Response to Ebay banning gun related items

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hso

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As you may be aware eBay plans to prohibit gun parts sales and auctions by mid August. Having an organization as large and widely viewed as ebay including gun parts helps keep firearms ownership from seeming unusual or abnormal. Having them drop gunparts helps remove it from the public eye as something normal. This then becomes a hearts and minds campaign to help keep the ownership of firearms before the public as being as normal as muscle cars and china collecting.

An email campaign would be a quick and easy response. Keep it short and straightforward without any poison or criticism of the quality of ebay products. Something like this from Thefumegator is nearly perfect. Be sure to point out that ebay could just as easily ban automobiles and auto parts, beer, wine and liquor related goods using their same reasoning.

Make your voice head to Mr Halprin at [email protected]
 

Wow. Not really the proper sentiment for the "Activism" forum...

Why fight proposed legislation?
Why fight anything that doesn't effect me directly?

This effects a lot of people. Ebay is one of the largest online marketplaces and a lot of people depend on it for income. Massive site traffic makes selling an item more likely. "Gun-specific" auction sites see no where near the traffic that ebay does.

The new policy, which the head dude attributes to the Virginia Tech massacre, is absolute hogwash. It will hurt many of our brethren who sell parts, etc. via Ebay.

I don't like ebay either, but I'll be damned if I go gentle into that good night...

Thanks hso. Email on the way to Mr. Halprin.
 
Here's my response from Ebay:

Dear [the law],

Thank you for your recent email to Matt Halprin in regard to changes to
our Firearms, Weapons and Knives policy. He has asked that I review
your email and respond on his behalf.

Let me start by saying that I understand that this is a very
frustrating situation. Before choosing to discontinue use of your eBay and
PayPal accounts I hope that you would allow me the opportunity to explain
why we have chosen to amend our policy.

Like the rest of the nation, eBay was deeply saddened and shocked by
the events at Virginia Tech and we felt that it was not only appropriate,
but necessary, to revisit our related policies. While nothing purchased
on our site was illegal in any way, we felt compelled to ask ourselves
some tough questions and ensure we do everything possible to provide a
safe and trusted marketplace. After careful consideration, we decided
to expand the scope of our existing policy to specifically restrict any
part that is required for the firing of a gun.

We have always valued an open and transparent marketplace; if items are
legal to buy and sell in an unrestricted manner we allow them on our
site. However, there are some items that while legal, may not be safe
for our marketplace. In these instances, our applicable policies go
beyond the law to ensure that our marketplace is safe.

After careful consideration our executives and our Trust and Safety
team determined, that while legal, any item required to fire a gun has no
place on eBay. All of our policies are under constant review. As the
Internet and the way our communities use the Internet evolves, our
policies and our marketplace must evolve with it. We determined that
this policy change was in the best interest of promoting a safe
marketplace for all members.

I understand your frustration regarding this matter and apologize for
the inconvenience it caused you.

Sincerely,

Terri
Office of the President

:cuss::banghead:
 
SWMAN -
Why? Just don't use ebay anymore. Sell gun related products on sites that welcome the business.

Because, like it or not, ebay is the 900# gorilla when it comes to auction sites. Many of us have purchased or sold stuff there, for better prices (both buying and selling) than we can get on other sites. It's simply a matter of exposure. Just look at the buy/sell sections of this forum and see how often items that are already priced to sell quickly are marked down later by their sellers, simply because not many potential buyers are seeing their items and the seller perceives low activity to mean "priced too high".

Also, one of the benefits to ebay is that often sellers and buyers don't actually realize, or care, what the value of the item truly is. I've picked up mags for my pistols for good prices by knowing what they were worth. I've let others go when the other bidders got caught up in the bidding and jacked the bids way beyond OEM prices (and they were currently available from Sig at the time, so it wasn't a shortage question). Ditto on brass. Know what it's worth, bid accordingly and know when to stop.
 
I sent an email, too.

I told them I'd be closing my ebay and paypal accounts, and that I'd use a combination of Craigslist and firearms auction sites going forward.

They may be the 900# gorilla, but they're not the only game in town.
 
Sorry folks, but that response given to The Law is the canned response being given to everybody. The "Office of the President" is a small group of folks in Colorado who answer emails directed to the higher-ups, especially in situations like this.
 
The more they hear from us, the more we balance out the folks that complained about "those awful guns on ebay". The more they hear from us the more narrowly they may define inappropriate firearms related material. And, of course, we're not going to get personal responses from the management. This is a numbers game and the more numbers they see complaining about this the better.

We had no idea that they were going to do this and therefore had no idea we needed to do anything. This will be our only opportunity to mitigate the damage this can do to how people view firearms ownership through the lens of Ebay. How can we complain about being marginalized if we don't resist events that move us out of the mainstream view of America?
 
OK here's my question shold i point out to them that they're accomplises in breaking federal firearms laws by allowing the sale of barelled receivers? I found 3 active auctions in less than 15 mins. one that shows a mauser receiver they did say they cut the receivers off before shipping. jim
 
mpatrovsky (that’s me) has now closed his Ebay account due to your PC stupidity regarding “bullet tips” you will ban a thing you are too uneducated to even properly describe. As has been said before, the cars you sell kill more people, damage the environment and are much more dangerous than empty pistol shell casings (brass). You people are just too unreal to believe.

PS, my brokerage account has been instructed to dump your stock if it ever again reaches $35.00 where I bought it some time ago.

:banghead:
 
J&G Sales is Prescott, AZ posted the following message to their customers:

Dear J&G Customer,

Also, for years gun enthusiasts have bought and sold gun parts on eBay, J&G included. However eBay has announced that starting mid-August they will no longer allow gun parts to be sold through their website. We encourage you to contact Matt Halpin of eBay who is responsible for this decision at [email protected]. Please be respectful and considerate in your messages. Ask them to review this decision since it goes far beyond any state or federal laws.

We plan to move our auctions for gun parts to www.gunbroker.com and would encourage you to check them out. In the meantime, we will be finishing up several auctions on eBay in the next week for barrels, bullets, brass and magazines, etc. Be sure to check out the deals here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZjgsalesltd

-----------------------------------------------------------
Join with other gun owners and let your voice be heard, check out groups such as the NRA. Click here to see about joining:
https://membership.nrahq.org/forms/signup.asp?CampaignID=XS005080.

Also look at groups such as Gunowners of America at http://www.gunowners.org and JPFO at http://www.jpfo.org, and the Assembly of Sportsmens Caucuses at http://www.statesportsmenslink.org/
 
OK here's my question shold i point out to them that they're accomplises in breaking federal firearms laws by allowing the sale of barelled receivers? I found 3 active auctions in less than 15 mins. one that shows a mauser receiver they did say they cut the receivers off before shipping.

What if it turns out to be an in-state purchase? or FFL to FFL? The sales could be legal. The buyer and seller should be responsible for keeping their own transaction legal, not ebay.

Maybe fear of inadvertently violating gun laws is part of their motivation.

email sent
 
Account closed.

Should we boycott sites/businesses that continue to sell on ebay that doesnt close their stores? Start a form letter out to them? I'm in.
 
CajunTim,
That's a pretty good idea. Much like we'd start a letter writing campaign to advertisers in a paper or magazine that has taken a gun-prohibitionist stance.

We could use the same reasonable voice we should be using with Ebay. Just change it around to, "I can't support a company that puts money into a company that makes these decisions...". Perhaps they will be able to bring pressure to bear on Ebay from a different direction while we push from ours.
 
email sent


I realize that our emails, even if read, will ultimately have no affect beyond making us feel better. I do believe that eBay truly is anti-gun, and this is the future we are looking at with corporations. Ebay has been good for us and did help us through a bad time, but now I am done. Everyone I know will hear what I think of ebay.
 
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