Not allowed to sell a Poppy Brooch

[milly*fiory]

I've just tried to list a Brooch in the shape of a Poppy Flower. 

Ebay will not allow this - a message pops up to say, 

The sale of Royal British Legion poppy pins or brooches is not permitted on eBay as these are typically sold for charitable purposes.

It is a costume jewellery brooch and as far as I can tell, not produced by or for the British Legion. Others exactly like it are for sale on eBay. 

Anyway, in a generous mode, I decided to sell the Brooch donating 100% of the proceeds to charity, specifying The Royal British Legion. eBay would still not let me list it! The same message pops up.

There are also loads of listings for poppy brooches and pins which are most definitely the type sold by the British Legion for Remembrance Day, many of these listed in multiple quantities by Private Sellers. And they are NOT donating their proceeds to chartity. Very weird! 

[tressygirl · Accepted solution]

That is the reason why anything solely in Poppy design cannot be sold on eBay, even if you state all monies will go to charity.

Yes, you may see identical items listed,  the site is vast 7 billion plus listing on at any one time, so impossible to check each and every one, some will slip the net and become listed.

Here is eBay's answer why a listing is removed and other identical ones,  still on sale :

Why was my listing removed/hidden when similar listings are still active?

If your listing is removed or hidden by eBay, you may see similar listings still active on the site. This could be for a few reasons:

There may be differences between the two listings that aren't obvious
The other seller may be a rights owner or authorised retailer of the item
A participant in the VeRO Program may have asked us to remove your listing but hasn't requested the other listing be taken down. These types of removals are only done at the request of the VeRO participant, and aren't eBay's decision. Read more about the VeRO Program
Your listing was reported to us, but the other listing wasn't

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

If you can find one already listed you can use the "have one like this to sell" link under the main picture on that listing.

Double check the item specifics before you do so though.

[moldosgifts]

Take new photos slightly different angels and just list it as a flower pin Generalise it as much as you can.

Try looking at a site Title builder its free will give you some tips on what is searched most 

[milly*fiory]

Thank you @moldosgifts and for the tip about Title Builder - I'd not heard of that before. 

I've also just noticed that some Sellers of Poppy brooches and badges are spelling the word as Poppie, which is perhaps how they are avoiding 'detection' by the eBay bots.

[milly*fiory]

Thank you @roger_roger_over_and_nowt I hadn't thought of that.

[milly*fiory]

Thank you @tressygirl  That's interesting ... but rather strange if The Royal Brtish Legion has a monopoly on the words Poppy or Poppy Brooch. 

My listing wasn't actually removed; eBay wouldn't even let me list it. When I'd completed all the details and tried to submit the listing, the 'not permitted' message appeared immediately.  

I have some lovely embroidered pictures of poppies to sell, I wonder if the same problem will occur. 

[tressygirl]

Yep, the system once certain words are detected can prevent the item even reaching the listing stage.  As for your embroidered poppies,  personally I wouldn't, perhaps the word 'Poppy' is now a red flag associated with your account, there's no knowing.

As you are under eBay's  'Poppy radar ' I would sell those items on another platform.