A lot of the bloggers who picked up my auction story predicted that eBay would pull the listing, so I figured I would get away with it as long as I could. Well, as predicted, they pulled the listing last night, citing in no less than four emails and a phone call that there was no item. Which there was (a certificate). Then they said, "Well, you can't express your political opinions on eBay." But you can buy a "Waterboard Liberals" bumper sticker. Then they said I had to go through eBay's own charity program if this was a charitable donation.
So I asked the representative if I could go to the listing and retrieve my information and she said it would be taken down in 2-3 minutes. Perfect. That's definitely plenty of time. So she gave me a generous 5 minutes before she took it down. I log on and go to the link while on the phone and just as I'm telling her "It's gone already," she's hanging up the phone and ignoring me.
So, while I'm scrambling to let my interviews know that this happened, I see commercials with some of my favorite comedians. eBay commercials. Thanks, guys. Not that they'd know about this, but anyway. I guess this is payback for talking about the memory of Michael Jackson on the day he died then listening to the final version of "I'm On a Date," which has such profound lyrics like "Fuck morals, I'm so horny, muthafucka."
Advocate.com covered the story here. So, I'm looking for a new venue. eBay can bite me.
