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I stopped using eBay when they canceled my auction because I had included a link to the PDF manual (on the manufacturer's site) of the phone I was selling. This was around 2006 and I assumed their idiotic policies would quickly see them replaced by a better platform, but for some reason this has never happened.

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The power of ebay resides in being able to find any product that comes to mind on auction at virtually any given time. Therefore, no one I know bothers to check the competition (if it even exists) before they bid. The same known problem occurs with Facebook regarding friends. I don't see any solution, this ease of use is more important to most customers than ToS.

this is called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly and is well studied

Depending on where they are in their fiscal year, eBay seems to alternate between favoring buyers, or favoring sellers. I've used them through several pro-buyer and pro-seller cycles, and their actions were often unexpected, much like your PDF example.

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