Virtual currency ebay bid deletion

[Boomstriker]

Hey there

I'm really glad I found this community and you might help me. First of all I didn't even know that a forum like this exists and that so many people have problems with ebay.

I'm from Germany and I'm selling a virtual currency (Fifa 17 Coins, it's like WOW Gold) on the internet. Usually to big dealers. There is no problem expect they don't pay good. Last december I started to sell the coins with my privat ebay account (founded 2003 and 80 stars (0 neutral and 0 negative rating, 100% positiv)) on ebay and got much more money for the coins (almost double). But soon I got the "famouse" message from ebay.

In connection with the eBay VeRO (Verified Rights Owner) program the trademark owner (ESA - Entertainment Software Association / MarketTrack), caused that my bids were instantly removed and ebay gave me a warning to not do this again. I did it again since there are many coin bids of other sellers on ebay and there are about 3-4 big sellers that never get removed. Here are the bids that never get removed:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/FIFA-17-FUT-U...UAAOSwnbZYFmL5

http://www.ebay.de/itm/FIFA-17-FUT-U...AAAOSwNnRYk0J2

http://www.ebay.de/itm/FIFA-17-Ultim...wAAOSwB-1Ym9Z8

The next time I got the warning again, then a 7 day selling stop. At this point I created a new ebay business account to try again since I thought that this could be the reason of all the trouble. With this account again they removed my bids and after some other tries the account has a 7 day selling stop now too. Then I used my privat account again. This one got permanently banned but luckily after an angry email in which I said that I'm on ebay since 2003 and don't try to sell coins anymore ebay unbanned the account.

I contacted a lawyer to consult me and he said that it is not illegal to sell the coins in Germany and the trademark owner doesn't have any right to remove my bids. But he further said that I can't do much about it. Sometimes the big trademark owner remove bids because they just don't like the items beeing sold. They don't care if they have the right to do that. They just do. My lawyer said the only solution would be a big and expensive court proceeding. Without certainty that the trademark owner cares for a German judgement.

I contacted the other big sellers on ebay and asked them what they do that ebay does not remove their bids. They told me they don't know and they are probably just lucky. One of them told me that he got the same warning emails from ebay but just kept going and it stopped. Very seldom he gets something removed but very very seldom he said.

I really don't understand why the big seller's bids don't and my bids always get removed. My bid, the text and the picture are similar and almost exactly the same.

I know it's a long text I wrote here but maybe someone knows how to solve my problems. I'm almost giving up hope but now I'm really glad that I found this forum (after searching for ebay accounts with high and good rating to buy). Also I saw that Aspkin (the forum founder I guess) had the same problem with WOW gold.

Best wishes and thanks for your help in advance

[Boomstriker]

Is there no one that can help me?

[muzzie]

The item you are trying to sell is considered high-risk (all virtual items are high-risk, as easily can be used for scams), and also falls under VeRO. If TM owner decides that they don't want you to sell item with their brand on it - they can legally shut you down and you can't do anything about it. eBay will not side with you, as you are very small seller, so they will not spend time analyzing your situation in details. The only way to sell vero-related items safely is to get a written permission from the brand owner, otherwise you will be banned over and over, as some brands are VERY eager in means of removing their trademarked items from ebay. You should either change the item you sell, or create MANY accounts and spread sales over them, and some accounts will survive the purge.

[Boomstriker]

Thank you for your answer And the accounts I need to be stealth? How can some of them survive? Doesn't the TM holder just remove every bid?

[Boomstriker]

Do you think I should buy the Stealth Book? Or doesn't it make sense in my case?

[MM78]

The problem might be that your account may be new or does not have enough good feedback.