Ebay now removing E cigs.

[sherid]

On a search for e cigarette, I get 518 listings e cigarette, Health Beauty, Electronics items on eBay.com
Liquid nicotine liquid nicotine, Health Beauty items on eBay.com
E smoking e smoking, Health Beauty, Collectibles items on eBay.com
tobacco tobacco alternative, Health Beauty items on eBay.com
Smoking smoking, Collectibles, Health Beauty items on eBay.com

Can it be that the message itself is a hoax like the ones you get from PayPal?

 

[Keef]

I think someone reported your listing.

Could even be another seller they are the most likely culprits.

No one checked your listing its automated, puter just looks at the listing for key words of banned items.

Don`t mention tobacco cigarette or smoking .

 

[Lithium1330]

everything is in the words... if from the beginning this products had been comercialized as "personal vaporizers" then eBay and google had not been able to ban them, they had had to prove it is a tobacco product, but if you are including "smoke", "cigarette" and that things in the ad, well... pretty easy to ban it, of course with another name this devices had not had so successful to sell, now you have to prove it is not a tobacco product...

 

[sherid]

Take away the listing number and search Electronic Cigarette E-LIQUID and you get Electronic Cigarette E-LIQUID, Health Beauty, wii items on eBay.com
Look at the three reasons for removing the listing. Maybe it is about the seller rather than the product.

 

[sherid]

Don`t mention Tobacco cigarette or smoking .

But if you do use tobacco, cigarette, or smoking in the Ebay search, you still get electronic cigarette listings. So, before the panic, consider that something else is going on cause it just might be.

 

[Keef]

If I go on ebay and report any e-cig as a banned item the ebay automated system will scan the text in the auction for key words.

If it finds them then it pulls your listing and it informs you of the rules.

No one looks at your listing .

You need to get a hold of ebay and clear this up.

If you keep listing with the words Tobacco & Cigarette and whoever it is keeps reporting you will get banned.

 

[ZambucaLu]

If you look at "item specifics", they say smoking cessation and vaporizer, etc. I did not look at each item but the few I did said the same thing. Smoking cessation.

Lu

 

[OutWest]

^ that's exactly it. Nobody looked. And, even when someone does, they often get it wrong.

It was reported by some anti-smoking nazi or by a competitor, one of the two.

 

[OutWest]

regarding the juice recipes - ebay banned digitally delivered goods such as recipes quite a bit ago. The only way you can sell recipes and such is to send them snail mail (and to make it clear in the listing that they will be sent in the mail).

 

[rsmith76]

I won 2 auctions on ebay for the DSE 901b model. Shortly after I paid for my item, ebay sent me a e-mail telling me that the auctions had to be pulled. The auctions even dissappeared from my "won" folder. My payment, however was not refunded. I contated the seller as to the status. His reply was that ebay does this occasionaly, but he didn't know why. He assured me that my items would be shipped in a timely manner. We shall see. Maybe for $57.00, I got a bargain, and maybe I didn't. Not sure I would repeat this in the future. His ad states a 1 yr. warranty, lol. Hope this helps a few folks make a good decision.

rsmith76

 

[nitewriter]

I'm with Lithium.

I think you should re-list it as a "personal vaporizer" and leave out the words "smoking" and "cigarette".

Personally I believe we need to eliminate those words from our vocabulary. It only attracts unwanted attention because of direct correlations to analogs. Lacyunderall has already started putting that name on her new boxes and I think it's a very wise move.

 

[BiscuitSlayer]

I'm with Lithium.

I think you should re-list it as a "personal vaporizer" and leave out the words "smoking" and "cigarette".

Personally I believe we need to eliminate those words from our vocabulary. It only attracts unwanted attention because of direct correlations to analogs. Lacyunderall has already started putting that name on her new boxes and I think it's a very wise move.

Thats a good idea in theory, but how many people do you think are going to be looking for personal vaporizer when they are really looking for an electronic cigarette?

I know I would never find his listing because I wouldn't be looking for it.

 

[nitewriter]

I think the biggest mistake made with our little devices was marketing them as anything in relation to analogs. An automatic attraction to every "anti" who comes accross them.

 

[BiscuitSlayer]

If they hadn't marketed them the way that they did, would you have ever known about them?

I remember seeing one of the first reports on cnn.com about the newest technology from china. It was a video showing what they were and how they worked. At the time, they said that they cost upwards of $300 and that the technology wasn't in the US yet. I thought to myself, "Wow, thats pretty cool! I can't wait until the prices come down and they are available in the US." The next time I saw them was in a mall kiosk, but again they were too expensive for my tastes and I like to research things before I buy.

If it hadn't been for that mall kiosk, I never would have looked into "electronic cigarettes". Like it or not, that is really the only way to market these devices. While you can add catchy terms like personal vaporizers, or what have you to the terminology, the term "electronic cigarettes" is what people are looking for when they are ready to buy. If companies are forced to change to phrases like "personal vaporizers" the only way people will really know what to search for is through forums like these and other marketing where there is a clear relationship with electronic cigarettes and personal vaporizers.

Your average Joe looking for a personal vaporizer isn't going to look for one or find one unless it is associated with an electronic cigarette or e-cig.

The anti smokers are going to be against it no matter what it is called at this point. They, IMO, are not the ones to be worried about. While they might be a pain in the rear and bad publicity for what we do, the government is what can make or break us. If anything, I think that these devices or the practice of inhaling vaporized flavored nicotine should be associated with tobacco. The FDA doesn't have control over tobacco... yet.

 

[Lithium1330]

Mmm just think about it.. what if... in that cnn.com report they were calling it "personal vaporizers" if you are looking at them and you see it looks like a cigarette, it functions like a cigarette, what would you think? well I would thinking "oh, that is a cigarette but without smoke? nice! what was the name agian? personal vaporizer? cool, i'm gonna look for it on the net" of course an anti will always complain but at least you have the defense of: "this is not a freaking cigarette, it is a personal vaporizer! didn't you see it on cnn.com? it is a personal vaporizer" or what ever name you want to call them, but CIGARETTE was the worst idea ever.

 

[Sun Vaporer]

Your average Joe looking for a personal vaporizer isn't going to look for one or find one unless it is associated with an electronic cigarette or e-cig.

The anti smokers are going to be against it no matter what it is called at this point. They, IMO, are not the ones to be worried about. While they might be a pain in the rear and bad publicity for what we do, the government is what can make or break us.

BiscuitSlayer, you are right on point here--and the "reformed smokers" I find the worst. It was ok when they did it--but now--"How Dare you"--nothing like a reformed smoker in your face--makes for a great conversation--Sun

 

[Cuando]

I vote NicStic.



And Biscuit is right. Each and every supplier/vendor of these things needs to take the utmost care in how they market e-cigs. I'm an optimist, but part of me is just afraid somebody out there is going to give these things a negative image and take the whole party down with them.

 

[Lithium1330]

Cuando are you been sarcastic?: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-e-smoking-discussion/6001-jon-safe-cig-again.html

 

[nitewriter]

I just think its a shame such a great product has an instant association with tobacco. It has created a rough road ahead for us all. Ebay and Google are just the beginning.

I believe most (if not all) of it could have been avoided with a little different marketing strategy initially.

What if we are eventually faced with the ultimatum to change our terminology or be govt. controlled? Which would be easier then? Could we avoid that control by developing a new term? The govt is not controlling the current "vaporizers" that are used for "herb." They only care about ours because they contain the word "cigarette" otherwise they would not consider them a tobacco product.

I know there are those who will disagree with me, and say it's too late. That's ok, we can agree to disagree. This is just my 2c.

 

[BiscuitSlayer]

What if we are eventually faced with the ultimatum to change our terminology or be govt. controlled? Which would be easier then? Could we avoid that control by developing a new term? The govt is not controlling the current "vaporizers" that are used for "herb." They only care about ours because they contain the word "cigarette" otherwise they would not consider them a tobacco product.

nitewriter -

I agree with some of what you are saying, but I disagree on some other points.

Ebay is having a problem (so it seems) with the use of cigarette in the listings. I think that they are concerned of the legal ramifications of the electronic cigarettes / liquid nicotine getting into the hands of minors where the date of birth was not checked. Look at it from their perspective: They don't want to get sued, especially with listings that seem to violate their policy.

If that was my business, I would probably do exactly the same thing. If the terminoligy changed to personal vaporizers and totally distanced itself from smoking or tobacco, I might allow it. Then again, I might not. Based on the emails that were received from ebay, it sounds pretty clear that they are trying to stick to their own rules and acceptable usage policies rather than speaking on the behlaf of the government. As a private business, they have every right to do so. They can also amend their policy to ban the sale of anything related to nicotine. That would make the most sense to me. Based on their AUP, there is a loophole since these devices are not classified as a tobacco product.... yet.

The best future that I see for these products are to become tobacco related. If they are anything else where nicotine is ingested, then the FDA gets involved and its all over. There is no fighting the FDA. They are a government agency that has already been given the power to do as they see fit.

It is like the nicotine water that was banned from 2002 to 2007. The only reason it was allowed to be sold legally in the US in 2007 is because it called itself a tobacco product. The FDA doesn't have any control over tobacco... yet. I don't think that the FDA should ever have any power over the tobacco industry because it is a conflict of interest. How can you promote/endorse smoking cessation and regulate tobacco sales.

If these devices fall into the "tobacco products" realm, then the regulation is fairly loose. The taxation on the other hand would probably be through the roof, but thats another story. The only other category that they can fall into is a drug (specifically liquid nicotine), and that falls under the FDA. If it goes under the FDA, kiss your kissbox goodbye.