I’m a baaaaaaaaaad bunny. At least according to Ebay and the Zippo Lighter Co.

I’ve been listing six to eight Ebay auctions a week for the past couple of months, trying divest myself of some stuff that I no longer collect. For a while I was building a collection of older Lumberyard Advertising stuff. I’m no longer interested so I thought I could raise some cash to buy chips and my new passion… WWII pinback buttons and lapel pins.

So, last week, 4 June to be exact, I listed an unusual shaped cigarette lighter. A photo of the disassembled lighter is below. This lighter is from the Anglo California Lumber Co. in Los Angeles. What makes this lighter a bit unusual is the shape and size. It’s about 3” in length and slightly thicker than a cigarette. The lighter was designed to fit in a pack of smokes. Ok, not earth shattering, but unusual and interesting, especially to someone who collects lighters. I started the bidding at a reasonable $5 with $1 postage. Everything is cool, right? Sure. I didn’t receive a bid until early this morning. I like to keep a close eye on my auctions – and my email - on the last day of bidding in case someone has a last minute question.

This morning, with about two hours remaining until the auction ends, I get an email from Ebay’s ”VeRO” department advising me that I had violated a copyright so they had ended my auction. This was a very long email full of all sorts of threats of legal retribution, account closing, perjury, prison … I think they even threatened to take away my birthday. Heavens. (In case you haven’t noticed I don’t sweat threats all that much.)

So, Ebay ended one of my auctions. I’ll live. The thing is I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out WHY. I looked at Ebay’s “VeRO” pages and still couldn’t figure it out. Then I read their email again. Apparently someone at the Zippo Co. registered a complaint. I remembered in my item description I wrote the lighter’s flint tube is ”…just like a Zippo.”

What am I going to do? Nothing. Well, OK, I am going to do something. I think I’ll buy a RONSON lighter and sell my Zippo on Ebay. I wonder if Zippo’s CEO knows he is paying someone to search Ebay for this kind of thing? Wish I had a job like that. I realize that copyright protection is vital for a modern corporation, but... geez, Ebay & Zippo, lighten up a bit.