Question Re: Price Gouging in Member To Member Support DO NOT DELETE

Price Gouging

nspencer2912 — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 21:55:51 GMT

Last week I listed a small box of Allinson's Yeast Easy Bake Sachets (6 sachets in a box) for 99p plus £1.75 delivery. I listed it on 5 day auction with no reserve. If it had received one bid it would have sold for 99p plus £1.75 delivery. However, by day 3 the bids had gone up to £11.50. Shortly afterwards, I received an email from ebay saying the listing had been removed because it didn't follow their price gouging policy - 'offering items at a price higher than is considered fair or reasonable is not allowed on ebay. Listings that don't follow this policy in the future will be ended, and there will be a 3-day restriction placed on your account'.

Having been with ebay since 2003 and not coming across this before, I would like not to fall foul of any restrictions. As I hadn't put a reserve price on this item, and the only reason the price was high was because of the bids (which is how an auction works), am I missing something?

Re: Price Gouging

**peaseblossom** — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 22:19:54 GMT

No you're not missing anything. It's just that ebay are understandably very sensitive to criticism about allowing sellers to take advantage of the coronavirus situation. Someone must have seen the high price and reported the listing to ebay. Both they and ebay did not check that you started at a low price. It's best to avoid selling anything that is in short supply at the moment due to the virus.

Re: Price Gouging

corred — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 22:32:08 GMT

@nspencer2912

PRICE ALONE IS NOT THE ISSUE !!

Only BUSINESS SELLERS with a history of selling such products may request approved seller status to sell them

Noboby else can sell them even ay 1p each

eBay Policy Now

Business and Private sellers who have listed these items will be notified by email today (23.03.2020) to inform them if they are approved or unapproved. Please note, only a small number of approved Business sellers will be permitted to sell these products on the UK platform with immediate effect.

If you are not approved to sell these items, you will find your existing listings blocked or removed. Attempts to list in these categories may result in your account being suspended. All listings that are not in line with our current policies will be removed without further notice.

We will be constantly reviewing the list of sellers who are approved to sell these items. Do not contact Customer Support as they will not investigate appeals.

Only business sellers with a track record of selling these items are approved to sell them

Simply put.......this is not all about price.....eBay policy is also about seeking to profit from a disaster

1. Are you a registered Business Seller ?? If Yes go to 2 if No go to 5

2. Were you selling these items before the COVID19 crisis ?? if Yes go to no3 if no go to no5

3. If yes have you increased your prices since the crisis ?? if Yes go to No4 if no go to No6

4 Can you prove this is due to supplier price increases ? If Yes go to No6 if No go to No5

5. You cannot sell these items on eBay

6.You can sell these items on eBay

Re: Price Gouging

plpmr — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 23:45:16 GMT

adding to the advice already given -

According to your listings live and completed you have never sold foodstuff before and why put foodstuff up for auction in the first place?