Well, I am a registered buyer at Ebay, and I do enjoy it. I have also seen bootlegged stuff there, and also people solict through your emails they get from the auctions somehow. Some creep sent me an email offering me all the discs of The Sims really cheap last year. Needless to say, I didn't respond.
You can usually tell by the sellers feedback, and auctions what they're about. But like anything else, you need to be careful, and use good judgement. It's very easy to be scammed both ways.
Sorry I mentioned it, though. Didn't want to piss anyone off, just thought I'd help the "theft" situation. I really do think that it's sleezy. :D

Correction/clarification: We both "know" that the CD's are full of stuff that the seller didn't create, but it's an intuition, not a clear-cut fact. We can't prove it. So we have to acknowledge the possibility that the auctions are legit.

Blade: Thousands of items are listed every day... it's impossible for eBay to police the auctions, even if they were inclined to do so. eBay relies on users to report illegal auctions, both to eBay and to the VeRO, in the case of copyright infringements. I have personally caused several bootleggers to be shut down in the past.

I'm an eBayer with a decent history, having bought items from $3 to $300, and sold items from $2.50 to $2000. I understand how the system works, and how it's abused.

eBay would love to be able to proactively shut down the bootleggers and scammers, but until and unless they KNOW that a particular auction is illegal, they can't do anything... taking a proactive stance on these things would leave them wide open to lawsuits.

Some things are obvious - people selling human body parts, for example, or people selling illicit drugs. These get shut down as soon as they're reported. Other things are less clear - without getting a copy of the CD, how can you be sure that the seller isn't the creator of the items on the disc? I know they are... you know they are. But there's the slim chance that they're selling items that they created or have reasonable rights to, and that would not be illegal. As long as there's a chance, it would be wrong for eBay to shut the auction down.

Nekojin

Oh trust me they sell anything and EVERYTHING on e-bay. there's no rules or policies if there is e-aby isn't taking any notice of them. search long enough on e-bay and you'll find anything your looking for ;)

Blade: Just because a few people abuse eBay, that doesn't mean the entire system is corrupt and worthless... I go to comic/sci-fi conventions regularly, and there are a number of DVD bootleggers there. That doesn't make the entire convention a "black market."

If you spot auctions like that, report them to Maxis... Maxis, as the VeRO (Verified Rights Owner), can not only get the auctions shut down, but they can also get the accounts of the people selling them suspended... and, if they see fit, they can pursue criminal complaints.

Nekojin

E-bay is the black market on the internet :mad:

I've been told that some people are taking other's objects and such, and loading them on disks to auction on Ebay- you might want to look for your stuff there as well.

Sure, his email address is:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

These are the 3 I have run into since last night.

Well, you got that closed quick! Could you post this guy's name so we can tell all our simmer freinds and give him the "credit" he deserves- how sleazy!

Next you'll be hearing from people who paid these bastards and can't get in?

>hands JD a beer<

Check this Out:

http://www.geocities.com/psychostrumpa/main_jd.html

BE WARNED, if anyone else tries to pull this crap, I will not rest until you are:

A. Completely embarrassed
B. Banned from everywhere

Thank you-
JD (The Real One)