Homeschool World Forum

[Oscar Madison]

I was reading an article that Ebay is going to stop selling used teacher edition textbooksIs it true?FIf true this needs to be addressed it is wrong and action needs to be taken

[Theodore]

A link to the Ebay message:
http://pages.qa.ebay.com/help/policies/teachersedition.html

If you have an Ebay account, you should log in and let them know that they're discriminating against homeschoolers with this ridiculous policy.
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The Farming Game - Software Edition for PC, Mac, Linux
The board game has sold over 350,000 copies worldwide, garnered many awards, is used by over 2,000 schools, and is used extensively by homeschoolers.

[judygray842]

You can still sell your stuff on ebay. You just don't use the words "teacher edition". You woud say TE. For instance: Math grade one lifepac, TE. And people know that means teachers guide.
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That which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.

[Theodore]

All that means is you won't get your listing flagged by Ebay's automatic scripts, it doesn't mean Ebay allows you to sell teacher's editions. I'm sure you'll still get banned if they catch you at it.
_________________
The Farming Game - Software Edition for PC, Mac, Linux
The board game has sold over 350,000 copies worldwide, garnered many awards, is used by over 2,000 schools, and is used extensively by homeschoolers.

[judygray842]

Right, but if you do a search for homeschool textbooks, you will still find a lot of teachers manuals. The ban wasn't intended for homeschool people. It was intended to stop the typical public school 6th grader from bidding on the answers to his math text for the entire year. In that context I agree with the ban. However, I recently had my auction cancelled by ebay, and I wrote them to explain and they really didn't care weather it was homeschool or public school. You have to remember homeschool is a foreign subject to most people. They don't understand that our kids can't really behave that way. Our kids don't do thier school work in private. It's not easy to cheat when Mom is the teacher.
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That which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.

[Theodore]

Hmm. Can you post a quote from their email so we have the official word?
_________________
The Farming Game - Software Edition for PC, Mac, Linux
The board game has sold over 350,000 copies worldwide, garnered many awards, is used by over 2,000 schools, and is used extensively by homeschoolers.

[judygray842]

Here's most of the email:

Subject: Re: EN62827 PI Response to your email concerning eBay's ended listing policies. Received: May-24-06
From: eBay Customer Support

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to write to eBay. My name is Elros and I
appreciate the chance to help you with your concerns today.

I understand your concerns regarding eBay's Teacher's Edition policy.

Since eBay strives to be a level-playing field, all Teacher's Edition
textbooks will be covered under this policy. Unfortunately, home
schooling Teacher's Editions are not exempt from this policy

Concerns were voiced regarding the sale of Teacher's Edition textbooks
on the site; as such eBay has used its discretion to prohibit the sale
of such items. While we do understand that this policy may be upsetting
to those in educational communities, Teacher's Edition textbooks will no
longer be permitted on the site.

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter, and
wish you continued success on eBay.

Regards,

Elros
Community Watch Team
eBay Trust & Safety
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That which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.

[Theodore]

Looks to me like this bans Teacher's Editions period.
_________________
The Farming Game - Software Edition for PC, Mac, Linux
The board game has sold over 350,000 copies worldwide, garnered many awards, is used by over 2,000 schools, and is used extensively by homeschoolers.

[judygray842]

Oh, it is. But the original reason does make sense. And I do understand it. If there had been an ebay when I was in school, I would have probably tried to get the teachers edition. I was a public school child. But ebay simply doesn't understand how very different it is for homeschool teachers. Cheating doesn't happen at the kitchen table.
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That which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.

[sweet_acacia_mom]

The eBay policy:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/teachersedition.html

The petition if you disagree with this policy:

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/te4sale

Here is a group to help families sell their used materials by providing a list of venues and tons of suggestions. The members are very helpful and supportive. We do not endorse any one site over another, we just offer helpful advice and a safe place to discuss your options.

Anyone who has sold on eBay in the past and is looking for some other ideas, please join us:

http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/teachers_editions
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*~Sweet_Acacia_Mom~*

[hadaville]

I am disapointed in ebays decision re: TE textbooks. I think you can still use amazon and Craigslist though. We aslo have a homeschool book store locally that will buy your stuff and then you can buy more or take the money. Don't know if they give a fair deal or not.
Heather

[binarymagician]

I received an email from Ebay today that they had removed a Teacher Key and Solution Key for 9th grade algebra and that they had notified the bidders of the situation. I sent a reply email explaining to them that parents of home schooled students needed these aids in order to provide adequate instruction to their children. They replied that even though the owners of these books might be able to sell them legally, they were standing by their policy not to sell Teacher Editions, Teacher Keys, Test Keys or Quiz Keys because some of the publishers had complained.

After discussing this with my wife and looking over all of the other "Keys" still available on Ebay, I decided to send them another email to let them know that I had 13 items (10 with bids) listed as "packages", (not Teacher or some other "Key") but that there were Test, Teacher and Quiz Keys in the description. I wanted them to tell the bidders (after they removed the listing) that I would list the items again following the Ebay policy (which I can't find).

Sadly, I had already been removed from Ebay. I can't log in, all of my items are off of the site and they haven't responded to my email (nor do they list a phone number to contact them with). This was within 30-45 minutes of their first email.

So, I went back in as a buyer and searched for Teacher Key, Teacher Edition, Test Key and Quiz Key...there's still alot of them there.

This was my first time to try to sell anything on Ebay...didn't go too well.

[Lorren]

I bought a teacher's edition a couple weeks ago... it wasn't listed as a teacher's edition though. They just listed the name of the curriculum and provided a picture of the book. In the small picture you could only tell that it was a teachers edition because of the spiral binding, in the larger picture you could see "teacher's edition" written in small letters in the corner.

I suppose that people will find workarounds like this until they completely crack down and figure out the tricks . Oh well, I guess they'll just lose out on our business.

Kind of a stupid policy considering that anybody can purchase these things at any number of other locations on the internet.

[Theodore]

Why not give us a list of the alternate locations, then
_________________
The Farming Game - Software Edition for PC, Mac, Linux
The board game has sold over 350,000 copies worldwide, garnered many awards, is used by over 2,000 schools, and is used extensively by homeschoolers.

[Caprice64]

A lot of ebay sellers are now using thislittlepiggystayshome.com to sell their teachers editions.