eBay banned my gourmet mushrooms under their drug policy

[pm-me-good-gold]

Hello.

I've been on ebay 8 years. I've mostly just sold items I don't need anymore, and a few years ago, started selling gold and silver. Things have been great.

I started a gourmet mushroom business. I am a sober, church on Sunday kinda guy. I service local restaurants, individuals, and often cook my mushrooms for my pastor or members of my church.

Back in April, I noticed a lag between the time I listed items and the time they appeared in search. Then it started happening to all my listings. I reached out to ebay and they said sometimes they need to ensure items fall within policy. I'm not doing anything wrong or illegal, so sure, take all the time you need.

Then the warnings came for my oyster mushrooms and chicken of the woods mushrooms. It took 7 reps to finally sort everything out. Then they told me my warnings were removed and listings were restored. They only removed 1 warning and restored 1 item.

A few days later, my listings got removed again and I was banned for seven days. I was threatened with a permanent ban.

I spoke to a rep who seemed to care, but there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she laughed and said they're not gonna care. 

Meanwhile, there are regularly listings for dried magic mushrooms, and the spores and cultures necessary to manufacture scheduled substances. If you report them, nothing ever seems to happen.

Is there any way to return to selling food on this platform? Or get all these warnings off my account? Watching ebay mishandle this has been a real eye-opener for me. I get the impression they're fine with people selling actual drugs, but wild foraged food and organic/vegan/kosher food is just a risk they're not willing to take.

I even linked to a Wikipedia page about one of the species and the response I got was, "it is drug".

I reached out to some veteran sellers and their advice was to leave the platform when ebay gets you in their crosshairs like this, and to be honest, it sounds like really good advice.

Is there a path forward here?

[greatmidwestcoin]

Well, it is true that once you are in their crosshairs, you may as well surrender. I have been there and done that. IMO you have a couple of options. #1. Continue to sell them and risk(high risk) of being restricted permanently. #2. Let the dust settle and continue to reach out to eBay in hopes of getting someone that you can appeal to. One thing I have found when communicating with eBay people, try to do it so you have their words in writing. This way the next person can't change things on what you were told. #3. Try a different platform, such as Etsy for selling them.  And lastly, you most likely have a competitor that has been reporting you. Good luck!

[maxine*j]

The problem may be as simple as the bots having homed in on the word "syringe" in your listings.  Who knows.

The way forward is to forget about selling your mushroom cultures on eBay, because once on the bots' radar, forever on their radar.

We see this all the time with items in every category with restrictions -- weapons, cosmetics, government-issued items, you-name-it -- because the policies are vague and ambiguous, and the enforcement is arbitrary and robotic.  So, legit listings get removed and listings with violations remain.  With 1.5B listings on any given day, this is no surprise.  It's a shame, but it's not a surprise.  "State of the art" and all that.

You sell lots of other stuff, so just continue to do so and forget about mushrooms.

By the way, you're not alone in having problems with mushroom culture listings:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q...

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[jewelbiz]

There is a front page article today in the N.Y. Post

“Drug dealers openly sell mushrooms in Washington Square Park“

Perhaps read it.  Selling mushrooms are now are a no no…

[maxine*j]

Those were doubtless psilocybin mushrooms, Schedule 1 drugs under both the U.S. Controlled Substances Act and under the UN convention on such drugs, so their sale is prohibited, restricted, or otherwise controlled nearly everywhere.

OP is selling cultures to grow culinary mushrooms.

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[stacy_pme]

Try communicating with them on their facebook page "Ebay for businesses" because I once listed a christsmas ornament and it was removed, and I was warned to never list it again.... A christmas ornament!  So I reached out, and after a little bit of research they were able to find out... that it was because of the words I used.... you see it was a hand made christmas ornament, the glass was blown... and in my listing i put "mouth blown".... and that's what tripped it.... So I had to change the listing to remove the "Mouth blown" part, and just put "hand painted" and it was fine....   SO definitely I would encourage you to get a good answer on your listings... it could be anything tripping it, and once you fix it, you'll be good to go.... PS:  don't put "mouth blown" anything 😄

[maxine*j]

That's a good one! 

If I remember correctly, one of the previous posters (in the link I provided above) had made it a point to note in the listings that the mushrooms were not  psilocybin or "magic" mushrooms -- but the bots, of course and as one would expect, picked up only on the words psilocybin   and magic mushrooms. 

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[pm-me-good-gold]

I was also selling wild foraged food and mushrooms I grew at home and at church.

What's particularly egregious to me is that I included pictures of the stuff I grew or foraged, too. Giant brilliant orange brackets the size of a shopping basket, volleyball sized puffballs, massive bright pink clusters of oyster mushrooms, etc. They don't even remotely look like the illegal ones, and a lot of them are named after the foods they taste like (oysters, chicken of the woods, etc).

Absolutely zero extra thought or basic comprehension was given by the reps that serviced me, but I guess that's just the way it is. I'm kinda really disillusioned and disappointed after all this. I'm basically just going through the motions with all my other listings ever since this happened. It makes it hard to be passionate about ebay anymore.

[maxine*j]

I do understand.  Maybe you can find another venue to sell the mushrooms.  You know, my favorite mushroom is the Giant Puffball, cut into thick slabs and lightly fried in salted butter.  Like a big old mushroom steak.  Yum!

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[fashunu4eeuh]

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@pm-me-good-gold wrote:

Hello.

I've been on ebay 8 years. I've mostly just sold items I don't need anymore, and a few years ago, started selling gold and silver. Things have been great.

I started a gourmet mushroom business. I am a sober, church on Sunday kinda guy. I service local restaurants, individuals, and often cook my mushrooms for my pastor or members of my church.

Back in April, I noticed a lag between the time I listed items and the time they appeared in search. Then it started happening to all my listings. I reached out to ebay and they said sometimes they need to ensure items fall within policy. I'm not doing anything wrong or illegal, so sure, take all the time you need.

Then the warnings came for my oyster mushrooms and chicken of the woods mushrooms. It took 7 reps to finally sort everything out. Then they told me my warnings were removed and listings were restored. They only removed 1 warning and restored 1 item.

A few days later, my listings got removed again and I was banned for seven days. I was threatened with a permanent ban.

I spoke to a rep who seemed to care, but there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she laughed and said they're not gonna care. 

Meanwhile, there are regularly listings for dried magic mushrooms, and the spores and cultures necessary to manufacture scheduled substances. If you report them, nothing ever seems to happen.

Is there any way to return to selling food on this platform? Or get all these warnings off my account? Watching ebay mishandle this has been a real eye-opener for me. I get the impression they're fine with people selling actual drugs, but wild foraged food and organic/vegan/kosher food is just a risk they're not willing to take.

I even linked to a Wikipedia page about one of the species and the response I got was, "it is drug".

I reached out to some veteran sellers and their advice was to leave the platform when ebay gets you in their crosshairs like this, and to be honest, it sounds like really good advice.

Is there a path forward here?

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Not a path forward for wild mushrooms, which are not allowed to be sold on eBay. See Food policy link below.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/food-policy?id=4295

“The following and similar food items are not allowed:

• Unpasteurized dairy products (except cheese that follows government guidelines)
• Unpasteurized fruit or vegetable juice
• Wild mushroom (except for morel and **bleep**ake mushrooms)…”

[pm-me-good-gold]

Not what I wanted to hear but was helpful, so thank you.

[sin-n-dex]

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@pm-me-good-gold wrote:

Hello.

I've been on ebay 8 years. I've mostly just sold items I don't need anymore, and a few years ago, started selling gold and silver. Things have been great.

I started a gourmet mushroom business. I am a sober, church on Sunday kinda guy. I service local restaurants, individuals, and often cook my mushrooms for my pastor or members of my church.

Back in April, I noticed a lag between the time I listed items and the time they appeared in search. Then it started happening to all my listings. I reached out to ebay and they said sometimes they need to ensure items fall within policy. I'm not doing anything wrong or illegal, so sure, take all the time you need.

Then the warnings came for my oyster mushrooms and chicken of the woods mushrooms. It took 7 reps to finally sort everything out. Then they told me my warnings were removed and listings were restored. They only removed 1 warning and restored 1 item.

A few days later, my listings got removed again and I was banned for seven days. I was threatened with a permanent ban.

I spoke to a rep who seemed to care, but there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she laughed and said they're not gonna care. 

Meanwhile, there are regularly listings for dried magic mushrooms, and the spores and cultures necessary to manufacture scheduled substances. If you report them, nothing ever seems to happen.

Is there any way to return to selling food on this platform? Or get all these warnings off my account? Watching ebay mishandle this has been a real eye-opener for me. I get the impression they're fine with people selling actual drugs, but wild foraged food and organic/vegan/kosher food is just a risk they're not willing to take.

I even linked to a Wikipedia page about one of the species and the response I got was, "it is drug".

I reached out to some veteran sellers and their advice was to leave the platform when ebay gets you in their crosshairs like this, and to be honest, it sounds like really good advice.

Is there a path forward here?

---

I had a similar problem where something that "wasn't illegal" got "banned anyway". I had banknotes from Oman, and eBay's bought treated them as if they are from IRAN (which is banned from import and listing).

When spoke to a rep in the department that deals with policy violations, they told me there's no nitpicking about whether something is allowed or it's not. If it might not be allowed, they don't investigate, just remove the listing and issue the warning. I was told the first time it's a warning, after that there's sanctions for violating policy.

Once it comes down, the bots will keep taking it down, and you're on their radar. Don't list any more mushrooms of any kind. eBay doesn't care if your mushrooms are drugs or not. They "might be" drugs, so they are "taking no chances" by removing the listings. You know they're not drugs, but eBay is not going to investigate this, the decision is arbitrary and there's no appeal.

C.

[slippinjimmy]

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@maxine*j wrote:

I do understand.  Maybe you can find another venue to sell the mushrooms.  You know, my favorite mushroom is the Giant Puffball, cut into thick slabs and lightly fried in salted butter.  Like a big old mushroom steak.  Yum!

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Yes! Yummy stuff but I find that about halfway through a big slice I just can't fit anymore in my stomach! I can never decide if it's too much butter (is that possible?) or that they expand in the stomach.

Most of the ones I find (if my timing is right) are the size of fairly large watermelons.

What is really cool is finding one that is the size of an apple/orange and then picking it 12 hours later when it has grown to the size of medium beach ball.

https://www.webmd.com/diet/benefits-of-giant-puffball

[maxine*j]

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@pm-me-good-gold wrote:

I was also selling wild foraged food and mushrooms...

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Ah.  I noticed only the closed listings for the cultures.

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[frtur5359]

A volleyball smash is a powerful offensive move where a player leaps and strikes the ball forcefully downward into the opponent's court, aiming to score a point by making it difficult to return.