Sunday, March 17, 2013

Important-Seller Update! All Meta Sellers Invited To New FB Group

 TO ALL METAPHYSICAL SELLERS :

We have stopped making posts here and have formed a private Facebook group so selling issues and moving our community forward can be discussed freely and privately. Though this blog was not submitted to the search engines it now shows up and many of us feel uncomfortable talking freely here.

Please request to join the group. You will be asked to give a link to your site/sites so we can verify you are a seller. ALL SELLERS WELCOME! 

We discuss and share many issues, help one another with new selling venues, etc....

This is the SELLER ONLY closed group URL  https://www.facebook.com/groups/489386171114598/?ref=ts&fref=ts

It is named Metaphysical Seller Support & Info

Buyers AND Sellers are invited to the open group below--
 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

MANY New Updates Coming!

There have been no posts in a while and for that I apologize but look for many updates coming in the next couple of days. 

Including:
Hints on how to use eBay now that their intentions are more clear. This will be a big post on what is working and not working for others and how to maintain an eBay presence.

Reviews on other selling sites and venues. EBid at first recommended has now banned Spells and other magickal items too-following eBay.

Community efforts to inform our buyers where we all are selling and more. Several sellers are and have been doing 'community emails' with links to everyone's new sites and venues**. Special group sales like the September Blitz campaign that JinnandTonics organized and many of us joined in. Creepy Hollows has their upcoming 'Parastock' gathering coming up.

Look for posts on all these things and more.

**Any of you who have links or banners for the current community email campaign can email here to ebaymetaphysical@gmail.com or to anewgoldendawn@gmail.com

Any suggestions you have for ways to work around eBay's ban may also be emailed or posted below. If we all work together we can grow a new dynamic marketplace like eBay's metaphysical category again.

UPDATE-----

 

Important-Seller Update! All Meta Sellers Invited To New FB Group

 TO ALL METAPHYSICAL SELLERS :

We have stopped making posts here and have formed a private Facebook group so selling issues and moving our community forward can be discussed freely and privately. Though this blog was not submitted to the search engines it now shows up and many of us feel uncomfortable talking freely here.

Please request to join the group. You will be asked to give a link to your site/sites so we can verify you are a seller. ALL SELLERS WELCOME! 

We discuss and share many issues, help one another with new selling venues, etc....

This is the SELLER ONLY closed group URL  https://www.facebook.com/groups/489386171114598/?ref=ts&fref=ts

It is named Metaphysical Seller Support & Info

Buyers AND Sellers are invited to the open group below--
 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

After Banning Day-Where do we go from here?

I know there has been no update here for a while but that was partially because many updates were in comments plus many of us have been communicating privately by email. I realize now that many sellers are not in that email chain and are feeling alone and confused, angry and disgusted-or to speak plain-JUST PLAIN P*SSED OFF!

So-the 'Day' has come and gone and the worst has happened! Ebay as some of us feared all along, has decided that NO spirited or spelled items are to be allowed.

This is in direct conflict with what many of you have been told by different CS reps all month but as I warned-NEVER believe what a CS Rep tells you because many of them know less about eBay policy than many of us.

Many of you have had listings pulled, some of you have voluntarily removed your listings to avoid policy violations and yes, some of you still have listings going. But not for long the way things look.

Ebay is removing several hundred to several thousand a day. They are not just mass 'slaughtering' us but are taking their time. My best guess is that they are running keyword scans and then checking and pulling the results.
The emails being received are mostly canned responses though I have seen a bit of differences between several sent me.
The main body though says this and some sellers are getting the added portion in red at the bottom---


Unfortunately, we had to remove your listing because of the following:

You listed an item which is “haunted” and/or includes a spell which intangible magical effects. 

eBay has made the decision to no longer allow items with intangible attributes – such as haunted items or those which have had spells cast upon them. This is why we removed the category that these items were once listed in. 

As such, we ask that you do not relist these items. 

You can sell items which are used in spells such as sage or athames; however, the items you sell cannot include any promises of intangible attributes such as wealth, love, or any other "spell" effects.

The purpose of the eBay Web site is to enable members to buy and sell items from each other. Listings that do not offer an item for sale through the site, or that are designed for any other purpose, are not permitted. For example, listings for invisible or intangible items are not permitted. Buyers should be able to verify the existence of an item they bought when they receive it. 

For more information on this eBay policy, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-no-item.html

Important: The next time you sell, you may be asked to take a tutorial. Once you've completed the tutorial successfully, please review your account status for any other possible concerns. If there are no other issues, you should be able to sell again.


Please note: violation of this or other eBay policies may result in forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings, limits on account privileges and account suspension.

Your listing(s) may be eligible for relisting through My eBay. If your listing is eligible, you will see the listing in your Unsold Items page within My eBay. Listings that are not eligible for relisting will not be visible in the Unsold Items page. 

To relist your item, sign in to eBay, go to My eBay to your Unsold items, and select the item that was canceled -- it's highlighted with a yellow banner. Before relisting, please make any changes necessary to ensure that your revised listing is in compliance with the law and eBay policies. You might want to check your other listings for similar violations as well.

You can review our listing removal policies and seller rules by clicking the links at the end of this email.

Make sure your future listings follow these guidelines. If they don't, they may be removed, and you may be subject to a range of other actions, including restrictions of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account.

We appreciate your understanding.

If you have any more questions, contact our policy experts. Get started by clicking the link below.
http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS&Query=1387&Domain=Homer_EOA&From=163949

Thanks,

eBay


So this pretty much tells us that all the CS reps, the ebay spokesperson and the person from the president's office who said certain intangible attributes were allowed as long as no excessive value was put on them, were lying through their teeth or just ignorant of eBay's real policy--or both!

I see these statements above as the 'death knell' for ALL things metaphysical. I'm sure Crystal Healing/Energy will be the next to go. If a buyer gets a piece of jewelry with a spell or spirit and can't "verify the existence of an item they bought when they receive it" then how does that work with a crystal and it's 'intangible' energy attributes?

Now we have to adapt or move on. Ebay is NOT going to allow any spells or spirit bound items anymore. You can try and get by like many of you have, moving to other categories, offering the energy attachment for free, changing the wording to use alternate terms, etc.... but that is only going to buy you a few days at most and possibly a suspension if eBay gets tired of the 'game'. Plus there are always those few eager to turn you in for violating policy.

Many of us have moved to other venues. Some to our own websites, others to one of the many 'meta' marketing sites popping up. Some are on Bonanza, some on Etsy, some on Artfire, etc.... Sadly a lot of splintering going on. We need ONE good site with lots of traffic of both meta buyers and others too. Some vote for eBid, some Bonanza, etc... no real consensus yet.

The bottom line is that your sales will not be as good as on eBay for a long time, if ever, and you must work to build a business and pull in your clientele all over again.

Am I being negative yes, but in my defense I'm tired. Tired of eBay and their lies, tired of the press belittling us, tired of working 18 hour plus days to redo all over again our business from virtual scratch, tired and angry enough to take that athame and sage bundle eBay says I can 'legally' sell, and use one to poke the idiot execs who thought up this ban in the eye and shove the other one up their ignorant behinds. Which item goes where is still up in the air but I guarantee you I'd light the sage bundle first no matter where I was going to use it!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

IMPORTANT! EVERYONE PLEASE READ!

Many of us are planning on sharing our Mailing Lists. It benefits us all! Please email to be included.

FROM JINNANDTONICS
Greetings,

We have started the email marketing process to alert our buyers of the ebay changes, we have included as many of your site links as we could locate, if you did not submit yours to us and want to be included please contact us at jinnandtonics@yahoo.com

Furthermore, we have included the most popular eCommerce sites that everyone seems to be going towards. The professional marketing company we are using will collect the buyer click through rates giving us some indication of which sites the buyers are interested in going to. We are more than happy to publicly post these reports on the blog to share the data with you. This will help you see which stores are getting the buyers traffic. As we do these marketing plans over the next six weeks you should experience an increase of buyers to your locations, since we will continue to help push buyers to all the sellers without discrimination. If you are not sharing your urls links you may be missing out on free help from the community to boost your sales.

If you prefer to do your own marketing, not a problem, just a recommendation, we are using the online company Vertical Response.

If you have any questions feel free to contact us. Blessings
Tiffany

SEE SAMPLE AT BOTTOM of page---


Greetings All,

(Thank you for the offer, but we are NOT accepting donations, we want this to be a community service and we are volunteering, there is no motive here other than it is the ethical thing to do for the survival of us all).

I'm happy to help. Just a note, our mailing  list of 2,000 is generating some traffic to everyone's links, even though it has been less than 24hrs. It is not an instant result, marketing is a process that builds upon itself, so if you don't notice any changes yet, do not panic. We have only just begun. I wanted to offer some basics about how it works to those who may not be heavily involved in marketing. 

Giants like Google, Yahoo, and Bing have software to block spam from people's mail. They do this automatically, without you knowing to protect you. However, this means we must establish our sending from email addy as "approved" so these sites let our newsletters and messages through. 

There are a few things that make this happen. Send emails that ask the client to reply to you. (if they reply its a green light for your mail to get through)  Not hitting your limits on sending out mail. Not sending too large of lists all at once in the same email. Sending to email addresses that you have a history of communicating with. For your mail contacts this will not be an issue.

Note: if you are forwarding our newsletter and clients are replying with "meta offer" separate those contacts email addresses or move the replies to a separate folder, these are buyers of yours who actively want to buy from you at the sales scheduled from Aug 30th through Sept. This is important to forward communication about your sales specifically to them.

However, many of you have clients that purchased through paypal, and messaged you though ebay, but never contacted you through your mail server address (gmail, hotmail, or other). We can still access these customers because we have a history with them so it does not violate the spam laws. However, you need to get these address out of your paypal account (link with instructions: http://www.clovercitysells.com/ebook/csv-export.pdf  ) then you need to mail these customers. Because they are not in your email contact lists, if you send these people emails along with lots of others at the same time, you can trigger the Gmail, Bing, and Yahoo spam filters. This means the messages you are sending and all the effort you are giving is never being seen. These emails go straight to spam.

If you are not sure if your clients are getting your mail, we highly recommend you consider using an online email marketing program for your lists. Its fairly easy, not too expensive, and gives you info in return to tell you if the mail is received and opened, are they clicking your link to the store, and how many are unopened. Many times the time of day and day of the week effects the outcome. If your message hits their box at peak hours for marketing campaigns, it gets buried, they never see it, it never gets opened. These online programs can group your lists into sections to easily resend it to the ones not opened for a second chance. (WE WILL BE DO THIS WITH THE LATE SELLER LINK ADDITIONS) This allows yours links to be seen asap. We will also include them in future mailings.

Here is the link to the company we are using, free to sign up and 100 free mail sends, lots of video tutorials and good support team. If you sign up under this referral you get 500 free sent emails, and we get $40 in email sends as well. Which we will use to push more traffic to your sites. LINK: http://bit.ly/NW7FIU.

If you do not have the time or do not want to do your own lists, we are happy to keep sending out promos to get your store links out there which you can forward, just try to use the forward to a friend link to avoid getting your own email address blocked as a spammer. 

If you want us to send your lists, we will do that too we will send it in a separate mailing, with your store name as the from address so your clients know it is from you, (we will not use your lists ever in the future for our own mailings... We would be considered a third party and it would be a spam violation, without your buyer's permission. NOT WORTH IT) We are not experts at this, we just researched it. But, we are working diligently to get the traffic pushed towards your stores. The more lists that get notified the better. If you do not want to share your lists due to privacy, we are absolutely ok with that too. We will be happy to work with anyone who needs help in what ever way you want to do that. This is only about getting the community traffic off ebay and back on you. We are trying our bests to be as open and transparent as possible here.

We have attached the reports of our email newsletter traffic, so you can see the results. The graph shows a little over half are still unopened. It also shows a high click through rate, this means many people who opened it are clicking the links. So, it is effectively getting them to your stores. This will increase as we engage the buyers with more incentives to go to your stores, like Big Sales. We are very open to your suggestions, and input. Especially regarding the blitz sales, what do you want to offer the buyers, and when? If you see any gaps in our efforts or ways we can improve please speak up, this is about helping us all. Please contact us if you have any questions. Blessings, Tiffany
Screen Shot Ebay Ban 1st Alert 8-21-12.jpgScreen Shot Ebay Ban 1st Alert 8-21-12.jpg
252K   View   Share   Download  





BELOW IS A FIRST DRAFT SAMPLE-------




Jinnandtonics
 (THIS IS A DRAFT EMAIL) Please review and test links for edit or approval contact jinnandtonics@yahoo.com before  August 20, 2012
Ebay to Ban Magick on Aug. 30th 
How to Locate Sellers
grey_box_top.gif
Ebay Fall Seller Updates for 2012 will be going into effect on Aug. 30th:
Items that will be prohibited include: advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic services; prayers; blessings; Psychic, Tarot, Reiki, and other metaphysical readings & services; magic potions; healing sessions; work from home businesses & information; wholesale lists, and drop ship lists. 

Discontinued categories:
  • Metaphysical: Psychic, Paranormal > Readings
  • Metaphysical: Psychic, Paranormal > Spells, Potions
  • Metaphysical: Tarot Readings

You will no longer be able to purchase your metaphysical items from many of your favorite sellers on ebay. Violations of the ebay policy can result in seller account suspension or termination. For this reason many sellers are forced to change their item descriptions to not include the prohibited items or references to their intangible properties. 

This means sellers on ebay can no longer sell you items with spells, spirits, or powers. Although ebay has not banned other mainstream religious items, it will no longer allow:

NO Djinn, NO Demon, NO Dragon, not even a tiny fairy.

Some see this as religious discrimination. The issues have stirred the community and have been reported by many national news sites. There is a petition to stop ebay from banning the psychics. You can support your favorite sellers by signing the petition anonymously.

Sign the Petition
If you are outraged by this discrimination and want to help you can find more info here: Ebay Ban Blog
grey_box_bottom.gif
Don't Worry... We will not disappear!

We will not be invisible!The current focus is on getting our items, which you love, to a safe place where you can find them. We understand it can be unsettling to experience sudden changes. However, we want you to feel assured we are all still here for you. You can rely on our strength and know that you will continue to experience the same dedicated customer services you have come to love. We are all very excited for these transformations are bringing great blessings. Look forward to finding us in our new locations and with great anticipation believe that great things are on their way!

How To Find Your Sellers

Due to the short notice from ebay on these changes, many sellers are coming together in the true spirit of unity to help each other move to new sites. Some sellers are moving to other online markets. Many are building their own sites.  Ultimately unity is important as the community is expanding to be available to you in the place you may already be online. We are all working to create a future where you can enjoy shopping with us and continue to build the community support. Currently you can locate many sellers here:


Etsy - Big Metaphysical Selection  

Bonanza - Everything but the Ordinary

eBid - Auction Format and Stores - similar to ebay

ArtFire - The Arts of Magick

CH Market Place - Many Great Sellers Here

eCrater - Great place to visit

Amazon - Great books and Items

Haunted Shoppe - Great place - open to sharing with other sellers


Check these sites often as sellers continue to move into their new stores.

Check Out These Seller's Stores

TO EBAY - With all sincerity: Thank you for being our home for 6 years. We were blessed by the bounty of your shoppers, we met lovely friends, and we grew wise in the online market. Although you have chosen to destroy our ability to be a Metaphysical seller on your site, you have in fact, done something greater than you can imagine. You have helped us evolve and unite as a spiritual community. You have strengthened our beliefs. Your intolerance has honored our religions by allowing us to show you just how capable we are at overcoming obstacles. You've pushed us into new markets where we have met even more new friends who celebrate love and light. You have renewed our spirit of survival, sparking an excitement. We are not sad; we are not hurt; we are not scared; we are not shaken; we are not defeated by your hate. We are blessed by our beliefs. We are grateful for your failed attack. We are encouraged by the love being shown to us from all over the world by those with religious tolerance. Many big corporate markets try to destroy the little folk. What you fail to understand is the size of our strength, when we unite hand in hand. Ebay, we are blessed, and loved by many. We receive that which we give, and we have open hearts, and open hands. We invite any and all to take our hands, share our hearts, and discover the blessings with us. Change is here!
The metaphysical sellers want to thank our clients for being a part of our lives and for all the love you have shown us over the years. You are the reason we are here. Brightest Blessings!

The New

logoEbay_x45 8

  • NO SPELLS
  • NO MAGICK
  • NO ENERGY
AS OF AUG. 30TH

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

www.facebook.com
FOLLOW YOUR FAVORITE SELLER FOR UPDATES

Legal Jargon

Due to the needs of the community many sellers are pulling together to help update all buyers and the community about any changes. Most sellers are cooperating in joint marketing efforts to better serve you with knowledge. Shared information or website links does not infer any legal contract, affiliation, or endorsement. Participation in these marketing efforts is non-profit and voluntary. These emails are being offered as a metaphysical community service.
PLEASE SUPPORT  COMMUNITY UNITY BY VISITING ALL OF THE SELLER'S NEW STORES TO SHOW YOUR SUPPO
RT

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Let's Post More Comments on the News Sites

Starting a new post rather than commenting because this is important!

Our plight with eBay is being reported across the nation, NBC, ABC, the LA Times and many others have picked up the story. Some treat it humorously but others are more serious. We need to find these articles and post our responses. I can't do it alone-I've spent hours today commenting and sending out news links to sites. If we are going to move eBay at all, we need more positive press making them look bad.
This one takes it half seriously.
http://www.wired.com/business/2012/08/ebay-bans-intangible-items-including-spells-curses-and-advice/

This one is widely read-
http://discussions.latimes.com/20/lanews/la-fi-mo-ebay-supernatural-ban-20120816/10?

Huffington Post is very influential--lots of positive comments--PLUS you can email copies direct to eBay from the page.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/ebay-bans-sale-of-magic-s_n_1789508.html?show_comment_id=178574414#es_share_ended

A popular site--lots of comments
http://news.yahoo.com/the-10-craziest-items-you-can-t-sell-on-ebay.html

He makes some good points--
http://blog.storefleet.com/2012/08/17/ebay-nixes-hexes-quells-spells/#respond

To find others just google 'eBay banning psychics' or 'eBay banning spells and magic'-there are many going up.

Also-I reached out to several UK based Meta Sellers. I did post on the board link Bewitched posted telling them we had made the National news and to join in but my post was pulled and I was reprimanded in under 5 minutes. Oh well! Not the first time I've been 'pink slapped' on a discussion board!

We need to keep the pressure on eBay!

I'll be adding a new batch of emails for eBay employees JAT just finished formatting very soon too.

I know we are all stressed and tired but lets all understand that we ALL are in this together and need to work together for a positive outcome to this situation.

Here is a copy of one of the comments I have been posting---it is taking a different approach-our financial harm. People can relate to that.


I understand some people do not believe and see us as fakers and frauds but our Alternative, Occult, New Age and Pagan beliefs are just as valid as other faiths and ideologies. Believe in magick, energy work and psychic abilities or don't. I'm not trying to convince you. Millions of people DO believe. Each to their own.

I want to address this another way. One many of you might understand better.

Ebay is financially harming hundreds if not thousands of individuals and their families. This was many peoples livelihood and sole business and income. They made eBay their business or rather, they made and grew their businesses ON eBay.

These people have spent YEARS being loyal to eBay, growing a good customer base and providing excellent customer service. I myself gave up a very lucratrive business over 4 years ago to devote myself full time to my eBay clients/business. I work with a group of elderly long time Practitioners of various Paths, Vodou/Voodoo, Wicca, etc.... We sell charged tools, empowered items, charms, charged candles and energized jewelry, etc.... The money we make allows them to practice their faith and calling full time.

I personally pay eBay and Paypal in excess of 2,000 PER MONTH IN FEES. That means in 4 years I have given eBay close to 100,000 dollars in fees. I know other Metaphysical sellers who pay TWICE and more what I do a month.

Yet eBay, after our loyalty, some sellers for 6 to 8 years even, they tell us to leave with only a month's notice. And, not even a true notice-they hide their banning of our items and services in pages of clickable links to other pages which I discovered just last week by accident. A full 99% of the metaphysical sellers I contacted had never even SEEN the new rule buried in pages of updates and small print. This is inexcusable on eBay's part as far as I and many others are concerned.

SHAME ON EBAY!

I also should point out that back in approx. 2005/2006, eBay actually featured the metaphysical category--focusing on it as a rapidly growing and dynamic category with great potential. They in effect 'courted' these very same sellers they are now banning and financially harming.

They say WE are costing them money? I ask HOW when we pay HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS a year in fees. The majority of us have 14 to 30 day or longer refund policies and many happy and repeat customers. I personally have several thousand feedback and only ONE negative for a 20 dollar item because the woman did not get my email with some instructions right away. I have ONLY ever had two charge backs-from a scammer who hit several sellers. A lost package? A duplicate item is sent right out!

Again I say SHAME ON EBAY!

We stood with you when other sellers left in droves for Amazon, Etsy and other venues, yet you do THIS to us!

Monday, August 13, 2012

A very rough draft of a letter to eBay

This is a (very) rough draft of a letter I'm working on for any who want to send to eBay. I think we need more than one but this is my contribution. I welcome suggestions and comments. I REALLY think we need several letters and then we need to send them to every email address we can. AND as SOON as possible. We need clarification and hopefully eBay taking a step back from their proposed ban.

The letter----



To whom it may concern
I am writing to eBay to express my dismay over your recent decision to remove certain categories under the metaphysical heading. While I understand some few sub-par sellers may have caused charge back issues, this is certainly not the norm among sellers in the Metaphysical categories. Most have exemplary feedback and many happy and satisfied repeat customers. In fact, the feedback of metaphysical sellers as a whole is probably far better than sellers of electronics and other like merchandise.

There has also been the statement made that many sellers are dealing in 'intangible' items. While we understand this poses an issue with eBay/Paypal dealing with refunds and charge backs when nothing is mailed, selling an intangible item has long been against eBay policy anyway. Many sellers know this and DO mail items to their customers. Those that do not should be educated in eBay rules to cease this practice which has long been against policy.

What is alarming now is that the blanket term of 'intangilbe item' is being used to ban actual ITEMS. Jewelry, crystals, stones and other items with ADDED energy work or yes, what is commonly called 'spells', are being targeted. What concerns me is your purposed selective enforcement of what you(eBay) terms 'intangible'. It seems you only have targeted those sellers who offer items of a certain occult or esoteric nature, ie. pagan beliefs and witchcraft. Magic, Spells, items of a paranormal or psychic nature, etc.... 

Sellers have also been told (via EBay's Facebook) that the prices of their tangible items can not  reflect any significantly added value put on by any intangible addition. What a nightmare for eBay to enforce since many items listed every day are priced subjectively by the sellers in many categories such as art, antiques, jewelry, vintage items and collectibles. The market determines the price and people will pay the price or they won't. Again this seems like only sellers of certain occult natured items are being singled out for selective enforcement if the Facebook statement is true.

EBay has not disallowed Feng Shui items or 'New Age' items like Crystals used in healing and crystal work, both of which have 'intangible' properties that are believed in by MANY millions and millions around the world and add to their value in the eyes of  many. You have not banned rosaries, crucifixes or religious medals, all of which have perceived 'intangible' abilities and energies associated with them. You have not banned items like Aromatherapy products which people use to gain certain 'intangible' benefits from. Magnetic therapy jewelry. Radionic devices  and the entire category of natural and homeopathic remedies are items that people must subjectively get 'intangible' and unverifiable benefits from. The list of items with 'intangible' benefits goes on and on. I ask HOW are these any different than spells, blessings, magic and energy work placed upon items? How do these items differ in dealing with any Resolution Center disputes?

I am saddened and deeply concerned that eBay's new policy may appear to some as a form of religious or ideological discrimination against occult and esoteric metaphysical beliefs. Something that I'm sure eBay does not want to imply.

Various Pagan, Neo-pagan, Alternative and Wiccan beliefs are ages old and actually a rapidly growing segment of our world population. Not everyone subscribes to the 'Big Three' religions, four if you include Buddhism. 
in fact according to religioustolerance.org:

"A second important statistic is the rate of growth of the Wiccan community. "In May, 1998, the Chicago Tribune reported that, though difficult to quantify due to lack of formal organization, neo-paganism is the fastest-growing religion in North America with the Internet being the prime means of proselytizing." 1 Ms. Curott estimates a doubling in size every 18 months. This growth rate seems quite high, but appears to have some credibility in the Wiccan community. The ARIS survey of the American adult population indicates a growth in the Wiccan community of 17 fold between 1990 and 2001 - the highest of any faith group monitored. This would indicate a doubling in numbers of adherents about ever 30 months. 2 Maria Alupoaicei, who co-authored the book "Generation Hex" claims that "The numbers of [Wiccan] adherents are doubling every 30 months." We suspect that she derived her estimate from this essay. She notes that there are over 700,000 websites for Wiccans on the Internet.

If the latter growth rate is accurate and if it continues, then Wicca would be the third largest religious group in the U.S. by about 2012, behind Christianity and Judaism, and ahead of Islam."

If this is all a misunderstanding, I apologize but there have been many mixed messages coming from eBay Customer Service reps who tell sellers who call in that not only are readings of all types and direct cast spells(non mailed item) being prohibited, but that ANY item, TANGIBLE ITEM, that mentions a spell or magic anywhere in the title or listing is now prohibited. Sellers are told that the use of certain WORDS are banned and listings will be scanned for these certain keywords like magic, prayer, blessing, psychic, spell, haunted, etc... I can only imagine what a nightmare this will become if that is true, with listings being pulled just for using a certain keyword picked up by a computer bot.

I ask that eBay consider carefully how targeting certain beliefs and practices may look to the world as a whole-a world where millions of people hold alternative and differing cultural beliefs. I think sometimes certain corporate departments can be short sighted in making changes whose widespread ramifications are not well thought out.

I am only ONE of HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of persons, both buyers and sellers of items in the Metaphysical Categories that are asking these same questions now.
Sincerely,
A concerned eBay member






Hopefully everybody saw the Facebook post jinnandtonics sent in:

From ebay  FB - just now!

 ·  · 29 minutes ago

    • eBay
      Hi Lisa, as part of our latest Seller Release we announced the closing of some categories. Every year we restructure, close, and edit our categories to improve the 
      shopping experience onsite. The Metaphysical category is going to be closed
       at the end of the month, and items from that category will not be allowed to be listed onsite. More details can be found here: http://pages.ebay.com/se
llerinformation/news/fallupdat



e2012/categoryupdates.html?


ssPageName=

categoryupdatesABPost ~terri
6 minutes ago ·