eBay Drops The Ball -- Ends 'Magically Cindy' Auction

Sweetness & Light ^ | August 22, 2005 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

It is with deep sadness we report that eBay, has shut down the bidding for Magically Cindy Sheehan Appears on Baseball auction.

  

eBay is now issuing this email to would-be bidders:

Dear [redacted],

We regret to inform you that your eBay auction:

5608264953 Magically Cindy Sheehan Appears on Baseball has been removed from the site by eBay Customer Support. All fees associated with this auction have been credited to your account.

The item you have listed does not appear to be consistent with eBay guidelines.

Due to a recent federal investigation into forgeries of autographs and certificates of authenticity, eBay will not permit any use of certificates of authenticity on its site issued by several authenticators. eBay requires that sellers identify who performed the COA, and that the company is not currently on our prohibited list. You may review the list of authenticators and this policy at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/autographs.html

Your auction did not mention who the authenticator was or your certificates of authenticity has been issued by "SCAA", "J. Dimaggio Co.", "Universal Inc.," "Universal Memorabilia," "Sports Management Group," "Stan's Sports," "Pro Sports or Pro Sports Memorabilia," "Dave Niedema a.k.a. Dave Madiema," "Steve Ryan," "North Shore Sports, "Donald Frangipani," "Robert Prouty," "Forensic Document Services,"

"Hollywood Dreams", "Foremost Grading Authority" "Collectors of Distinction", "Stardust Collectibles", "Royce Galleries", "General Pictures", "Truly Unique", "Prize Possession" or "Foremost Grading Authority".

For information on infringing, prohibited or questionable items, please

view: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/items-ov.html

For more information on why eBay has ended an auction, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-endauction.html

Future auctions listed that fail to meet our listing guidelines will be ended early and repeated violations may jeopardize your account status. We value you as a member of our community and wish to continue our relationship, so we respectfully ask you to refrain from any violations of the Listing Policies or User Agreement in the future.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department) eBay Inc

We were wondering how it is that this auction was cancelled, and yet other auctions such as the "Virgin Mary On Toast" were allowed to proceed.

The battle for the miracle melt has already caused a furore: when it was first offered last week, bidding was halted at $US22,000 when eBay declared the offer a prank.

The Duysers fought back and offered to prove that they really did have a likeness of the Virgin Mary made out of old melted cheese. Satisfied with the evidence, the website allowed the auction to continue.

Waleg.com 

The toast eventually sold for $28,000.

I would be curious to see what proof eBay accepted that the toast was indeed an authentic likeness of the Virgin Mary. Did the Duyers provide authentication from the "Foremost Grading Authority"?

Or is eBay more comfortable allowing the Virgin Mary to be mocked than Mother Sheehan?

[Sam Hill]

I don't think the Virgin Mary (toast? bread?) was peddled out of disrespect for the religion. On the contrary, they figured it would appeal to somebody devout. I don't think E-Bay intended to make fun.

Er, I don't think so.

[Sam Hill]

Sorry, MP. I misread your post and thought you were talking about the spoon.

Yeah, the toast *might* have been sincere. But the spoon is definitely a put-on.

[BunnySlippers]

Good luck getting to talk to an actual person at ebay.

I just got around this when compaling about a problem with my GE Artica Refrigerator. After going through GE's terminal voice mail for about an hour I called their corporate offices. That did the trick.

I've also used this technique with Amazon.com.

[weegee]

This seems mean spirited:

[weegee]

I couldn't find any phone numbers for dealing with ebay. Rarely any direct email addresses either.

And even when they send you an email, they tell you that responses to that sending address won't reach them.

[weegee]

Is she scaring the cows in Crawford?

[MoochPooch]

You're kidding. THAT was peddled on E-Bay?

(I didn't know about the spoon, by the way. Guess it was in bad taste.)

[weegee]

"I Still Hate George Bush" anti pin button BADGE!

[MizSterious]

Too far away to tell--we're in Oklahoma. I did notice, though, that our cattle give it wide berth. The flies love it though.

[nopardons]

You're famous now! :-)

[rawcatslyentist]

That's nothing
Cindy's image appears every time I use toilet paper! Not that I'm gonna collect them or sell them on ebay, although they do approach some of the quality items to be found there.

Kill A Commie For Mommie
Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes

[Defendingliberty]

How much for the Ball I want it.....

[Defendingliberty]

does anyone have a copy or the origional listing?

[BunnySlippers]

Hmmm ... I work in the stockmarket so the corporate phone numbers are easy to find. But you should also be able to get them from Yahoo Finance.

[BunnySlippers]

I'd say they gave you attribution, indeed.

[Sam Hill]

It's nit-picking, but the source for both the first and then the follow-up stories was Sweetness & Light.

[KJC1]

Love it! Good one. :)

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The link at the top of this post has a copy. They say it got up to $25 before it was yanked. Could have been more.

Ebay caves in to a bunch of libs twisting their panties in angst over someone making fun of one of their gods. Poor babies.

[The Red Zone]

They should set up a Satire section for things like this.