eBay versus "price gouging"
Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 11:07 am
This post is peripheral to postcard collecting but may serve to revive the forum. eBay is using bots to detect "price gouging", which is when vendors seek to capitalise on the pandemic by offering gels, masks etc at inflated prices.
I spent yesterday listing stamps, covers and cards relating to the Warsaw-Berlin-Prague cycle race ("Peace Race") of the 1950s-1970s. All went well, until with one item I got a stern red warning that I was price gouging and should not attempt to list the item again.
In fact it comprised a set of four small folders. When opened out, the right-hand pages had a printed frame that might be interpreted as face-shaped, with two stamps stuck where the eyes might be and a circular postmark for a mouth! It would appear that the bots had thought that this was a human face.
I spent yesterday listing stamps, covers and cards relating to the Warsaw-Berlin-Prague cycle race ("Peace Race") of the 1950s-1970s. All went well, until with one item I got a stern red warning that I was price gouging and should not attempt to list the item again.
In fact it comprised a set of four small folders. When opened out, the right-hand pages had a printed frame that might be interpreted as face-shaped, with two stamps stuck where the eyes might be and a circular postmark for a mouth! It would appear that the bots had thought that this was a human face.