Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Even element samples are banned from eBay

woelen - 3-9-2006 at 13:52

Today I received this email from eBay:
Quote:
Dear woelen,

Thank you for your bid on the following listing:

Item number: 120008995715
Title: Hafnium Hf metal in sealed glass ampoule tube in argon

Unfortunately, eBay removed this listing because it's against the law, eBay policy, or both. All bids or offers on this listing have been canceled. We advise you to not purchase this item.

To learn how you can protect yourself and help ensure a positive buying experience in the future, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/buyer_checklist.html

To review eBay's list of Prohibited, Questionable, and Infringing items, visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/item_allowed.html

We're sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,


eBay Trust & Safety


Bweh bweh, of course I need to protect myself. Hafnium metal is soooooooooo dangerous and these sellers must be put in jail, immediately, NOW!!!!

At the same time I also received a similar message on a set of 12 high voltage diodes (20 kV). These items also apparently are bad in the eyes of eBay.

Everything, which is looking somewhat technical, probably will be banned by eBay, because we need to be protected. Yes, we need to be protected!!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the first time I have this experience with eBay. Apparently, they are tightening up their safety policies and items which could be sold a year ago, cannot be sold anymore right now. I already noticed a sharp decrease of auctions of this type on eBay and apparenlty eBay is actively looking upon this type of auctions and if they are found, they are removed. So, element collectors, try to find another place for obtaining your elements.

[Edited on 4-9-06 by woelen]

12AX7 - 3-9-2006 at 14:23

Whaaa? Such things must be a big part of their business, as in, an actual percentage.

Alright then.. I want to know who will come up with ebay's evil twin, which DOES sell all the good stuff (perhaps at a premium commission, meh).

Tim

The_Davster - 3-9-2006 at 14:32

And another freedom bites the dust....


According to Ebay's questionable material, international buyers and sellers are 'questionable'.

Soon ebay will be reduced to selling music and furniture.

"Don't let the people get elements, they are CHEMICALS and are EVIL" "Same with electronic parts, they could make devices of unprecedented evil"

EDIT: I agree with Tim. Lets find someone willing to start up ebay's evil twin.

[Edited on 3-9-2006 by rogue chemist]

Swany - 3-9-2006 at 14:58

Well, if you provide a marketplace aimed at all of the chemistry forums on the internet, you have a rather large base of people who are constantly trying to expand and alter their inventories. As of now, most transactions are quite private and covered through PM's, but the whole open-market thing would be great IMHO. Of course, there are many problems with starting such an area....

Still, we can dream. No?

Eclectic - 3-9-2006 at 18:14

That's odd, because I just bought a 13x26mm rod of Hf. A search for hafnium turns up lots of hits in the stores.

Maybe some "Barney Fife" decided you were collecting Hf to make a "Nucular" reactor? We can't have the foreigners havin' access to "Nucular" materials. Hide the borax, silver, and cadmium too.

I don't think the hazzard police on Ebay have much oversight. Some loose cannon deleted Chemsavers' Ebay store listings a few weeks back, and they had to recreate all the listings from scratch.



[Edited on 4-9-2006 by Eclectic]

evil_lurker - 3-9-2006 at 21:06

Its chemophobia, plain and simple.

Loss

MadHatter - 3-9-2006 at 22:08

And it's their loss too ! There are other auction sites on the net. Someone may pick it up
and collect the dollars that eBay will lose. It's ashame, the wimps have taken over !

YT2095 - 4-9-2006 at 02:05

I had a similar thing happen on a bid for a 150mw laser a few months ago, we still did the deal but outside of eBay vai email.

Techno-Phobia is rife, but I wonder how many of these beurocrats have Ipods and mobile fones or laptops!?

chromium - 4-9-2006 at 03:43

I do not know how it is in USA but in my country firms do not worry about every kind of lost markets. In fact many of them intentionally drop such areas from their business that do not make great part of their profits but make some special problems. For ebay owners there are easyer ways to make money than mediating sales of elemnt samples, lasers or HV diodes and so they just do what wisdom of capitalism tells them - sell what gives more profit with less hassle.

I will be very happy if some other auction site will pick up this market but even if this happens then they may also be forced to drop it. Not much pressure needed. :(

joeflsts - 4-9-2006 at 08:02

Recently I got a similar message message about a purchase. As it turns out it was an over zealous ebay employee and there was nothing wrong with the purchase. You will never hear anything from ebay on their mistake. I highly doubt this is chemophobia.

Joe

DeAdFX - 4-9-2006 at 08:14

[at joeflsts]Was that the item was science related? This is bad because ebay is one of my best sources[in terms of price] for science equipment and certain chemicals.

not_important - 4-9-2006 at 08:42

Perhaps the science auctions will move back to LabX, they were in the business before there was an ebay.

joeflsts - 4-9-2006 at 09:09

Quote:
Originally posted by DeAdFX
[at joeflsts]Was that the item was science related? This is bad because ebay is one of my best sources[in terms of price] for science equipment and certain chemicals.


Yes, it was an obscure alchohol. eBay sent me a rather nasty message, informing me to not complete the purchase because the chemical in question was against their policy. About a week later I got a message from the seller with an attachment from eBay apologizing for thier mistake. eBay never contacted me.

Joe

triphenylphosphineoxide - 5-9-2006 at 05:11

I think that a bit of laziness, ignorance, and cowardice are behind this. Ebay has automatic filters to search for substances that may be a postal hazard or require a licensed buyer or seller. It only takes one employee with minimal knowldege deciding to err on the side of caution to remove a listing.

YT2095 - 5-9-2006 at 11:24

Quote:
Originally posted by chromium

I will be very happy if some other auction site will pick up this market but even if this happens then they may also be forced to drop it. Not much pressure needed. :(


have you tried "Ebid" instead? a google search may find one for your country, a mate of mine told me about this site ages ago (I haven`t joined yet), but it MAY be worth a look? ;)

vulture - 5-9-2006 at 12:11

Well Hafnium is a dangerous material ofcourse because it can be used in high yield nuclear reactors and god forbid you're an iranian agent trying to buy this to allow his country to exercise its rights under the NPT.

Ofcourse, ebay isn't so strict about bogus chemical pheromones that are on the front page...I wonder why...

Xenon1898

Xenon1898 - 4-2-2013 at 17:25

Even if it is just a poor decision/mistake from an Ebay screener there is a clear trend to restrict all materials that could possibly ever be perceived as bad in any conceivable way. Draconian, pointless, anti-science. As younger people grow up this is the result - chemophobia in greater portions of society. Nanny state, here we are.

IrC - 5-2-2013 at 15:21

Quote: Originally posted by YT2095  
I had a similar thing happen on a bid for a 150mw laser a few months ago, we still did the deal but outside of eBay vai email.

Techno-Phobia is rife, but I wonder how many of these beurocrats have Ipods and mobile fones or laptops!?


I have dealt with this on ebay for years. Hamric was banned from ebay and it infuriated me to no end. Some of the best cool items I ever bought on ebay were from him. I learned to find auctions before they get banned and contact the seller, telling them I need their off ebay email address because no doubt the auction would never make it to the close. How many times have I used paypal with goods/other as the item I no longer can total.

Woelen did you ever get your Hf?

neptunium - 5-2-2013 at 16:05

wait! i just got some mercury iodide off ebay!! but Hf and electronics are banned??
someone explain i am lost!

IrC - 5-2-2013 at 18:09

Woelen I just searched and see 11 auctions or buy it now's for Hf.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hafnium-metal-disc-1-x-1mm-99-95-pur...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hafnium-metal-99-9-purity-/200738726...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/High-purity-Hafnium-wire-sold-per-me...

Quote from link above:

"This is high-purity hafnium (99.9% pure ex-Zr. This contains 0.209% zirconium) at 1.0 mm diameter (0.040" diameter). It was made for someone doing evaporation using a wire-feed. It is still new, ready for immediate use in your high-vacuum application, and comes with a certificate of analysis. We are selling this for $100.00 per meter. This is a huge bargain compared to the commercially available price of $800/meter, as seen in this location:" (you can see the link on the page)

More:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hafnium-Metal-Sponge-High-Purity-99-...

Last and possibly closer to home If you feel like doing some separation work:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/COBALT-HAFNIUM-PIECES-100g-Co-63-Hf-...

However at 5 percent the other links are better at around 3 bucks a gram for high purity. Myself I seldom do auctions, just tired of the hassle, losing good deals, or paying too much. I avoid it in preference to buy it now sales unless no one else has the item. Not to mention you can buy it before ebay trashes it. Still infuriating as hundreds of items over the years I could not track because ebay removes the listing after you buy an item. I can say only 3 items in over 2,000 never arrived over the years so not a bad risk overall. I copy the item page and seller info right after I pay just in case as a matter of habit today.

CHRIS25 - 6-2-2013 at 00:17

Quote: Originally posted by YT2095  
Quote:
Originally posted by chromium

I will be very happy if some other auction site will pick up this market but even if this happens then they may also be forced to drop it. Not much pressure needed. :(


have you tried "Ebid" instead? a google search may find one for your country, a mate of mine told me about this site ages ago (I haven`t joined yet), but it MAY be worth a look? ;)


I tried a number of non-hazardous chemicals on Ebid, in the end I resorted to typing in Sodium Chloride on Ebid....this place is quite hopeless for anything chemistry.

woelen - 6-2-2013 at 01:49

I never received that sample of Hafnium, I had no contact with the seller outside of eBay and the transaction was never completed.

I have the impression though that at the moment things are somewhat more relaxed than 6 or 7 years ago. Especially in the UK, but also in Poland I see more and more interesting auctions of chemicals and equipment, which were not there 5 years ago. Apparently eBay slowly has loosened their controls somewhat, until at a certain point someone tells that it is time to enforce policies more strictly again. It is like a wave, there are periods where things are fairly lax and periods where things are strict.

neptunium - 6-2-2013 at 07:54

thats pretty much how everything works in this world periodicity! like the price of pork and the immigration influx..but my paycheck refuse to submit to this rule!

Pyro - 14-2-2013 at 09:50

It's crazy! no Hg thermometers, I'd rather stick an Hg thermometer in my mouth than an alcohol thermometer!
and no memorabilia!!!
it's too bad. And Woelen, chemicals are very easy to get from Poland!

MagicJigPipe - 15-2-2013 at 09:18

You're fucking kidding me? No Hg thermometers on eBay? I'm glad I purchased like 7 of them about 5 years ago. Unfortunately, I broke 3 of them.

Does this even apply to lab thermometers (most of which are Hg--as they should be). Fuck eBay. I've been hating eBay ever since they banned the sale of hypodermic needles, syringes and anything with a swastika on it and started charging nearly half the cost of a $20 item.

In other words, they shut down the small people in favor of the enormous.

jock88 - 15-2-2013 at 15:03


You can start loving them again.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&am...

And some more kisses.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brannan-Mercury-in-glass-Thermomet...

Here's an interesting item from da big apple (as Franklin would say!)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EC-RARE-VINTAGE-AMERICAN-INSTRUMEN...


[Edited on 15-2-2013 by jock88]

Pyro - 15-2-2013 at 16:56

Strange, they forbid it in their guidelines!
As for memorabilia, I guess it's better because otherwise I'd be poor :D (I love all those things)

neptunium - 8-5-2018 at 10:19

seems more like a shady sale than a ban. this was probably a standard letter or a one time operation.

Σldritch - 8-5-2018 at 12:44

It warms my cold, cold, heart to see other practitioners of the dark arts of necromancy on the forum. ;)

Melgar - 15-5-2018 at 20:14

Apparently none of eBay's employees have ever heard of phenyl-2-nitropropene, because that shit pops up in auctions from Eastern Europe all the time.

Mercury makes a certain amount of sense because you can't ship it on planes, but it's easily available via ground from other places. You can find plenty of mercury thermometers, just type in "lab glass thermometer", and check if the bulb looks metallic. Those Chinese sellers learn fast.

Hafnium was probably a mistake by some eBay bot that flagged a purchase based on origin and destination. Just keep trying until one works, eventually one will.

I think eBay just gives everyone the benefit of the doubt until something gets brought to their attention, then they try to automate some solution to that specific problem that does a lot of collateral damage.

XeonTheMGPony - 20-5-2018 at 12:38

13 year old thread, I'm impressed, going for 20 next?

aga - 20-5-2018 at 13:53

LOL.

Well, it saves all that silly mixing chemicals up to see what happens kinda hobby.

diddi - 20-5-2018 at 14:07

i miss the days when you could get russian plutonium baring trinkets off ebay

[Edited on 20-5-2018 by diddi]