julieooly
Cave Dweller 
Member since October 2018
Posts: 721 
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Post by julieooly on Apr 19, 2019 12:49:43 GMT -5
Hello,
This is Molly from Etsy’s Marketplace Integrity team.
I’m reaching out to let you know that we’ve deactivated one or more of your listings that appear to be made from prohibited animal products:
Whale Bone Fossil Cabochon - Handcrafted Designer Cab Natural Fossil Rock Jewelry Focal Stone Flatback Cab
We’ve refunded you the fees for the listing(s) we removed. You can see your deactivated listings here: www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/tools/listings/state:inactive
Etsy prohibits the sale of certain animal products, including (but not limited to) items derived from endangered or threatened animals, as identified by these resources:
CITES Appendix I: www.cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php
The US Endangered Species Act: et.sy/71yeddq
Etsy House Rules: www.etsy.com/legal/policy/239374829600
You can read more about this policy here: www.etsy.com/legal/prohibited/#Q2
Please be aware that continuing to list prohibited items may lead to the suspension of your account. We don’t want that to happen, so we ask that you please review the rest of your items and ensure that they meet our policies, which can be found here: www.etsy.com/legal/prohibited/
Thank you for being a member of the Etsy community. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.So I figure the material was at least a couple of million years old, any thoughts from the forum? 
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Post by rockjunquie on Apr 19, 2019 12:56:07 GMT -5
Welcome to the machine. Etsy... SMH.........
I had some Maw Sit Sit deactivated once because jade from Burma was on Obama's sh*t list. It is NOT strictly jade, so I was scratching my head. I could have relisted it and not mentioned Myanmar (Burma), but I sold it off etsy for more money and no fees. Screw 'em.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2019 12:59:37 GMT -5
I got the same type of notice from ebay a few years ago. Tried to tell their customer service that this was very old fossil bone and not an endangered animal product, and for my trouble got told that they were right and similarly and firmly threatened that they'd kick me off the site if I tried to repost it. One of so many silly turn-offs - and yet they continue to come up with more. Not surprised that etsy also is doing this (the bigger they get, the less they are willing to listen).
I also had some Burmese material similarly pulled back when the import ban was in effect from the mid-1990s until gradually being lifted starting in 2013. Didn't matter to them that it was old stuff that was in the US and not being imported under the ban. Also didn't seem to matter to them that a huge amount of fresh "banned" stuff from Burma was being sold by Hong Kong sellers on their site - never removed their listings, either.
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Post by rockjunquie on Apr 19, 2019 13:07:27 GMT -5
I am very, very seriously thinking of leaving etsy. This latest bullshit with them forcing me out of stand alone paypal is juuuuuust about the last damn straw. If I didn't loath FB so much, I would have already left. But, if I shift everything to my own domain, then I need to market. Ugh.
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Post by 1dave on Apr 19, 2019 13:20:52 GMT -5
You are wasting your time arguing with idiots, and their numbers are increasing!
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 19, 2019 13:39:04 GMT -5
I got the same type of notice from ebay a few years ago. Tried to tell their customer service that this was very old fossil bone and not an endangered animal product, and for my trouble got told that they were right and similarly and firmly threatened that they'd kick me off the site if I tried to repost it. One of so many silly turn-offs - and yet they continue to come up with more. Not surprised that etsy also is doing this (the bigger they get, the less they are willing to listen). You think that is ludicrous... California makes it illegal to use fossilized ivory (tusks) from ALREADY EXTINCT species, such as wooly mammoths or mastodons. Offenders will prosecuted and jailed! I have a nice freeform silver ring with a hummingbird scrimshawed on a small circular slab of petrified mammoth tusk, which was harvested from the frozen tundra (no animals killed here, lol). I picked it up at an antique mall before the powers-that-be made their most recent bone-headed move. Ooh, we have to save that endangered species... Too late, I say! Sooooo, they are protecting a species that is already extinct? WTH??? Methinks that they are trying to make their jobs easier, by banning everything, since they wouldn't know a mammoth tusk if it poked them in the rear!! |
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Post by aDave on Apr 19, 2019 13:42:11 GMT -5
Interestingly, on this page that you linked, www.etsy.com/legal/prohibited/#Q2 , it mentions that fossilized ivory from ivory producing animals cannot be sold on their site. So, at one level, it seems they don't care how old the item is. Now, I know a whale is not an ivory producing animal, but I'd imagine they're going to include fossilized items from different endangered species lists that Etsy linked as well. I'm not taking a stance in saying that Etsy is correct. I just think they'll end up trying to extend that logic all across the board. That said, I'd simply ask them how a piece of fossil bone, probably millions of years old, applies to the current endangered species lists they cite and why such an item that age is prohibited. Make them do a bit of work in explaining the rationale. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2019 13:45:24 GMT -5
You are wasting your time arguing with idiots, and their numbers are increasing! Yup. What gets me is that they always include an offer to "discuss" or "if you think this may have been sent in error" - but they never will even pretend to reconsider unless you are a huge account - which never seem to be flagged for legitimate violations in the first place. Nobody at these sites seems to know the first thing about gemstones, fakes or misrepresented treatments. The word "fossil" or "petrified" in a title should give them a clue that this is a STONE, not a bone of any endangered animal. But no, thinking is evidently not a profitable use of their time, once you get to even talk to a real human. I do understand the objection to selling unmineralized ivory and bone (even ancient, such as mammoth and walrus) just because a lot of illegal elephant and walrus ivory has flown under the radar by being sold as "fossil" (ancient frozen or dessicated and not permineralized) ivories. In petrified other fossil material, minerals have replaced the organic material, and they aren't the same thing. No bone from a recent whale kill is going to contain agate, pyrite, calcite, etc. Methinks that they are trying to make their jobs easier, by banning everything, since they wouldn't know a mammoth tusk if it poked them in the rear!! Exactly. |
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Post by HankRocks on Apr 19, 2019 14:01:21 GMT -5
You are wasting your time arguing with idiots, and their numbers are increasing! Mark Twain said it best, " Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience." |
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Tommy
Administrator 
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,958
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Post by Tommy on Apr 19, 2019 14:45:40 GMT -5
I wonder if Dinosaurs are endangered??  I've sold 76 dino bone cabs on Etsy since 2014 and have four current listings and have never received such a note. I think if I ever come into some whale bone that looks like your's it might have to become Gem Balugasaurus  |
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 19, 2019 17:35:42 GMT -5
Sounds like they have a computer program simply looking for key words of prohibited items and no humans are actually looking at the listings to see what the actual ad is for.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,958
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Post by Tommy on Apr 19, 2019 18:58:07 GMT -5
Sounds like they have a computer program simply looking for key words of prohibited items and no humans are actually looking at the listings to see what the actual ad is for. I'm sure that you are exactly right. Dinosaurs must not trip the sensor algorithm. |
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2011
Posts: 4,049 
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 19, 2019 19:43:27 GMT -5
Sounds like they have a computer program simply looking for key words of prohibited items and no humans are actually looking at the listings to see what the actual ad is for. I'm sure that you are exactly right. Dinosaurs must not trip the sensor algorithm. Not yet...but stupidity has lately become "the American way." Don't get me started... |
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Post by aDave on Apr 19, 2019 23:32:36 GMT -5
Sounds like they have a computer program simply looking for key words of prohibited items and no humans are actually looking at the listings to see what the actual ad is for. If it's an algorithm, it needs some work (sarcasm). A search for "fossilized whale bone" on the site produces a number of items - not alot, but items are being sold currently. |
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tomg
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2019
Posts: 103
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Post by tomg on Apr 19, 2019 23:59:37 GMT -5
I got the same type of notice from ebay a few years ago. Tried to tell their customer service that this was very old fossil bone and not an endangered animal product, and for my trouble got told that they were right and similarly and firmly threatened that they'd kick me off the site if I tried to repost it. One of so many silly turn-offs - and yet they continue to come up with more. Not surprised that etsy also is doing this (the bigger they get, the less they are willing to listen). You think that is ludicrous... California makes it illegal to use fossilized ivory (tusks) from ALREADY EXTINCT species, such as wooly mammoths or mastodons. Offenders will prosecuted and jailed! I have a nice freeform silver ring with a hummingbird scrimshawed on a small circular slab of petrified mammoth tusk, which was harvested from the frozen tundra (no animals killed here, lol). I picked it up at an antique mall before the powers-that-be made their most recent bone-headed move. Ooh, we have to save that endangered species... Too late, I say! Sooooo, they are protecting a species that is already extinct? WTH??? Methinks that they are trying to make their jobs easier, by banning everything, since they wouldn't know a mammoth tusk if it poked them in the rear!! Vote, Vote, Vote and get your friends to VOTE. It's the only way possible to salvage California short of an earthquake or civil war. We are ready for either. |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 20, 2019 2:19:40 GMT -5
You think that is ludicrous... California makes it illegal to use fossilized ivory (tusks) from ALREADY EXTINCT species, such as wooly mammoths or mastodons. Offenders will prosecuted and jailed! I have a nice freeform silver ring with a hummingbird scrimshawed on a small circular slab of petrified mammoth tusk, which was harvested from the frozen tundra (no animals killed here, lol). I picked it up at an antique mall before the powers-that-be made their most recent bone-headed move. Ooh, we have to save that endangered species... Too late, I say! Sooooo, they are protecting a species that is already extinct? WTH??? Methinks that they are trying to make their jobs easier, by banning everything, since they wouldn't know a mammoth tusk if it poked them in the rear!! Vote, Vote, Vote and get your friends to VOTE. It's the only way possible to salvage California short of an earthquake or civil war. We are ready for either. I do vote, in every election for the last 44 years. The problem is a lack of qualified people running for office, and a dearth of intelligent people voting for those that are. It all started downhill with the Browns.... |
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Post by 1dave on Apr 20, 2019 9:35:38 GMT -5
Vote, Vote, Vote and get your friends to VOTE. It's the only way possible to salvage California short of an earthquake or civil war. We are ready for either. I do vote, in every election for the last 44 years. The problem is a lack of qualified people running for office, and a dearth of intelligent people voting for those that are. It all started downhill with the Browns.... The way qualified people are treated, why would they volunteer for that kind of abuse. |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 20, 2019 9:38:29 GMT -5
I do vote, in every election for the last 44 years. The problem is a lack of qualified people running for office, and a dearth of intelligent people voting for those that are. It all started downhill with the Browns.... The way qualified people are treated, why would they volunteer for that kind of abuse. You've got that right, Dave. Why put up with the abuse? Not a job I would ever take on. |
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2011
Posts: 4,049
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 20, 2019 10:59:47 GMT -5
The way qualified people are treated, why would they volunteer for that kind of abuse. You've got that right, Dave. Why put up with the abuse? Not a job I would ever take on. America really started going downhill when voters allowed political office to become a profession, not a patriotic service. Politicians now are mainly concerned with padding their own nests and do the bidding of lobbyists -- domestic or foreign -- to obtain campaign money to assure their reelection. We now have Presidential dynasties, similar to monarchies. Worse, voters have become apathetic and allow themselves to be manipulated in many ways. This has always been the case to some degree, but mass media have turned voter manipulation into an art form. We're well advanced into the decadence that has brought down most major civilizations of the past. |
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Post by Rockoonz on Apr 20, 2019 11:22:07 GMT -5
I am very, very seriously thinking of leaving etsy. This latest bullshit with them forcing me out of stand alone paypal is juuuuuust about the last damn straw. If I didn't loath FB so much, I would have already left. But, if I shift everything to my own domain, then I need to market. Ugh. Forget FB for sales, Instagram is where you want to be. I have a friend in the rock club who derives 100% of his income from IG sales, no etsy or ebay stores. I have the framework in place to start doing some sales and MsAli offered to help me with the semantics if I decide to take it somewhere when (if) time permits. If I were you I would stay registered with etsy for now, in case their new policies are reversed later due to mass exodus, which I would expect. |
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I've sold 76 dino bone cabs on Etsy since 2014 and have four current listings and have never received such a note. I think if I ever come into some whale bone that looks like your's it might have to become Gem Balugasaurus 
