Featured Native Alaskan fur things

eBay sucks seal waddle !!!

 

Actually, I have no problem with the ban, but I honestly didn't know about it. Wasn't even sure it was real fur when I listed.

The way Ebay implemented their notice really angered me. Here is what happened...

Phone rings, "it's Ebay about one of your listings". At first I thought it was a scam call, but then they referred to the exact listing, so realized it was the real deal. I think in the auction description I wrote: "might be seal skin". Anyway, friendly person on the line, "just letting you know this isn't allowed"... meanwhile I've got the listing open on my computer and I say, "Oh, I'll just end the auction."

"No, no, no! Don't do that. I'll take care of it for you, no trouble." The rep says in a friendly tone.

I should have quickly closed it.

Ebay closes the auction. 5 minutes later I get this 3-strikes-you're-out warning (or something, was a few years ago....) from Ebay. I now have "one violation" of trying to sell endangered species. If I get another, ....blah blah blah.

Like I said, I actually do support a ban like this, but that Ebay rep was kind of a jerk.

 

i didn't know seals were endangered .......

 

In many places they WERE, but have made a comeback. In some places they are still endangered or NOT coming back they way they "should" be, so.................

 

I would assume the native people who make these seal skin items are allowed to kill seals and sell the items they make from the carcass parts....?
So I don't understand what eBay's problem would be.

 

Its the same items from those not legally allowed to make them that is the problem. It is difficult to differentiate while working on the internet, so a blank ban is the easy (and cheapest) way out.............

 

Yes, that it is true. The issue is that it can be difficult to prove that an item was made by a native, and even COAs can be faked; so ebay finds it easier to just not allow any such items.
I've got a bunch of native-made ivory items, many bought on ebay before they tightened their rules, and I've carefully saved the certificates indicating who made them, and that the maker was native.....but I suspect I'll have issues should I try to sell them, whether on or off ebay
(Cross-posted!)

 

And sometimes the fakers are amazingly devious. I've got a link somewhere about a US Fish and Wildlife prosecution in 2004; a criminal ring obtained marine ivory illegally in Alaska, from non-natives; shipped it to Indonesia to be carved into fake "Native" carvings; then shipped the carvings back to Alaska where they could be sold with fake COAs as genuine native work.
They fooled a lot of people, because the carvings were indeed made from genuine marine ivory.
(During the bust the authorities also confiscated over 10,000 small bone carvings, which were not technically contraband. They auctioned these off, and sadly, to this day, one sees those little carvings misrepresented on and off ebay as genuine Eskimo antiquities.)

 

Oh. I guess Billy has a new toy for life.

 

Okay Thank You for that info.

 

It gets pretty boring in the igloo for 6 months of darkness.

 

have you ever seen the inside of an igloo...?