Ebay killed my auction, WTF???
 

"You recently listed the following auction-style listing:

280227597951 - Scrap Catalytic Converter, full, geo 12.5lbs, 18" long


The was removed because it violated the eBay Vehicle-Related policy. We notified members who placed bids on the item that the listing has been canceled.

The sale of vehicles, vehicle parts, and items related to the transfer of vehicles (such as titles and registrations) is heavily regulated. eBay urges members to educate themselves about the applicable laws (which vary from state to state) before listing an item.

In our effort to ensure a positive online trading experience for all our members, we have developed several policies and requirements relating to the sale of these items. Sellers are generally permitted to sell catalytic converters on eBay, with exception for those that are prohibited by law.

*Note: Sellers are not permitted to list items or devices that may be used to circumvent the proper function of a catalytic converter. Such devices are considered to encourage illegal activity, and are therefore not permitted for sale on eBay.

For more information on the eBay Encouraging Illegal Activity policy, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/encouraging-illegal-activity.html

Sellers are permitted to list test pipes on eBay Motors. However, these items are legal for racing cars only. For this reason, test pipes need to be listed in the Auto Racing Parts category. The seller also needs to indicate in the item description that this part can't be used with street vehicles.

For more information on the eBay policy, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/catalytic-converters.html"

I took the cat off, cut the ends off, and listed their warning on it, wtf??? Why'd they take it down?

Ugh... I cant find a customer servise number either, so wtfh?


~Nate

Nat- best I can figure is that so many are being stolen they don't want to take a chance and be fingered by the law, unless you can prove with a receipt of the whole muffler you own it. Just a guess.

I have also heard of people knocking the insides out of catalytic converters and then putting them back on the cars. That way the car appears to still have all of its emissions control equipment.

Really? I have to take the SEL in next week for emmissions...hummmm.

They probably thought it was stolen.

Don't assume that a human being looked over your auction and decided to pull it. That's the sort of thing that eBay hates doing, because human beings are expensive.

Consider instead the possibility that it might well have been a 'bot that misidentified the nature of your item as prohibited based on keywords it found in the title and/or description.

I recently had an item pulled because they considered it to be "medical" in nature. It isn't a medical item, and one of the pictures even shows a sticker on the device specifying that it's "not for human use". I've sold similar items in the past without any problem, and there are a number of very similar items up for sale on eBay right now.

I did, however, see an item similar to mine show up in a search recently, and then discover later that the item had been pulled. Again, I suspect a 'bot at work; maybe they tweaked the keywords recently. I'll keep tabs on similar items, and see if I can figure out if there's a "secret word" that got me.

I can understand how this could happen as a legitimate error. What galls me is that they don't provide a convenient way for users to communicate with them to help them tune the criteria used to decide if an auction should be pulled. Wouldn't it be better if your message from eBay had included a link where you could appeal the listing cancellation, with the hope of getting some actual satisfaction?

As it is, there's no way that I'd relist my item unless I thought I had figured out how to make it "acceptable". Relisting it without any changes would be a great way to appear to be a "repeat offender" in eBay's eyes.

This was linked from the second ebay page:
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/cert/factshts/catcvrts.pdf

Its a Fed EPA regulation, iirc.


PS Edit: just saw Matt L's post--he be right.

Yep, the exhaust shops around here have big signs about not installing used catalytic converters.

Yep, ya do.

And, the fact that all ~3,025 of them for sale on eBay now are brand new and being sold by commercial sellers should indicate something as well.

Not to mention most are not actually up for auction. They are BIN priced items.

Nate, why don't you do what the crackheads do around here and take it to a metal buyer?

I don't know about titanium or whatever is in cats, but copper is through the roof where I am. Seems a lot less trouble than dealing with shipping it somewhere, waiting for payment, ect...






....unless you stole it:D;)

The converter likely contains platinum and palladium, both in small quantities. But they are also both astoundingly expensive.

Yeah um... theres like 500 of them on ebay, used, for scrap.

I cut the ends off (just like in everyone elses listing) and it's NOT able to be installed on a vehicle. I included their little blurb about not installing them, or selling them for install...

I'm selling the thing for scrap, I live 3 blocks from the scrapyard and they'll give me $20 for it... I think it might be worth more... It's off my old one, its just taking up room...

~Nate

In which category did you list it?

I just did a "completed items" search for scrap catalytic converters. The vast majority of them (~1300 out of a total of ~1400) had been listings in Business & Industrial > Manufacturing & Metalworking > Metals & Alloys. Only 7 had been listings in eBay Motors.

Nate,

I would either copy someone elses listing for a similar item or go here:

www.cashforconverters.com