eBay Bans Sale of Magic Spells and Potions

Is nothing sacred?

Forget wizards' rights, whatever happened to the free market?

eBay sells a lot of strange things. And trust us, the volume of ordinary office supplies and farm implements sold in bulk can seem far weirder than the occult or the merely mysterious.

But somebody got their nose in a snit. So eBay is eliminating some items out of what it calls the Metaphysical Category. It remains deeply concerned about 'intangible' items (like brands or business services, inquiring minds want to know?), because, we guess, they are, well, not tangible, at least to mere mortals.

Seriously, however, one has to wonder: why would anyone care? It's a market. There are sellers and, apparently, there are occasionally buyers. And the costs, as the article below makes plain, are not bargains. We could understand if there had been complaints about quality (frog has still not returned to human form...)but one wonders if this was really something a bit more worrisome. Like an easy concession to religious authorities who care about such blasphemies. eBay is not known for being the least bit political, but buying a little goodwill on the right to save for an ideological rainy day would not be totally unheard of.

In the meantime, anyone with excess inventory of eye of newt, lizard's leg or howlet's wing will just have to wait for the market to recover. JL

Katy Waldman reports in Slate:

Buying and selling on the milky way of enchantment we call the Internet is about to get a lot more boring. Starting Aug. 30, eBay will add magic spells and potions to its list of “prohibited items,” meaning that any attempts to post or purchase these items on the site will be blocked.

EBay unveiled its new rules in a 2012 Fall Seller Update, probably after fierce lobbying from the Ministry of Magic. So if you were waiting for the right time to monetize a hex you invented or buy an elixir that makes everything you touch turn to popcorn, wait no longer. Come Sept. 1, you’ll find nothing in the world’s largest online auction house but flatware, toys, garden supplies, and the other props of our withered, charm-free existence.

Taking a farewell sprint through eBay’s occult pathways before they darkened forever, we found a “powerful spell of vampire transformation” ($15.68), a “powerful female succubus lover spell” ($24.99), and a “djinn genie potion” ($14.97). There was also a “magical demon destroyer potion” that looked suspiciously like a bottle of eye-drops ($51).

When we asked eBay why they thought it was a good idea to deprive us of the opportunity to become vampires, conjure succubae, acquire genies, and destroy demons for under $150, the company replied:

We want customers to have great experiences on eBay, and we regularly review categories and update policies to deliver the best shopping and selling experience possible. Based on our long-standing policy restricting the sale of intangible items on eBay, we are discontinuing a small number of categories within the Metaphysical category, as transactions in these categories can be difficult to verify and resolve. We believe this update will enhance the experience on eBay and benefit our customers.

Which is all perfectly reasonable, though I’m not sure that the Seller Update contains the right number and combination of syllables to actually command whatever uncanny forces it’s trying to ban.