In a statement released by eBay, Inc on June 8th 2007, it has been announced that all pre-sales of the eagerly awaited Apple iPhone will be banned. In their statement, ebay said;

“Apple iPhone Pre-Sales are prohibited. This highly-anticipated device will be in high demand after the US release on June 29th, 2007. Prior to the release of similar high-demand electronics, we saw a high number of well-intentioned sellers unable to meet their pre-sale obligations to buyers due to restricted supply, as well as an increase in fraudulent listings for these items. To prevent similar problems with the iPhone, eBay is prohibiting all pre-sales of this device.

Criteria for Apple iPhone Post-Launch Sales. In order to continue to ensure protection for our Community after these items are made available by the manufacturer, the following requirements have been put in place for the sale of the iPhone:

o The listing must include a unique photograph of the item or items
o Your User ID must be clearly displayed within the photograph (watermarks will not be accepted).
o To ensure buyer protection, PayPal must be the only accepted form of payment

Sellers will also be notified of these requirements during the listing process when using the Sell Your Item form.”

===End of eBay Statement===

Now I gotta admit, I can see why eBay has taken the above steps, after all, no one wants to get shafted on eBay do they? So this is for our protection, right?

Well, yes and no because while it stops the fraudsters shafting us over the latest, must have, electronic thing, it is also preventing the legit eBay sellers who I am sure would have been able to fulfill their pre-sales obligations. It seems the legit eBay seller is stumped again because of the minority fraudsters.

I sympathise with every legit eBay seller who will lose business and sales due to eBay’s latest measures.

But what happens when the iPhone is officially released?

Well, eBay said they have a strict criteria for sellers of the iPhone but are they enough?

Criteria 1) The listing must include a unique photograph of the item or items
How do eBay know it is unique? OK, so if I want a photo of an iPhone so I can do dodgy deals on eBay I’ll just go to my local iPhone dealer, dressed in my nice suit and ask to have a look at one. Then I’ll get the sales assistant to hold the phone while I take a pic of it with my camera phone. ( I can think of ten excuses I could give for wanting to do this).

Criteria 2) Your User ID must be clearly displayed within the photograph (watermarks will not be accepted). Err, OK, is someone gonna throw some light on this and point out to me exactly what they mean? So I get my recently taken photos of the new iPhone and in PhotoShop I simply put my eBay user name on the pic? Is that it? Are you serious? And they call that a restriction? OK, next one?

Criteria 3) To ensure buyer protection, PayPal must be the only accepted form of payment.
How brilliant is that?!?!?! Brilliant if your company actually owns the only payment processor that is being allowed to process the high value payments for these iPhones. Ooh, hang on, didn’t eBay buy PayPal? Ooh now how convenient is that. eBay have just guaranteed that they will get paid when YOU pay for your new iPhone if you buy it from eBay.

I’m sorry, but this is just a joke isn’t it? Please, someone tell me that eBay are just trying to catch up with the Google April Fool Gags. How on earth does any part of the above criteria actually protect anyone on eBay (apart from part 3 which protects eBay’s profits of course).

All this is doing is screwing the legit eBay seller by banning pre-sales and when the phone is released, none of the above criteria does anything to protect you as an eBay buyer but then, I guess we’re all quite used to that by now aren’t we.

But there is one final point here, actually, it’s more of a question really. Maybe you can answer it?

I have a mobile phone website here in the UK at http://pdainsurance.2u.co.uk/ and I am sure I will be able to offer the new Apple iPhone from my website, and on eBay they have a category for “Mobile Phones With a Contract”. Cool, so I think I will list the phone on eBay then. After all, I am a legit eBay seller, I can supply the phone and yep, I’ll even agree to only accept PayPal, so everything is above board then and I should have no problems at all? Right?

Err, well, nope because if I played by the ‘real’ rules, there is no way I would get a photo of the iPhone because I never actually see the phone before it is shipped to the customer but if I did get my hands on it first, I would have to break all the security seals on the box.

Then when the customer receives their new phone, the security seals which say “Do Not Accept if This Seal is Broken”, would obviously be broken so the customer would quite rightly send the phone right back.

So, I’ll sleep better tonight now that I know Uncle eBay is looking after my best interest and is committed to protecting me as both a legit eBay seller and buyer. Whew, that’s OK then……

Michael Sherriff       Help Others to Find This Article, Click Here

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