Love life, love eBay...

**Mark the Res** · 04-06-2008, 11:24 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7412671.stm

**john stapleton** · 04-06-2008, 11:37 AM

Nothing to do with ebay, surely. Just Universal being twats, as is standard.

**Mark the Res** · 04-06-2008, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by john stapleton

Nothing to do with ebay, surely. Just Universal being twats, as is standard.

Ebay are threatening to ban ALL promotional items from their listings - THINK ABOUT IT!!!

Copyright infringement is currently a BIG thing in the USA - if the test case goes badly, a precedent has been set and then the walls will start tumbling down...

Nothing to do with eBay???? That's like saying drinking stout is nothing to with Guinness...

MRez

**john stapleton** · 04-06-2008, 11:44 AM

I can't stand Guinness or stout, so can't comment there!

**bongolia** · 04-06-2008, 11:48 AM

already had a fair few promo 45s over the years with the 'not for sale' marker-penned out. guess on old stuff, people will just change the terms they use, as they say in the article, no one at the record companies seem to care about old promos...

i prefer US issues over promos anyway!

**Mark the Res** · 04-06-2008, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by bongolia

already had a fair few promo 45s over the years with the 'not for sale' marker-penned out. guess on old stuff, people will just change the terms they use, as they say in the article, no one at the record companies seem to care about old promos...

i prefer US issues over promos anyway!

All of this just adds to the extra aggro / hassle / time spent trying to stay within ebay's terms of trading though, doesn't it?

Think what it will mean for the DVD / CD market too - about half of that market is/was based around sales of promos / freebies - lotta work involved trying to hide the fact that a promo is a promo in any genre, right? Maybe the whole market will change and once valuable promo copies will become relatively worthless cos eBay have banned em - what about that for a concept? The mind boggles...

MRez

**vinylism** · 04-06-2008, 12:15 PM

it's been common practice for labels like universal to have 'promotional' items removed from eBay for years (i think it's even in eBay's T&C's).

maybe universal are just trying to set a precedent to avoid having to look for / remove individual listings. even so, it's not rocketscience to avoid using the exact word 'promotional' in the listing description.

**eric-adams** · 04-06-2008, 12:18 PM

why would you want a promo anyway?

**bongolia** · 04-06-2008, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by Mark the Res

All of this just adds to the extra aggro / hassle / time spent trying to stay within ebay's terms of trading though, doesn't it?

oh definitely, and it depends how hard they're going to search for stuff (or even if idiots will report items). will 'WLP' be a safe term to use, for example...?

**bongolia** · 04-06-2008, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by eric-adams

why would you want a promo anyway?

why not? it's just the same record, except with a stamp or sticker on the sleeve (for LPs) or a simpler, white label for 45s (*).
plus a fair amount of US stuff that flopped upon release is more common as a promo, or never even made it past promo stage.
look at your LPs, i bet you have a few with a small 'Not For Sale' stamp on the back cover or something...

* - or a fancy lurid 'Big A' label for UK 45s, where labels seemed to get things the wrong way round - dull as ditchwater labels for the punters, barring the odd exception, crazy labels for the radio deejays and pluggers

**Mark the Res** · 04-06-2008, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by vinylism

it's been common practice for labels like universal to have 'promotional' items removed from eBay for years (i think it's even in eBay's T&C's).

maybe universal are just trying to set a precedent to avoid having to look for / remove individual listings. even so, it's not rocketscience to avoid using the exact word 'promotional' in the listing description.

May become a field day for grasses and spoliers - I can just see people who are in direct competition with one another contacting ebay and spilling the beans when a rival lists a promo or other sundry 'banned' item - it will become a complete bun fight - especially in the States where it seems anything goes...gloves off...

Oh dear...

**Old School Tramp** · 04-06-2008, 12:29 PM

It's a bit like some of the music library companies, I put a bunch of Sonoton LP's on Ebay, & a fella from the publishing company mailed me to say they belonged to them...what a peachy job he's got...trawling Ebay for their crappy LP's

**eric-adams** · 04-06-2008, 12:29 PM

just dont put the word promo in and itll be fine.
your not meant to sell dodgy copied dvds but there still 1000s of them on there everyday.

**bongolia** · 04-06-2008, 12:30 PM

discogs looks ever more appealing...

**babycart** · 04-06-2008, 12:30 PM

Wasn't there something like this with library records? I recall a thread way back that revealed that it was illegal to sell them on or some such.

**john stapleton** · 04-06-2008, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by Old School Tramp

It's a bit like some of the music library companies, I put a bunch of Sonoton LP's on Ebay, & a fella from the publishing company mailed me to say they belonged to them...what a peachy job he's got...trawling Ebay for their crappy LP's

I hope you agreed to send them back.

**bongolia** · 04-06-2008, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by Old School Tramp

It's a bit like some of the music library companies, I put a bunch of Sonoton LP's on Ebay, & a fella from the publishing company mailed me to say they belonged to them...what a peachy job he's got...trawling Ebay for their crappy LP's

library LPs are arguably a bit different, since they were 'loaned' out, whereas promo copies were sent out to radio stations, distributors, etc whether they asked for them or not! since the person receiving them then had to look after and store them at their own expense it's a bit rich to then still claim ownership!