Friday, September 08, 2006

Trademe Mafia Strikes


I am pretty angry that after five and a half years of selling my artwork on Trademe (the NZ version of Ebay) I have had them tell me I can't ask for commissioned work. For a few years I have run auctions for getting your pet painted on a stone, pendant etc. and have obtained work this way. Well since I have just received a hefty bill for my cat Demelza I thought I would run three auctions for having a pet rabbit, dog and cat painted on a pendant. I had watchers on all three auctions when Trademe withdrew them on Wednesday as they said you're not allowed to advertise services. However I found in their terms that you are allowed as long as you request a photograph so I wrote back and put this to them but only received this in reply:

Regarding our withdrawal of auction 69317851 they have been withdrawn because it is a breech of our listing policies to sell made to order items. Basically selling services has no legal precedent in an on-line
auction environment and leaves buyer and sellers without rights in the
event of a dispute. For this reason we do not allow services or made to
order items on the site.

I am sorry but these items are not of a format that can be sold on this site, any attempts made to bypass this policy will be withdrawn as well.


So looks like they change the rules to suit themselves as I know of people making made to order items and selling them through that site. So yet another chunk of my income has been eroded away............

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