I tried to list an antique carved dragon tonight and got an error. Something about using a bad word or violating an eBay policy. I had noted in the description that the dragon's eyes may be ivory (they most likely are ivory, but I didn't say for sure). So I changed the word to i vory (with the space). EBay wasn't fooled. Got the same error. So I changed it to "a substance like elephant tusk" and the listing went through (I wonder if I can get away with revising it back to ivory). I wish I knew what sort of variations on the word would have been ok -- i v o r y? eyevory? Of course, they wouldn't come up in searches.

So we are not allowed to use the word IVORY at all??? Ivory is also a color, for pete's sake!

Right now, there are 24,054 auctions with ivory in the title and 83,949 with it in the description (5264 are in the Antiques category).

Has anyone else run into this listing prohibition? Do you think eBay randomly looks for certain verboten words in submitted Lots? I thought you could list eBay-illegal things, and then just keep your fingers crossed that no one reported you. A few years ago, I listed a book by Hitler (a really good copy, in German, with interesting extras) and got shut down. I still have that damn book. Recently, I discovered the exact same book (in German, without the extras!) on eBay, and it sold for over $200.00. How come some people can get away with breaking the rules?

Sue