Thanks to the miracle of multiple windows, I was writing an eBay auction listing to get rid of some of my old homeschool manuals from last year when EV Reader Marky sent me this link:
A new policy by Internet trading behemoth eBay that bans homeschool teachers’ texts from its auctions is prompting a tirade of complaints from the company’s faithful customers. [...]
The policy, which is inclusive of all teachers’ texts, was made known recently as those who were auctioning various books watched as their postings were deleted. [...]
“As you may know, eBay does not permit items that are illegal, dangerous, offensive, or potentially infringing. Additionally, eBay has just recently made the decision to prohibit the sale of Teacher’s Editions of textbooks and solutions manuals that are intended solely for use by teachers. Since eBay strives to be a level-playing field, all Teacher’s Edition textbooks, manuals and guides will be covered under this policy. Unfortunately, home schooling Teacher’s Editions are not exempt from this policy and this policy will apply to all grade levels.”
The company continued that those products often contain “special answer keys, exams, teaching tips, and guides.”
And, it noted, “multiple organizations and publishers have voiced their concern to us over such books that may only be purchased through educational institutions by teachers.”
Of course, eBay — a company whose stock has been taking a beating recently, particularly after it unexpectedly upped its listing fees — is trying to look as if it hasn’t turned a deaf ear to its consumer base. The company says they’re open to suggestions left at this URL.
So I cancelled the auction I’d planned to list tonight and quickly left eBay a “suggestion” of what they can do with this new policy. Then I went and left an open order to sell my measley 3 shares in eBay tomorrow. Three shares isn’t enough to make a dent in their pocketbook, but at least it’ll make up for the lost auction revenue. At least now I can afford my next martini.
Sunday, August 27th, 2006, 7:47 pm | 
Education Bites, Idiots Bite, My Venomous Life | 
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August 27, 2006 at 11:30 pm
I just dropped Expat Daughter off for University, where she promptly attended the first day of class and then was told to go out and buy books. $500 later, she had books for 5 classes. Books, which she will be able to re-sell to the school for maybe $20 each…which they turn and re-sell again for $100.
Textbook resale is one of the biggest scams out there…and its a damn shame that you can’t be a part of it! heh.
Kate, what may sound as an absurd policy, sounds like an opportunity to me. How much of a call is there to re-sell this type of product? Why not start your own ‘e-textbook-resale’?