eBay Bans the Word "Virtual"

[ThetaSigma10]

UNREAL BOY!

 

[BryceOne]

..or Nintendo VBoy

 

[Bladexdsl]

china and hong kong are gonna be pissed

http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw=virtua...d=p3286.c0.m359

 

[wolffangalchemist]

that's almost the most retarded thing ever.
next they'll ban the words digital, download, and probably the word code too.

 

[Immortal_no1]

Items are still being sold on E-bay with the word Virtual in it. is it country dependant, co.uk , com, etc

 

[JoostinOnline]

I've been saving up for a virtual girlfriend for the past 3 months. What am I supposed to do now?

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

This is absurd and will obviously create more problems.

If people are dumb enough to be conned by virtual goods sale, I say they deserve it.

 

[wolffangalchemist]

I've been saving up for a virtual girlfriend for the past 3 months. What am I supposed to do now?

Have you checked your local Craigslist?

 

[Bladexdsl]

I've been saving up for a virtual girlfriend for the past 3 months. What am I supposed to do now?

get a realdoll

 

[Pippin666]

most likely to ban virtual items (like wow gold, and other crap like tf2 hats)

You are right. And I hope it will help to have less pollution on eBay. Virtual money, item and such are fr dumb people.

Pip'

 

[doyama]

Considering searching for 'Virtual Boy' on ebay USA right now gets you 400+ entries I'm not sure 'ban' is the right word. Searching for 'virtual' yields 10k listings.

 

[MG4M3R]

Just change Virtual Boy for "Virtua Boy" on the auction's name.

 

[Maid-chan]

Virtual, huh...?

 

[spinal_cord]

What? from what I have read on other sites, they have banned the sale of 'virtual goods'. They have not banned the word 'virtual' that's just stupid.
Was this story actually verified before putting it on the front page? GBATEMP is about the only site that mentions the banning of the WORD, everywhere else, quite correctly, says that they are banning/have banned the sale of virtual goods.

If you're stupid enough to buy virtual goods in the first place, this ban will only help you.

 

[machomuu]

What? from what I have read on other sites, they have banned the sale of 'virtual goods'. They have not banned the word 'virtual' that's just stupid.
Was this story actually verified before putting it on the front page? GBATEMP is about the only site that mentions the banning of the WORD, everywhere else, quite correctly, says that they are banning/have banned the sale of virtual goods.

If you're stupid enough to buy virtual goods in the first place, this ban will only help you.

And that apparently happened in the beginning of 2007.

 

[RupeeClock]

If they really did ban the word virtual, that's pretty damn stupid.
In an effort to block the illegal resale of virtual goods like MMO gold, whose entries can just avoid the use of the word virtual, actual goods with virtual in the name cannot be correctly identified like the virtual boy, virtual bart, virtual springfield, etc.

Virtua Fighter comes pretty close too.

 

[air2004]

So some sellers will be virtually fucked ?

 

[Lily]

Temporarily locking this until a more credible source than an IRC conversation can be provided.

 

[Another World]

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/view...#forumpost16047

Spoiler

10:38 pm • you can't sell virtual boy on ebay?
10:38 pm • not with the word "Virtual"
10:39 pm • brand new ebay change
10:39 pm • been on ebay since 2004, this is not a false scare
10:40 pm • I spoke for hours with techs and supervisors, they simply told me that they cannot risk the word "Virtual" being in game auctions anymore
10:41 pm • they gave me all my money back for all my authentic virtual boy listings they cancelled
10:42 pm • I asked Ebay to list it as the VB, they said NO
10:43 pm • I tried to explain that I have purchased thousands of dollars worth of VB stuff in the past year, and they didn't care
10:44 pm • search completed auctions for Virtual Lab, Space invaders, etc
10:44 pm • you'll see my banned auctions, and nothing else
10:45 pm • just since my auctions were the past few days
10:46 pm • I just wonder if this ebay removal of VB will make the console more desireable, or more dismissable
10:47 pm • For me it was a hard hit, a ban if I did not cancel Virtual Lab, SPace Invaders, and Insmouse no Yakata
10:48 pm • So I buy $4000 worth of ebay crap this year, and now it is not allowed?
10:48 pm • They are not willing to risk the word Virtual anymore?

VirtualJockey sells a lot of rare virtual boy stuff on eBay. He is one of the few I know who has the prototype build of the Virtual Boy. If he said that this happened then it did. As it was stated in the news post, there is currently no information on if they were simply targeting him, if they will police future auctions, etc.

He sent multiple e-mails to eBay asking for his auction titles to be changed to VB instead of "Virtual Boy" and they refused. They simply told him that you can no longer list anything in the gaming section using the word "Virtual" in the title. After that comment to him they refunded all of his auction listings. He had some of the rare games up for sale.

It has only happened to one person so far that I am aware of, and it happened yesterday. As time goes on we may very well see that this is not a new eBay scare tactic but an actual policy change. I felt it was important enough to post as news, 1) because I am a huge old school gaming enthusiast, 2) because eBay is a great source of old and hard to find gaming stuff, and 3) because VJ is well known in the virtual boy community as being a collector and proponent of rare and hard to find Virtual Boy items.

I know he is not making this up, but the circumstances behind this attack on the word "virtual" is still unknown.

Searching eBay today for Virtual Boy auctions only "80 results found for virtual boy" are found. Seems there are still over 400 if you include buy-it-now.

-Another World