topic Dangerous items in Seller Central

Dangerous items

crunchy-frogg — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 18:27:35 GMT

Just had my listing for 6 Portmeirion pastry forks removed by eBay as dangerous items. Pastries will be breathing a sigh of relief.

How completely ridiculous. These measure about 5 inches long and have no bladed section, just simple forks.

Becoming more bother than it's worth.

Re: Dangerous items

lesney_robin — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 18:50:20 GMT

Thay removed my,Lucas combination pliers,inside the jaws are a 1/2” long cutting edge!.

Re: Dangerous items

gjalp — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:08:58 GMT

Yeah I have noticed a distinct lack of pastry forks. I know this cos Im sad and have a thing for pastry forks 😂 I kid you not. Even funnier when I don’t eat pastries 🤣 seriously though, ebay really needs to sort this as its now quite ridiculous. AI has its place but not when it comes to things with no blade and has never had a blade nor would have a blade.

Re: Dangerous items

crunchy-frogg — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:36:56 GMT

AI at the moment is inaccurate, lacks

understanding, is inconsistent, contains made up facts and chooses probability over accuracy. There are barbecue forks freely listed which are ten times the length.

AI is not at a stage where it can replace human verification and the eBay version is farcical.

Re: Dangerous items

bizzy-lizzy99 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:10:20 GMT

Just had several items removed from SCHEDULED listings. They weren't even live. I appealed all of them through the appeal button in the notification. A corkscrew in the form of a fish and antique ice axe were re-instated. A fish slice and and antique grape scissors were not. The thing is I can't even revise these listings to add age confirmed postage. The red banner pops up to add age confirmed postage even when I've added it. Try appealing just with the message 'these are forks and not knives'.

AI has gone berserk looking for anything that even in the slightest resembles a bladed object.

Re: Dangerous items

lucy_farmer — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:12:19 GMT

'and chooses probability over accuracy.'

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

But A.I. can't choose accuracy.

Probability is the whole way an LLM/AI functions. Basically it's just a huuuuge predictive text system.

This is why it is very important not to believe implicitly in what these systems say.

Unfortunately ebay, and many other big businesses, don't care about the innaccuracies as long as they save more money on staff wages, than they lose through using 💩 A.I.

Re: Dangerous items

crunchy-frogg — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:11:35 GMT

Thank.you, that gives me hope that common sense can win in the end. Just another hoop to jump through on the arduous road to trying to sell a few unwanted items on eBay.

Re: Dangerous items

crunchy-frogg — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 10:30:59 GMT

Just an update. After receiving emails from eBay upholding their decision that a fork was a bladed item and totally ignoring my argument, I explained to them the difference between a fork and a bladed item, pointing out that one had forks and the other a blade. Eventually they agreed, however, I have lost interest in this whole business and won't be relisting anything.

Thank you all for your inputs👍

Re: Dangerous items

kyanyama — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 13:30:38 GMT

Me too! I had a set of vintage cake / pastry forks removed brand new in box - NOT a knife in sight!

When they use AI they should have someone check that AI is actually working but it's easier to just dump the listing than be accurate.

I don't know the answer. I didn't even bother to appeal! Computers are running the show - human 'beans' are obsolete - it seems!

Re: Dangerous items

crunchy-frogg — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 14:30:08 GMT

Well worth appealing, but it's more time & effort. First replies from eBay were standard generic responses as if they hadn't even looked into the listing.

I agree, it's time to abandon this planet & leave it to the bots. Must be somewhere better out there 🤔

Re: Dangerous items

rosestudios — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 17:22:22 GMT

Had a similar experience with an antique 'Glass Cutter' Seems Ebay take offence at the word 'Cutter' and relate it to knives. Changing it to 'Glass Trimmer' got past the censors though. lol

Re: Dangerous items

fribblecollectables — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:47:55 GMT

So by that logic, if we have a duel at dawn, I can turn up with a half-metre brass toasting fork (perfectly allowed on here), while you’re stuck with pastry forks that aren’t.

En garde!

Re: Dangerous items

crunchy-frogg — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:36:13 GMT

Really don't fancy my chances against your huge pitchfork 😵‍💫. I don't suppose they could turn a blind eye at a couple of pistols 🤔