Slashdot Mirror
eBay Shuts Down Ultima Online Charity Auctions
An Anonymous Reader writes "Numerous players in Ultima Online are donating vitual gold to "Crazy" Joe Harden. Harden started some eBay auctions with the best of intentions, giving all the proceeds to the Red Cross for the tsunami disaster relief. Unfortunately, Ebay has decided to shut him down. Here's a quote from the article over on FileFront: "The auctions were for in-game gold in Ultima Online. What Harden did was set up places within Ultima Online where players could come and either buy 'junk,' as he called it, or simply donate gold to be auctioned off on eBay. After setting up 43 auctions, things were running smoothly until eBay pulled every single one of them off of their site." We reported on this effort yesterday.
Some important points the Slashdot summary didn't mention:
1) This is because E-bay forbids auctions in the name of a charity as
there have been people in the past who have used this as a con.
2) According to the article, Crazy Joe is in agreement with this
policy and is not upset that the auctions were pulled.
3) He's putting the auctions back up without mention of the Red Cross
or his website so everything should still go smoothly for those who
have donated.
Of course if everybody reads TFA there's no problem, but the way the
write-up puts it makes things seem as though things are a lot more
outrageous than they are. Besides, on slashdot "if everybody reads
TFA" is a pretty laughable suggestion...
Did you even read the article?
>The honorable thing here would be to back this guy up and applaud his efforts.
1. Its a policy not to have regular individuals have an action in the name of a charity (Red Cross). A good one at that, as it prevent fraud, when a buyer expects the money to go somewhere but it might not. Even Joe Harden admits thats its a good policy.
2. The auctions are/going to be up again ""I purposely left a few tidbits in the very vague "new" auctions that hopefully will perk some eyebrows and buyers can investigate why this Auction mentions my name, the Tsunami, and Stratics," he said."
>The letter of your rule states that you can't sell virtual goods.
This has nothing to do with why it was pulled.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
actually he relisted everything.
= 8159452741 /. comment?
Here our aim discussion.
AIM IM with carnivorousjoe
8:51 AM
me: just read the news about the ebay takedown, bummer, I was behind ya. maybe try to sell "peices of paper that describe how much money is going to the red cross"? if people can sell things telling you where to go click links surely you can do that...
Joe: Im back up though!
me: you are?
8:55 AM
Joe: oh yes, lots of auctions online
Joe: it was a nervous drive last night to redo them all
Joe: im mentally beat but stable now
me: is ebay going to leave them alone?
Joe: I totally relisted
Joe: let me find one
Joe: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dllViewItem&item
me: cool
Joe: no charity and no links
me: i can't beleive they pulled them
Joe: but enough to get the recognition
Joe: yup!
Joe: I believe in them - im glad they got me set up people do this to rip others off
Joe: so i want to be legit anyway it needs to be
me: mind if I post our discussion or parts of in in a
Joe: im in communiq with red cross
Joe: go ahead
Joe: but red cross is thankfully figuring out what to do about this Virutal Stuff, and I hope they call back today with what I need to fill out
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
I've known this guy for a few years now, he's good on his word and won't be keeping the gold to himself, it will all be sold on ebay (auctions are re-listed with different wording) and the donation to the red cross has already been made. He's one of the few people left on the internet you can actually trust their word on.
--J. R. Cook