Ealtbay allows those items that are banned on Ebay, but are legal to own and sell.
EBay is the gold standard of auction sites. It will yield more money, for any given item, than most of the Internet auction sites. If your item can be listed on EBay, you will get the most money, in the least amount of time, for that item on that you sell EBay. So list that item there. The problem, EBay bans a large list of items that are perfectly legal to own and sell, but they are not allowed on their site. Where do you list and sell those items?
Ealtbay is a site that was created for those non-EBay orphaned items. The only restriction is, the item must be legal, and its transfer must be done legally. A couple of examples of some items, that are banned on both EBay and Ealtbay, are human organs and fake name brand watches. These items are illegal to sell, therefore they are rightly banned on both sites. Any online auction site is allowed to choose what items, or types of items it wishes to allow or not. EBay’s’ large list of banned items has opened an opportunity for an alternate niche site that caters to these non-EBay items.
When EBay banned ivory items on its site, it orphaned one-million additional items a year. Antique scrimshaw, vintage ivory bangles, Inuit walrus ivory carvings, even the vintage Baldwin piano with ivory keys are all banned. But, they are still legal to own and sell, therefore they can be listed on Ealtbay. This is a simple example, of items that are banned on EBay, but allowed on Ealtbay.
A little more complex example of a non-EBay item is a vintage Native American ring made by Ben Knighthorse-Campbell. It was listed on EBay. the listing for the ring was cancelled by EBay because it was not also marked with his tribe and tribal number. It had been authenticated through his daughter in Durango, Colorado, was hall-marked with his mark, and he is an ex US Senator -with his Native American status well established. It would be welcome on Ealtbay as a genuine native American made item.
The last class of non-EBay items, I will call the hypocrisy items. The first of these is Ivory, already mentioned above, but there is an additional problem with it. Ivory in any form is banned on EBay, yet you can buy an elephant hide wallet, purse or piece of luggage off of EBay. Does EBay wish to help save the elephant, or just the mature adult male elephants? Also are items, that are banned on EBay, but when you use EBay’s search, ads appear, again on EBay -for alternate sales sites. These sites sell the item that you are looking for. Search for firearms on EBay, you will not find individual listings for them. You will find ads, on EBay, for sporting goods stores that sell firearms. Or, search for key making machines, none will be found. But, you will get ads, on EBay, for key making machines. I called one of these key machine makers, explained that I owned an apartment complex in Texas and needed a key maker for Kwikset, they quoted me a price, I gave them a credit card number and 5 days later I had the key cutter. I don’t see the difference between EBay allowing the listing, or putting an ad up, on their site, for someone else to sell that machine. Both of these above mentioned items are legal on Ealtbay, just following all the legally mandated licensing requirements.
Ealtbay encourages the listing of these non-EBay items, lets you list them for free, charges a very low final value fee on that sold item, allows you to accept payment in any legal form such as: cash, money-order, check, bank transfer, Google checkout, and even Paypal -if that floats your boat.
Overall Ealtbay is a good alternative auction site for those banned items.
