 years selling on eBay, this incident has surely been a shocker!!  I feel the need for a little stronger language, but I’ll leave it at that!!

[rokkworks]

Sorry this happened to you. Any use of “dot com” is going to get flagged by eBay’s AI bots scanning the site for people advertising a website. It’s in eBay's best interest to keep people from wandering off to buy elsewhere. (It is actually a Mattel website address, I see.)
Question for you - Do people actually search for the “.com” part when searching for these hot wheels?

In other words, are you sure it’s essential? 
I’d check terapeak for similar and see how past, best sales worded their titles for the same items.

And don’t put yours back up with that title because you really don’t want to get caught violating again. The fact that others do it or have done it is irritating, I know, but irrelevant to eBay. 

[susanb1872]

I get it-the "dot com" is on the side of the Hot Wheels. Yes-ebay is very sensitive about people inserting websites for off site sales. The bots are ready to take down anything that looks like a website. You might want to look at the other listings-some have kept the dot com but other listings were more creative to get around the take down. (it reminds me that DOGE removed  any military photos that related to DEI and then removed the photo of the Enola Gay.)

[itsjustasprain · Accepted solution]

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@bigeightwheel wrote:

(finally got in touch with eBay, and the representative indicated the problem was that I had put a direct contact address in my listing (THAT, OF COURSE, BEING THE  “HOT WHEELS .COM”  IN MY CAPTION).  I asked to speak to the President of eBay,

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Oh please. Just get rid of the '.COM' as explained to you and things should be fine after that.

[mam98031]

Such an easy issue to resolve.  Just don't use ".com" on anything in your listing.  Of course the bots are going to find it and take it down.  You are an experienced seller, you should have known this.  You should also know that Ebay isn't going to change the rule just because you disagree with it.  The rule exists for a good reason and it isn't going anywhere.

If you want to list the item, you know what you need to do so you can list it.

I wish you the very best.

[johnrj1226]

Don't always get  what you want.  The 'Stones had a song with that title way back then

This is not the end of your eBay career or a  red hickey on your sell performance rating.  Erase the .  and life will be good again

Looks  like you sold two  items in February with a dot com in the  subject title - guess the bots were sleeping. or on lunch break or just messing around again.

Seriously doubt you would ever get to have  a discussion with the eBay Prez on this minor matter.

[gurlcat]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@bigeightwheel wrote:

(finally got in touch with eBay, and the representative indicated the problem was that I had put a direct contact address in my listing (THAT, OF COURSE, BEING THE  “HOT WHEELS .COM”  IN MY CAPTION).  I asked to speak to the the President of eBay,

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Oh please. Just get rid of the '.COM' as explained to you and things should be fine after that.

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I can't stop laughing.  I don't think any other post/reply has ever cracked me up this bad.  Now I can skip situps today because my stomach is already burning so much. 

[pickapaper]

@bigeightwheel  wrote: "I asked to speak to the the President of eBay,"

Did you seriously think you would get to speak to the president of eBay?  Really and truly, seriously?

[jonathanbrightlight]

Just as funny as you wanting to speak to the President of eBay about this is the fact that you didn't even realize you didn't link to hotwheels.com (the Hot Wheels website), but just to wheels.com and called it hot (website addresses cannot have spaces in them).

[bigeightwheel]

It’s REALLY FUNNY, Jonathan! Thanks for shining a “brighter light” on it.  That’s why I mentioned it; just to accentuate the absurdity of hoping to resolve an issue by actually speaking to someone on eBay, much less the president(if they even have one).  What’s even funnier is the fact that I pulled up no less than a half-dozen other listings exactly like mine.  I put them on my watch list for future reference; should eBay want to initiate further action against my horrendous abuse of their seller-friendly policies.

[bigeightwheel]

Normally I would...and I have!  But that doesn’t make eBay any better for sellers...or for buyers; if constructive criticism is off the table.  After 25 years, I kinda thought I might be allowed to express an opinion---but it just makes my futile effort seem even more “futiller”.

[seconhandrosie]

That's nothing. I recently reported many inexpensive and deceptive counterfeit US "silver dollars" Feebay is selling from china. These coins are undoubtedly being sold as authentic for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. Feebay should be held liable for their crimes.

[jg.mason]

Yep, DOGE finally got around to eBay. 🤣🙄

[bigeightwheel]

Thanks!  I’ve think you’ve hit the nail on the head, as the saying goes.  When You mentioned AI, that sorta seals the deal--can’t fight what you can’t see!  I guess it “is what it is”, and no need to expect change from a robotic entity.  It was nice to vent a little, though. Glad this site is here--hope they don’t decide to remove it.  I’ve already removed all references to dot-com, so just waiting to see how long it takes to get it re-listed.

[toysaver]

Tons of toys have special products done as an exclusive item specific to a store.  You can try using website exclusive and most buyers would figure it out.