2005-09-26 - 7:08 p.m.

I got a bizarre email from ebay today. Here are the highlights...

Subject: eBay Listing Violation: Inappropriate Item Description (=LS &6186 JM2602469)
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 08:14:40 PDT

Dear jonny_lew,

We appreciate that you chose eBay to list the following listing(s):

6433809654 - HAIRSPRAY - Divine / Ricki Lake / Debbie Harry VHS

However, your listing was in breach of eBay's Inappropriate Item
Description policy.

Item descriptions must comply with all sections of the eBay User
Agreement. Listings containing information contradictory to the eBay User
Agreement are prohibited.eBay does not allow the use of profanity or
patently vulgar language. This includes the use of language that is racist,
hateful, sexual, or obscene in nature in a public area. This policy
extends to text within listings, on About Me pages and on storefronts.For
more information on Inappropriate Item Description visit the following
Help page:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-profanity.html

For more information on Inappropriate Item Description visit the
following Help page:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-profanity.html

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you relist this, or any other item that breaches
eBay policy, your eBay privileges could be suspended. We value you as a
member of our community and wish to continue this relationship, so we
must ask you to refrain from further breaches of the User Agreement and
eBay policy.

It seems I've been a naughty boy. Hang on just one cotton pickin' minute though! What exactly had I done wrong within the item's description to provoke eBay's diplomatic ire? I'm f*cked if I know. Here's that ''controversial'' description in full -

'Hairspray' is the frenzied all out, all dancing, all rockin' remembrance of Baltimore 1962. A time infested with glamour crazed teens to whom TV was everything. Featuring an electric combination of talents that includes DIVINE, DEBBIE HARRY, SONNY BONO and PIA ZADORA, 'Hairspray' tells of 'The Corny Collins Show', Baltimore's coolest pop show.

Happy teen viewers thrill to watching their town's coolest teens rock to the country's trendiest new dances. One such viewer is Tracy Turnblad (RICKI LAKE), a tubby teenager who lives her dream by getting her big shot on the show.

But Tracy finds herself in a bitter competition with the show's reigning Teen Queen,bitchy Amber Van Tussle. Battling, not only for the crown, but for the true-hunk, Link...

Pretty steamy stuff, huh? No, I didn't think so either. After 3 & a half years of solid eBaying this is the first warning of this sort I've ever received, and I've half a mind to email them and ask what it was about the description that they objected to. But, all things considered, I can't really be arsed.

Hence my putting the question to you all on here - if anyone has any ideas what eBay's ''beef'' was with my item, please email me or leave a message in the guestbook. Thanks!

In the meantime, if any of you are interested in getting your grubby little hands on a gratis copy of the apparently controversial ''Hairspray,'' drop me a line at the usual address. I've a feeling your luck might just be in.

�

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