eBay invites mystic wrath over ban on spells, potions and lotions
The ire of the world's witches, warlocks, and other practicers of the psychic arts will be focused on eBay shortly, after the company banned a range of intangible mystic items from its site. According to the Fall Seller Update, from September "advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic; prayers; blessing services; magic …
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Re: Can anyone tell me
I think you may have Psychics confused with something different, and ever-so-slightly more fantastical...
Re: Can anyone tell me
Why don't you use your carpentry powers to shoot flaming cupboard out of your chisel?
Re: Can anyone tell me
Where were all those psychics on 9/11? You might think that a major event like that would cause *some* disturbance in the force.
Maybe any who saw it coming were sensible enough not to come forward, knowing they would likely be declared a suspect and be disappeared to an overseas prison camp for some extralegal interrogation.
A sensible psychic would just happily win the lottery and then confine their ability to predicting the questions at the next pub quiz.
Re: Can anyone tell me
It was only when the Deathstar blew up a whole planet (with all it's inhabitants) that Alec Guiness noticed a blip.
If such an event is only noticed by jedi Knights, what chance have mere psychics got?
Re: Can anyone tell me
"Why do Psychics need to advertise and use TV?
Surely they can just broadcast their shows telepathically to everyone"
I always thought that if I needed a psychic help line, they should already know and would ring me
I'm still waiting...
Re: Can anyone tell me
That's very interesting. Let me think about that for a moment ;)
Re: Can anyone tell me
Hmmm Death Star, Blew A Whole Planet .... Marilyn Monroe perhaps? ;)
Oh I'm sorry .... :P
Re: Can anyone tell me
But why are the psychics interested in a small but awfully fast German sportscar? ;)
Irony?
I once saw a sign posted outside my local sports centre stating that a clairvoyance show had been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
Almost crashed the car.
What about...
...those stupid pet rocks people sell? I don't see the point in banning one sort of gibberish and letting in other. Just let people sell what they want. If someone wants to buy an "online tarot reading" let them waste their money.
It's not as if eBay has much credibility as a legitimate retail site. It has been said - careful to avoid libel - by some that half the stuff on their auctions "fell off the back of a lorry" anyway, so why don't they ban those 200 pairs of half price Nike trainers that suddenly appeared on the site...
Re: What about...
A pet rock is still a THING. What IS a psychic reading? How do you quantify it for value? How do you measure it?
If i sell you a comic book for two dollars you have actual goods. If sold you a a Mojo Bag, you would still have tangible goods. "albeit silly ones" But If I sold you a "blessing" or a "Curse" or a "psychic reading" I didn't really sell you anything at all.
And I'm still betting eBay was getting demands for PayPal. refunds on sales of psychic reading when they turned out to be just as effective as flipping a coin
Re: What about...
"A pet rock is still a THING. What IS a psychic reading? How do you quantify it for value? How do you measure it?"
So you would never pay to go to the cinema, theater etc? After all, a play isn't a thing. How can you measure or value a play or a film? Not so easy is it? It's not about value, it's about utility. The movie has utility because it brings happiness. If some dopey mouth-breather thinks an online palm reading brings him peace of mind, let him have his fun.
Re: What about...
Well there is a big diffrence between a movie screening and a blessing or a curse.
First of you clearly know what you're buying. A moviegoing experience that will last a certain amount of time. The exact content of the film probably isn't known but that is a part of the agreement.
With a blessing/curse you're not buying the service of someone changting for X minutes and burning Y sticks of incense. You'd buy an actual curse or blessing. A negative or beneficial force acting against or in someone's interest.
Now with a movie you can clearly say in the end 'Yep, I saw a movie'. You can like it or dislike it but it's clear you got what you bought.
But after the chanting is done. How do you know this curse/blessing worked? ( Well you ought to know you threw away your money because magic is just bunk. )
There's no way to measure it, no way to say 'yep that bastard's cursed' and making it stick.
Re: What about...
"But after the chanting is done. How do you know this curse/blessing worked? ( Well you ought to know you threw away your money because magic is just bunk. )
There's no way to measure it, no way to say 'yep that bastard's cursed' and making it stick."
There is no way to measure the "value" of anything. You could go Marxist and support the utterly debunked Labour Theory of Value, or any other belief, but in the end it boils down to it's worth what people are willing to pay. There is no way in hell a pair of jeans is worth 500 pounds, but I've seen them in the shops so someone, somewhere disagrees. Is an iPad worth what you pay for it?
If a product is falsely advertised, e.g. "This curse will definitely kill your enemy!", then of course it's breaching advertising rules. If not then let people waste their money. Besides, how can you call something a "pet" rock? Surely a prerequisite for being a pet is it must be alive. If not, it doesn't fulfill any function that a pet is generally agreed to perform.
Anyway, I don't know why I'm getting worked up over this. I actually don't care. I haven't been on eBay for about 6 years. If they stop selling magic crap, another website will spring up and sell it. I was just feeling argumentative.
Re: What about...
I'd bet pet rocks don't result in tons and tons of refund claims.
Re: What about...
Heard of these things called "tickets"?
OK, I think you might have other legal problems over selling a ticket you no longer want, but they're a tangible physical token that can be exchanged for the experience of the play or film.
Re: What about...
I don't see what's so hard to understand: since it's not possible to even tell if such a service has been performed it is vacuous as to whether or not there is any value to it.
No Big Deal
Just sell the spell in some stylishly decorated paper box.
Re: No Big Deal
Actually, that's precisely how they do it, with "remedies". Like, "Cargo Cult Science" ... you present it with a white labcoat on, make sure the packs look like real medicine, same typefaces, colours and card-paper etc,, and bribe the shops into placing it on the same shelves as real medicine. In an actual chemist shop. And make sure the profit margin is juicy enough for them not to be able to say no. The main clue is that they are usually significantly "overpriced" compared to real things. Plus, the lack of a normal "active ingredients" table printed on the side, no weights in milligrams or micrograms quoted (there isn't anything measurable inside), normally just insane dilutions.
I notice they have taken to putting small amounts of herbal flavours and alcohol in them now, to make them taste more "authentic" and not just like dramatically overpriced lactose filler :P
It's probably the refunds...
eBay probably got sick of bearing the transaction costs of refunds, I'd love to read the reasons for the requests if they exist and look like what I think they might look like, I demand a refund because:-
.. the hex on the barking dog next door didn't work, it still barks, louder if anything.
.. I used the spell to get an attractive man, and now I'm being stalked by a lesbian.
.. I did NOT win the lottery, this elixir of perfect number choosing did not work.
.. despite drinking the wisdom potion my IQ is still 90, I can provide transcripts of my before and after tests.
.. I immersed my dead hard drive in the water of Asmodeus as instructed, it made lots of pops and bangs, and even smoke came out when I plugged it it, so it appeared that it had worked like most magic does, but it still didn't show up when I plugged it into the USB port.
.. the potion of ethereal transport didn't work properly, I'm now stuck in the Argentinian Embassy instead.
Re: ethereal transport
LOL, but didn't you mean the Ecuadorean embassy?
Re: ethereal transport
They should shout thru loudhailers "We need to violate you Mr Assange, this time it's for real!"
Re: ethereal transport
Nah, it alludes to a possible future escape attempt. It was meant to move him to a actual South American country, but instead it shunted him into another South American country's embassy... clearly the potion maker was a bit lazy and put some London tap water in, instead of some water from the North and South Atlantic oceans. He should use this assumption when updating the open dispute in eBay's resolution centre.
What can you buy?
There was this guy called Martin Luther who had something to say about whether you could buy the help of a deity. You don't have to agree with the details of his belief to think he might be right on that point.
I have friends and acquaintance who are witches. They warned me about this sort of thing. According to their belief system, you shouldn't sell your craft. They put something of themselves into a working, and can you really buy a person?
A few years later I was in hospital after a road accident. Spell or prayer, you can use a lot of labels for the good wishes of friends, and I'd do the same for them.
Not everything can be bought or sold in the market. Not every debt we have can be itemised, counted, and precisely repaid.
Re: What can you buy?
Does this mean Martin Luther King was a Lutheran? And why does a coin not get ahead of itself when you roll it along its edge, when the outside is clearly going faster than the inside? ;)
Homeopathy
Still available on eBay, so I guess they're not banning magic for lack of evidence.
Re: Homeopathy
Are there very tiny amounts of stock for sale? I don't need to buy much right? :P
Good!
intangible mystic items from its site = SCAMs
Ebay also needs to tackle the dearth of cheap/dangerous/knockoff/broken goods that litter its site.
>"there are plenty of people who believe in this stuff and are willing to pay for it"
Well, just because you might believe you're buying a bridge in London and be willing to pay for it, doesn't mean that the person claiming to sell it to you is not committing fraud.
As the saying goes...
A fool and his money are soon parted.
The problem in addition to the suckers that "buy" the service want to believe in it, but those who "sell" the product also believe in it (I had a previous girlfriend in that category, now "ex" for good reason!).
Maybe they can sell the services to the CIA (same EX-gf said they paid!). So logically the CIA may be the clearinghouse for such transactions. Now there is a plan!
Well burn the witches at the stakes...... And burn all the books, well digitize the books, oh google is already on the job, but you know what it might be better to run your own webpage/hocus pocus and keep control over your own magic potion to make money, because the web, art and money are doing too many disappearing acts.....
Vanishing Post! Is freshp2
Homeopathy anyone?
There are far more homoeopathic spells<<<<<< remedies on eBay than there are curses, and as homoeopathy is scientifically proven to be just as effective as witchcraft methinks eBay needs to think about double standards.
Re: Homeopathy anyone?
Does this mean that Wichcraft is just as effective as Placebo (and Homeopathy), but with extra naked lustful cavorting outdoors? Dear Lord, I think Boots might have missed a marketing trick there, could they make me up a starter pack with vouchers and so on? Should it go in the "butt-naked and natural" section of the shop? ;)
Does that mean that they will also be banning the Bible, Koran and other esoteric writings?
The Good News Bible and it's ilk aren't so esoteric .... "Little Bobby went to the city. Bobby saw that it was bad, and Bobby was unhappy. "Please Mummy, let there be some smiting!" The smiting was mighty. Bobby was sad. Bobby doesn't go to the city anymore. "it's messy!", he said, loudly."
But..
If magick actually works, why aren't there sorcerer PC/electronics repair shops?
It would seem to be a top seller if you could take your Wiimoted/beer glass damaged/etc ruined flat panel TV to them and have it fixed for less than the cost of a new screen+labour.
The absence of such would suggest that (a) it doesen't work, or (b) it does but not on inanimate objects i.e. placebo effect.
AC/DC Level 78 FixitWarlock :-)
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