Just had this happen to a friend and she sent me a copy of the email.
Dear "blank"
Thank you for your recent auction-style listing. You listed the following item:
Literature 7th Grade SE/TE
Unfortunately, eBay removed your auction-style listing. All fees related to this listing have been credited to your account. We also notified members who placed bids on the item that the listing has been canceled.
The listing was removed because it violated the eBay Teacher's Edition policy. The sale of this item may also be prohibited by law.
Teacher's editions of textbooks and solutions manuals that are intended solely for use by teachers are not permitted by eBay. Teacher's Edition textbooks are often clearly labeled as such but if you have any doubts, you should avoid selling the item on eBay. Teacher's Edition textbooks often have special answer keys, exams, teaching tips, and guides to be solely utilized by the instructors of those courses.
For more information on Teacher's Edition visit the following Help page:
Please note: violation of this or other eBay policies may result in forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings, limits on account privileges and account suspension.
To review eBay's list of Prohibited, Questionable, and Infringing items, please visit:
To learn more about why eBay may remove auction-style listings, please go to:
To review the eBay User Agreement, visit:
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
eBay Trust & Safety
OK, I think they're doing this primarily to keep students from buying copies of the teachers manuals and having the answers. I don't think it's designed to target home schoolers at all. Home schoolers have always been a big clientele of eBay and if you note in the original story, it says they're trying to work something out, I seriously doubt they want to use that revenue. My guess is that some educators have fussed at them and caused them to do this, again to keep kids from getting the answers. And if you think kids aren't resourceful and sneaky enough to do this, you don't know today's kids. I know teenagers who have eBay accounts and buy stuff all the time. And these home school books don't exactly sell for huge prices.
Unfortunately, EBay is the cash-cow on the block, and gets sued by everybody, for everything...
Easier to just ban the sale, than it is spend a million fighting a lawsuit, or millions fighting bad publicity...
If you're looking for someone to blame, try your local TV Ambush reporter...