Collectable bottle puzzle

[Scotchio]

I've been having a right old laugh with ebay regarding their removal of some collectable bottles, which by the way have been posted here.From what I can gather according to their rules a bottle must be full and sealed but they can remove it if the contents can potentially be drunk. They followed this with a highly amusing statement " a good test of whether a bottle is suitable for sale on ebay is to pour the contents on the ground. If the bottle still has the same value empty then it is suitable for sale on ebay."
So the question is can anybody from the vast knowledge base of the forum think of an example of any bottle which fits the absurd rulings of these muppets?

[Aidan]

Maybe a bottle of Baby Bio.

[Deactivated Member]

Ebay is simply practicing the procedure known as CYA.

[Aidan]

Cover your ass?

[bernstein]

Canadian Yachting Association?

[Lawrence]

ebay are simply two faced when it comes to their plicy on alcohol, it makes no sense at all. Many people make their living selling alsohol on ebay and simply say it's for collecting. Complete rubbish. And if you buy a fake, they back away so fast it'll make you head spin, good luck on trying to collect on their buyer protection.

[Deactivated Member]

Remember, Ebay do not police the site themselves.
All 'pulled' auctions have been reported by someone!

OK, maybe after you have been reported a few times, they do look out for your auctions, but I am still not convinced about this.

ALL SELLERS BEWARE:
Not exactly Ebay, but a very large PAYPAL problem at the moment concerns their T&C small print.
ANY ITEM paid by Paypal MUST be sent recorded and online trackable.
If a buyer raises a complaint to Paypal that they have not received their item(s), Paypal ask the seller for the online trackable number.
If this is not forthcoming within (I think) 3 days, or if the number is trackable but NOT ONLINE, then without question the full money paid for item and postage is immediately refunded to the buyer.
At the same time, the seller's Paypal account is "Limited" and Paypal hold on to their account balance for up to 180 days whilst asking the seller to provide almost impossible details about how and where they bought the item sold, including their authority to sell professionally and other ridiculous things.

Now, all this from a company owned by Ebay who are currently pushing a marketing campaign of "Clear your unwanted goods from home, make some private money and have buyers pay with Paypal"!!!

Ebay UK's Postage and Payment board has been full of such horror stories over the last few months!

WH

[Scotchio]

I like CI's suggestion regarding opening and value and would be tempted to use it if I try to use ebay again although it wouldn't be allowed because it actually makes sense. The galling thing for me is the fact that as somebody said earlier there are people selling huge amounts every week,usually based in germany and often far less collectable than the items I want to sell yet ebay don't appear to apply these absurd rulings to them.Even the guy who allegedly knowingly sold fake bottles is still beavering away. Do they have different rules in Europe or am I just the victim of some UK based jobsworths who have little understanding of collectables whisky or ebay policy but unfortunately have the power to remove items randomly and with at best spurious justification.

[Deactivated Member]

Scotchio,
these are not Ebay rules, they are UK laws on selling alcohol.
Nobody is officially allowed to sell alcohol in the UK without a license. The law tends to be a little stricter when it comes to spirits.

I think I mentioned in a different discussion that I know someone in Scotland who has been selling very collectible whiskies on Ebay for quite some time. He had an NPB who seems to have taken offence at being reported to Ebay for not paying. In return he reported the seller to the UK licensing authorities and the seller is now banned from selling 'collectible bottles' until he gets a license to sell spirits!

Ebay are playing the CYA game by saying no alcohol sales. But, they don't police the site in this, or any other category.
Only when they receive a complaint will the look and then react.
Usually, most 'complaints' are raised by either competitors who want rid of your auctions, or by previous buyers who feel aggrieved, whether justified or not.

I am not trying to defend whoever has it in for you, I think this is a crazy situation and one which in the long term can only push people away from Ebay.

The same laws do not apply here in mainland Europe. Or certainly not in Germany. Special alcohol licenses are required when you serve alcohol to the public, but not for selling.
I know of a few sellers in both Germany and Holland who offer whisky on Ebay UK.
Why?
Mainly because people in the UK pay much higher prices!

The excise duty on spirits is really quite high in the UK (OK, we all know this already). But this means that prices are generally higher, so when it is possible to buy very cheaply over here, why sell it back into a cheap market?
Why not sell into the market where people expect to pay more?

This is the thinking and is why you see so many German and Dutch sellers offering bottles into the UK.
They quite naturally offer all whisky, whether collectible or not over here, so most do not understand the UK laws and just continue to offer their normal wares.

Look at how many bottles are on sale at any one time:
Ebay UK - Typically 500 to 1000
Ebay DE - Typically 1800 to 3500

This also means that if buyers looked around a little more, they would get some great bargains. I very often find that I pay the same number of Euros here, as to what people pay in GBP in the UK.
For example:
The Hazelburn Edition 1: The usual price over here is anything from €80 to around €100, maybe €105 per bottle.
I can't remember the last time I saw the same bottle in the UK at less than around 100 GBP.
That means €100 in Germany, €140+ in the UK.

WH

[Scotchio]

Thanks WH that makes a lot of sense.