prohibits textbooks for homeschool teachers!

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A new policy by Internet trading behemoth eBay that bans homeschool teachers' texts from its auctions is prompting a tirade of complaints from the company's faithful customers. (Have they had your message?)

"Really the homeschooling community is a huge participant in eBay when you get to thinking about it," said one customer who was identified as ''angels*wings'' on an eBay blog. "We buy textbooks naturally but we also purchase items like microscopes, slides, globes, maps, manipulatives, educational games, reading books, supplies for our classrooms ... stickers, idea books, folders, sheet protectors, school supplies, software, educational movies, models, post cards ... the list is enormous."

The policy, which is inclusive of all teachers' texts, was made known recently as those who were auctioning various books watched as their postings were deleted.

Another homeschooler on the blog said she questioned eBay when her listings were cancelled.

"They told me that it fell under their heading of 'illegal, dangerous, offensive, or potentially infringing,'" she said. "What are they thinking? I have a mess of curriculum here that I can't sell, and needing money from it to buy curriculum for the new school year."

The response from the company was posted for others to see.

"As you may know, eBay does not permit items that are illegal, dangerous, offensive, or potentially infringing. Additionally, eBay has just recently made the decision to prohibit the sale of Teacher's Editions of textbooks and solutions manuals that are intended solely for use by teachers. Since eBay strives to be a level-playing field, all Teacher's Edition textbooks, manuals and guides will be covered under this policy. Unfortunately, home schooling Teacher's Editions are not exempt from this policy and this policy will apply to all grade levels."

The company continued that those products often contain "special answer keys, exams, teaching tips, and guides."

And, it noted, "multiple organizations and publishers have voiced their concern to us over such books that may only be purchased through educational institutions by teachers."

"Where do they get off telling me that I don't have the right to buy, sell, or own a teacher's manual??? How could I teach my children without it???" another blogger asked.

Still another reported having a few 2006 teachers' edition textbooks for college classes pulled from the site.

"Now I'm stuck with them," the writer said.

"We are a major buying and selling force on eBay & once I got to thinking of all the things we purchase just for ourselves and our school it's amazing," said Angelwings. "I'm in the same boat as many of you....I've got three grade levels of books here I need to sell in order to purchase our supplies for next year."

WorldNetDaily did not get an immediate response from eBay about the situation. The website accepts e-mail questions but responds in 24-48 hours.

Its website explanation is straightforward.

"Teacher's editions of textbooks and solutions manuals that are intended solely for use by teachers are not permitted by eBay."

And it notifies users that "listing cancellation, forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings, limits on account privileges, account suspension" are all possible results.

"As a homeschooler I believe this directly discriminates against me since I have used Ebay numerous times to both buy and sell homeschool curricula. As a budget conscious homeschooling mother I like to buy used materials as often as possible. This means buying the teacher's materials used on Ebay and purchasing new workbooks directly from the publisher or distributor," Dana wrote.

eBay did offer a recourse for further concerns:

"We appreciate the fact that you may disagree with eBay's decision to establish this policy. If you would like to see these policies change, or have suggestions on how to make the site better, you may want to submit your feelings by completing the form at the following URL."

eBay's overview of prohibited items includes animals, artifacts, autographed items, academic software, bootleg recordings, credit cards, drugs and paraphernalia, government IDs, lockpicking devices, human remains, police-related items, used clothing and used cosmetics, among others.

One blogger noted that public school interests have been opposing homeschooling more and more, as homeschooling has grown substantially in recent years. Recent estimates have put homeschool attendance in the U.S. at more than 2.5 million. And the same comment noted book publishers also dislike having the products re-sold.

A public school teacher defended the policy, saying she cannot get a teacher's edition from a publisher unless she provides proof of her teaching employment. "It is quite costly for publishers to research and develop curricula and it is copyrighted." eBay's policies apply equally to vintage books that many collectors seek. Teacher's manuals for Dick and Jane books and other collectables that haven't been used in classrooms for fifty years or more are prohibited. Buyers have had their listings pulled and privileges suspended for listing older manuals that are *very* out of date. One buyer actually had a bid on a four hundred dollar collectable book and ebay pulled it before the auction closed because it was a(n antique) 'teacher's' book.

Many homeschooling texts are used just for homeschoolers- Math U See, Sonlight's Parents' Guides, and Bob Jones Home Teaching materials are also affected by this policy. EBay has been enforcing this strange policy with draconian mindlessness. Sellers on the ebay forum I'll link to below have complained of having listings revoked and selling privileges denied for listings that say 'this does NOT include the teacher's edition, you must buy that through the publisher.' Another seller had a listing canceled because she was selling a copy of Robinson Crusoe that used to belong to a teacher and had the teacher's *handwritten* notes- primarily things like an inscription and marginal comments any of us might make. Religious books are supposed to be exempt, but some sellers have had Bible class teacher's keys removed as well.

Ebay permits the selling of gun parts, knives, pornography, and R rated movies, all of which are not supposed to be available to children under the age of 18. They are able to do this because eBay users are not supposed to be under 18. Given that fact, it's a little difficult to see why it's considered a threat for a seller to list a first grade math manual with 'Teacher's Edition' on the cover. I don't think very many first graders are using eBay to cheat on their tests.

In fact, it's obvious this isn't about cheating, or they wouldn't permit the sale of term papers. Here is part of a form response they sent to several sellers protesting the policy: "Since cheating had little to do with implementing this policy we allow the sale of cliff notes, term papers and graphic calculators."

If you have the time and the interest, there are over 3000 posts on ebay's booksellers forum about just this topic, and it's clear it affected far more than homeschoolers, it had nothing to do with cheating or any other abuse at the buyer's end, and nothing much to do with the sellers either, and eBay is still scrambling to explain why they made this silly decision: http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000081947&start=0

Their story has changed a few times.

For those needing to buy their curriculum at something other than typical textbook prices, here are places eBay sellers are running off to: Here, in no particular order, are other venues people have mentioned that might be a good place to buy or sell books (and in a couple cases other things as well), as well as different search engines you might use to look up the books you want:

http://www.myhomeschoolstore.com/ Biblio Zvab Blujay collegebooksdirect ABE, ALIBRIS, AMAZON, BIBLIO, CHOOSEBOOKS, TOMFOLIO, BOOKCENTRAL AVENUE , www.theswap.com A1 books Usedbookcentral. Google by author and title. Froogle by author and title. Ask Jeeves http://www.edaccents.com/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HomeSchoolBooks4Sale/ WWW.THISLITTLEPIGGYSTAYSHOME.COM. Homeschoolads.com allows FREE posts, feedback ratings, and your post can be on for 90 days Vegsource the Welltrained mind . AMAZON.COM or BN.COM www.homeschoolspirit.com and the link is HSBay www.wagglepop.com http://homeschool.crecon.com/classifieds/classifieds.cgi?search_and_d... collegebooksdirect homeschoolclassifieds.com But there also are other auctions that do allow the sale of homeschool texts. One location, which does require purchasers to be 18, is Schoolbookauction.com. Another one is Homeschoolbid.com and observers said there are many more available through an Internet search.

The Home School Legal Defense Association said it was aware of the situation.

"We have received many complaints about the eBay policy and we are actively working on a solution," Media Relations Director Ian Slatter told WND. That group is the largest organization of homeschoolers in the United States, with more than 80,000 member families.

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