eBay announced Monday that it would ban all commerce in ivory, including most heirlooms, to avoid providing a market that will encourage the slaughter of endangered elephants.
The eBay ban on Ivory will take effect on January 1, 2009. At the time of this writing there are about 38,000 ivory items for sale on eBay. Of course, these are not all items made from ivory, most are the color ivory. I’m not sure how eBay is going to enforce this ban, as the word ivory is so common in its listings. I can’t even figure out how to narrow the search to find a complete list of items made of ivory.
eBay has a long list of items that are banned for sale on their site. Among the items banned for sale on eBay are such Flea Market favorites as guns, porn, and teachers edition textbooks. eBay has this kind of anything goes image, with people selling things like whole towns and one man selling his life. eBay doesn’t want to be a global flea market. They want control over the bazillions of items that are traded. eBay bans Ivory, but it is just the latest addition to the list of forbidden items.
So will an eBay ban on ivory help? Or will it just cause a mad rush to get everything ivory listed before January 1st? eBay makes it millions on listing items-so why not rake in a couple of months worth of listing fees before the ban starts? Well, if selling Ivory is going to be wrong in January, selling Ivory is wrong now.
Elephant ivory is one of those old world products that there should be no more demand for anyway. Plastic does everything that ivory used to do, and if your a purist who just loves the look and feel of real ivory-get over it. Do you burn whale oil in your lamps and scratch your back with a monkey’s paw? eBay has banned the sale of Animal and Wildlife Products such as stuffed animals and items made from tortoise shells. I have never been a fan of these kind of items.
A note to PETA-eBay still allows the sell of Fur Coats. Of course, Minks and Chinchillas are not on the endangered species list.
