Ebays rules on selling whisky and wordings to avoid!

[bigears40]

As you maybe aware Ebay are clamping down on sales of whisky and other alcohol related bottle sales.Just recently I had 2 bottles taken off for not complying with their terms and conditions,so decided to contact them first by telephone and then by email to try and clarify what is acceptable and what is not!
Anyway I thought that one or two of you might be interested in what they said and what you need to avoid when you word your listings.
The part what Ebay are clamping down on is the age of the bottle and the collectable containers, this MUST be over 20 years of age and not the age of the contents as the whisky itself should be irrelevant also the bottle seal should still be intact.
You should not mention anything about the whisky itself such as taste ABv etc and don't tell potential buyers to email you if they want to know about the contents answer only questions on the container.
You should also make sure that you list Ebays policy about alcohol related products (just look at somebody elses listing with regards this and copy and paste it to the bottom of your listing) Avoid close up photographs of your item especially the boxing and labels as you may have included the bottling date by accident on the photo!
Go for a shorter Auction time 3 days or 5 days. I listed mine to start in the middle of the night and one eraly morning but this did not appear to make any difference they still got pulled (thought they might be less staff working at these hours)
If you do get it wrong the 1st time and try to re-list it, the chances are that it will be taken down again and you will get a short ban from Ebay, once they take your listing off your account is then flagged and monitored just to see if you do re-list the item.
If you do feel as though you have not breached their conditions email or ring them 1st before re-listing.
Some items do not get removed and other items which may be the same product do not, at the moment it is a matter of luck and also how you have worded the listing.This has caused loads of problems for Ebay as sellers are reporting other sellers but I feel it is a problem they have caused themselves.
The person i spoke to would not say why they have become so strict but while talking to her and asking various questions plus putting 2 + 2 together it sounds as though customs and excise are clamping down on them.
Good luck with any listings you might make but be prepared for your listing to be pulled at any time which is very annoying when you have bids placed on your items.
The only thing that has come good out of all this is that I have found this excellent forum and will be able to offer some whiskys up at more reasonable price on here as I won't have to allow for Ebays 10% commision and other selling fees!
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Enjoy a few drams have collected whisky for a while but need to off load some so I can buy some land for the chickens as my cockerel is a 4am alarm clock that you cant turn off or snooze!

[Quaich1]

Welcome to the site.

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"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[bigears40]

Thank you, do I get a prize for probably having the longest 1st post by a new member
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Enjoy a few drams have collected whisky for a while but need to off load some so I can buy some land for the chickens as my cockerel is a 4am alarm clock that you cant turn off or snooze!

[Quaich1]

[Keith]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the info. I have never sold on ebay (only bought)but have a number of bottles that i will be looking to sell in the future and would probably avoid ebay now. There are are other options that seem good such scotchwhiskyauctions.com

I wonder if what ebay has done will effect sales of the limited releases which quite a few buy to quickly sell on, such as Ardbeg Committee bottlings.

[bifter]

I had a hell of a time trying to sell a bottle recently, I had to list it 3 times. eBay do not publish these stipulations so it is very unfair on sellers. The timing of the new regime seems to have coincided with a press sting where they got a 13 year old kid to buy vodka (whilst glossing over the fact that they supplied the payment method):

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/kids-buy-alcohol-ebay/story?id=17280467#.UNAmWKXQmYE

The half-baked reaction eBay have implemented is not a solution by any stretch of the imagination and shows utter ignorance of what is a collectible item. They don't even seem to care as they didn't respond to my protestations. As bigears40 points out there is a lot of snitching going on too, I had three contacts via the message system from eBay vigilantes trying to pressure me into removing my listing. It's very sad!
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"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]

[albo]

Reading all this, seems like my policy of just drinking everything, it the most simple one, not to mention the tastiest one

[Gregor]

I dont sell on ebay but have bought a couple of bottles but since they changed the listing rules it isnt worth looking on ebay now, just full of miniatures and those whisky stones/ice cube things.

[bigears40]

This sounds very two faced by me as I was trying to sell some whisky on Ebay but I would never buy rare whisky from Ebay.
I tend to have a look on Ebay just to see which whiskys seem to sell well and ones that are struggling a little and if anything unusual pops up. Over the last year though I have noticed that rare empty bottles and containers,limited editions etc are selling more than they used to do.
Now I know that some people collect the tins and the odd person might buy the cardboard container as they may have purchased the bottle only and specifically wanted the box to make it complete but alot of empty bottles are selling and prices are rising for these, it used to be a single bidder that won the auction but not any more multiple bids are being placed by different buyers with their identity remaining private.
Maybe I am a bit too suspicous or paranoid but to me this sets off alarm bells ringing surely it would not be too hard to refill these bottles and have a counterfeit seal made and put back over the cork to make it look genuine, with whisky prices still going up the profit would be massive.
Has anybody come across any counterfeit whisky or heard of this happening?
Or is it me just watching too many daytime programs on counterfeit goods

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Enjoy a few drams have collected whisky for a while but need to off load some so I can buy some land for the chickens as my cockerel is a 4am alarm clock that you cant turn off or snooze!

[Mark]

I have never come across counterfeit whisky but i know it is a problem overseas. This is the reason Diageo are now putting pourers on many of there bottlings of Johnnie Walker, you mave come across it on the Johnnie Walker Double Black. They are annoying to pour your whisky until you get the hang of them but the bottle cannot be refilled and the pourer cannot be removed without damaging it. I think counterfeiting is a major problem in Africa and India.

[TheWM]