Please make vBid.me a safe, friendly place to buy and sell.

vBid.me is designed and managed to be transparent and fair, and a safe legal place by which to buy and sell. It aims to provide more facilities / options than other internet auctions, to actively prevent fraud, and to provide an even playing field for everyone.

Currently vbid.me is focused on legal items that are prohibited and / or afflicted on eBay, to provide people with an auction site where they can list such items. If you would like to suggest a new category for items not already listed here please, we want to hear from you; please let us know via the contact form. vBid.me may well one day expand beyond eBay prohibited / afflicted items / categories if the demand is there to justify this.

Some vBid.me NB’s (Please Notes), hints, differences & guidelines;

1) Classifieds and Wanted Ads (Request for quotes) can only be placed / found in the wanted section. Sellers are recommended therefore to check that category regularly in case a buyer is advertising there.

2) Auctions, Multi-Auctions, Buy Now’s and Trades can only be placed / found in the all the other categories.

3) Ask the seller a question;
Unlike other internet auctions all messages made using “Ask the seller a question” are published. This is important to help prevent badly described, fraudulent, unlawful or even illegal sales, to make sure any concerns are made public. However, users who are petty, vindictive, abusive or make unsubstantiated allegations are not welcome and face suspension without notice; for example if an item’s photograph clearly shows it has some damage, it is not acceptable to point this out to others / make public comments about it on vbid.me (you may however do this on www.vbay.me).

If you wish to make your view known that an item is badly or falsely described, or unlawful or illegal, you should do this politely and substantially. It is not sufficient “to know”; you need to be able to cite evidence such as a web page or book that upholds your views. If you are experienced in a particular field and believe an item / advertisement is not right, if you feel you should ask the seller a question, you should state your belief politely and in the form of a question, e.g. “I think this may be a reproduction because of (reason), what can you say to support the item is authentic?” Of course you can always post a new message thread on the subject on www.vbay.me and point the seller here to that via the “Ask the seller a question” feature, e.g. I have some concerns about this item, please see (URL to thread on vbay.me)”; this way others can get involved in the debate if there is one.

The owner / admin of the site is also permitted to leave public feedback for other users but will exercise care; if you believe the owner of vBid.me is being unfair, you should perhaps start a thread on www.vbay.me to discuss it openly. It is NOT permissible to use the Ask the Seller a Question feature to wage a war or agenda against a certain seller / competitor. If you believe a seller is in violation of vBid.me’s terms and conditions, please tell us using “Report this Item” feature.

4) Buyer & Seller Feedback
Both the buyer and the seller are invited to leave negative, neutral or positive feedback for each other. Feedback must be accurate, fair and civilized. There must be no revenge and / or agenda based feedback ever.

In principle the seller should be the one to leave feedback first. If you are a buyer and the seller is asking you leave feedback for them before they leave it for you, please report them using the contact form. Both buyer and seller should report the other if they are trying to blackmail using feedback.

Buyers who have not paid for an item may not leave neutral or negative feedback for the seller unless the problem is with the seller (e.g. the seller refuses to sell – in which case this should also be reported to vBid.me). Buyers may not leave negative feedback for non-delivered and / or damaged items when the item was sent registered delivery and the seller has the receipt for this, unless a) the seller is to blame (goods seized with a false Customs declaration, etc.) or b) the item was sold as insured and the seller is refusing to honour a refund or c) the seller packed the item poorly (with reference to their carrier’s published guidelines).

Users may request any neutral or negative feedback to be removed on the basis it was improperly made. vBid.me charges 10 Euros per request to remove the negative feedback of another user (can be more than 1 item / set of feedback linked to a single transaction). If vBid.me considers the feedback to be fair, it will remain and the charge will be kept. If vBid.me considers the feedback to be significantly unfair, it will be removed, the charge will be 50% refunded and the other user will be asked for the other 50% or face a warning / suspension. If vBid.me considers the feedback to be totally unfair, the charge will be struck out / refunded and the other user will be asked to pay it or face suspension.

5) Seller’s bidding controls (security).
Sellers are able to specify a minimum feedback level for users to be able to bid; sellers have an exemption list in case they wish to approve a particular bidder under their specified feedback level. Sellers may ban specified users from bidding.

6) 3RD Reich and other contentious items.
Such items are only allowed if they are clearly being sold as a product, not as a statement of support for hatred / crimes against humanity. To this end, although it is for example OK to show the item with a Nazi political symbol (e.g. Swastika) in the photograph, it is not permissible to include a close up of that symbol as the main / first image; vBid.me does not want its home page to show a Swastika thank you. Please note: certain countries prohibit Nazi items, so please check before buying / selling.

Ivory, bone and animal hide / skin items may only be of products formed before any ban and / or taking into account national / international laws banning such items. For example, in the case of ivory, ivory products and / or items with ivory in them may only be listed on vbid.me if a) they are over 100 years old and / or b) legal in the country of the seller.

7) Items requiring permits and licenses.
Some items require the seller to be licensed. Some items require the person owning the item to have a permit (gun permit for example). Some items require export permits (antiquities for example). Some items require the buyer to obtain an import permit (for example, edged weapons going to New Zealand).

It is up to sellers and buyers to be aware of the laws including Customs regulations governing themselves and the items they wish to buy and sell. Other users can use the “Ask the seller a question” feature to publish a comment, say, that someone in the EU offering shipping of an antiquity / historical artifact to buyers outside the EU need to obtain an export permit for that item first before they ship if the seller has not already stated this in their auction.

Users are encouraged to discuss / report / refer to what items require permits / licenses on our sister forum www.vbay.me.

8) Stores
Store are areas where you can list auction and other items but under your own store name / directory. Items you list here will appear elsewhere on the auction site, but you will have the added advantage of having a store / URL unique to your items only. For more information, see our Stores Help page.