eBay restrictions on California buyers - I’ve had enough!

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InkedPlinker

InkedPlinker

Member
Feb 25, 2025
20
22
Brea, CA, USA
Hi there AGN. I know there have been some similar posts to this, but I’d like to take a moment of your time. As you may know, eBay has decided that even though they are perfectly legal, California buyers are not allowed to purchase Airguns through eBay. We are allowed to sell on eBay, but not buy.

I’ve spoken to a chat representative, who wasn’t helpful. I can post the chat logs, but the gist of it was he didn’t even know California was a US State. I kept asking him questions to the point where he said he would send this matter to an “escalation team” that would get back to me in 48-72 hours. (I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they actually do.)

Here’s where I’d like your help:

My plan is to combat their reasoning, if they have any, that forbids the sales. I suspect they will say that CA law states you must be 18+ to buy them, to which I plan to respond with item numbers on eBay of sex toys, play boys, and drug/tobacco paraphernalia.

Any other ideas? We’ve got smarter people here than I, surely someone can see an angle that I can’t.
 
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I've been selling on ebay for 27 years.....and airguns for about the last 10 or so. For the record google, ebay, amazon, Walmart and etsy are the "Internet Mafia" they collude with each other to squash the little guy and force them onto these platforms where they take 50% of your net profit in fees.

I've posted a long diatribe about this on the survivalist boards..... my search result ranking is 32 but if you look at most of the top results it's the player I mentioned above.

So to more exactly answer your questions.....when you talk to ebay on chat/phone you are not talking to ebay.....you are talking to a third party outsourced team that is completely detached from anything ebay corporate. Just look at the ebay forums

So that all being said......there are many small vendors that know the law, have better pricing, and truly appreciate your business. You just need to spend some time digging.

Lastly I had created another post about how much less I was able to buy directly from small business vs the mafia......the results were impressive.

Logically Gunbroker would consume this space but after talking to Mgt they really have no interest in becoming the go to marketplace for anything there than guns and ammo. It's a shame

HK
 
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Honestly as beautiful a state as California is, I don’t understand how that or any other left coast state survives. As for eBay, just don’t bother. There are other sources that don’t care as long as laws aren’t being broken. Personally I quit dealing with eBay long ago. Everything that interests me can be found elsewhere.

Rick H.
 
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As mentioned above it’s fruitless to reason with their customer service team. If you really want to buy an airgun on eBay just have it shipped to someone in another state. Pirateship has such cheap rates it won’t make that much of a difference on total cost of the item. Or better yet send the buyer/seller a picture of an item that just so happens to have your phone number or email on a piece of paper. Both of these solutions have worked for me. I know, I know you shouldn’t have to do this but it is what it is. No point in crying over spilled milk.
 
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RickH said:
Honestly as beautiful a state as California is, I don’t understand how that or any other left coast state survives. As for eBay, just don’t bother. There are other sources that don’t care as long as laws aren’t being broken. Personally I quit dealing with eBay long ago. Everything that interests me can be found elsewhere.

Rick H.
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Isn't hard to survive when more than 10% of all US population live in the state. LA county has a larger population than all but 10(?) states.

Most people are never affected by these restrictions. That is true for the whole US population if the restrictions were applied to all states on their platforms.

The other point, just like here, their platform; their rules.
 
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Is actually eBay that prohibits it ? If so how do they actually do it ? Or is California just written in the list of banned areas and it is up to the individual sellers? I know some auctions list Michigan as well which is no longer true. That has been changed and in the past I’ve pointed that out to at least one seller and they ended up having no problem shipping to Michigan. I guess that experience leads me to believe that ultimately it’s up to the seller to ship or not ship and not eBay actually restricting them 🤷‍♂️. Not sure though as that was just my experience and it was a cpl years ago.
 
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Trucker3573 said:
Is actually eBay that prohibits it ? If so how do they actually do it ? Or is California just written in the list of banned areas and it is up to the individual sellers? I know some auctions list Michigan as well which is no longer true. That has been changed and in the past I’ve pointed that out to at least one seller and they ended up having no problem shipping to Michigan. I guess that experience leads me to believe that ultimately it’s up to the seller to ship or not ship and not eBay actually restricting them 🤷‍♂️. Not sure though as that was just my experience and it was a cpl years ago.
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I figured out on Amazon that if Amazon is the shipper, then no. But if Amazon is just the carrier, then yes it will ship.

For example if Amazon is selling the pellet gun then it will not ship to California. If Pyramyd is selling the same pellet gun on Amazon, it will ship to California.
 
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mh said:
I lived in the state of Mass which airguns were legal to buy and sell, but there were some municipalities that outlawed possession of them. So to stay safe Amazon and others deny sales the entire state. I believe it is a smart business decision on their part.
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My understanding is that is the cause in CA too.
 
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InkedPlinker said:
Hi there AGN. I know there have been some similar posts to this, but I’d like to take a moment of your time. As you may know, eBay has decided that even though they are perfectly legal, California buyers are not allowed to purchase Airguns through eBay. We are allowed to sell on eBay, but not buy.

I’ve spoken to a chat representative, who wasn’t helpful. I can post the chat logs, but the gist of it was he didn’t even know California was a US State. I kept asking him questions to the point where he said he would send this matter to an “escalation team” that would get back to me in 48-72 hours. (I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they actually do.)

Here’s where I’d like your help:

My plan is to combat their reasoning, if they have any, that forbids the sales. I suspect they will say that CA law states you must be 18+ to buy them, to which I plan to respond with item numbers on eBay of sex toys, play boys, and drug/tobacco paraphernalia.

Any other ideas? We’ve got smarter people here than I, surely someone can see an angle that I can’t.
Click to expand...

Suspect you won't get anywhere with this. There were probably some municipalities that banned them. It was easiest to shut of sales to the whole state than to try to figure out where and where they are not legal.
 
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Oregon has a nice law,you have to have a concealed carry permit to buy ammo for firearms.
Just passed"Well you said look it? i googled it,and they never lie?
It also required gun buyers to obtain a permit from a sheriff’s office and pay $65. Buyers are also required to take an approved firearms-safety course and submit photo identification and fingerprints and pass a criminal background check.Im still checking on the ammo thing?
 
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mh said:
I lived in the state of Mass which airguns were legal to buy and sell, but there were some municipalities that outlawed possession of them. So to stay safe Amazon and others deny sales the entire state. I believe it is a smart business decision on their part.
Click to expand...
This. In the another thread about this, wasn't it stated that the seller can opt out of an area? So it's not actually Ebay itself that is restricting people
 
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willy said:
Oregon has a nice law,you have to have a concealed carry permit to buy ammo for firearms.
Just passed"
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Please stop making silly posts about apocryphal laws. If you’re not sure, it takes no more than 30 seconds to determine the validity of such a statement. Search engines are wonderful inventions that will quickly and easily provide you with accurate information so that you don’t have to post false claims.
 
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Treefrog said:
Have you considered renting a P.O. box in Bullhead City (Az) and basing some of your online accounts out of there? I had some friends that rented storage out of state in order to still have things that the state of Ca decided it didn't condone. Yeah, it costs money and time, but its a work-around.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

J~
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Not a bad idea. Luckily I have family that lives in AZ, so I can just use their address. Otherwise I would probably do this.
 
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