Quality Sporrans for less money

[Troglodyte]

OC, looks like those two are going to be out of my budget..

What is this “banned item so destroy it” bit?

Check back over the past few posts, and you'll find OCRichard's account.

It seems that eBay has entered a competition with US Customs to see how draconian they can be when it comes to items they consider 'banned', and a beautiful, vintage hair sporran is the hapless victim.

Instead of returning the item to the seller with 'Sorry, but the item you are trying to sell is not accepted on our platform.' message, they accept it and then send it off for destruction. You would think it would be returned to the seller, but it seems destruction is the preferred option.

I seriously hope not, but I can see the same thing happening with this latest vintage sporran - and, as the fur is seal that has a long-standing ban in the USA, the risks are pretty high. If eBay fails in its destruction programme, US Customs probably will not.

If I were the seller, I would limit the shipping locations to countries less risky.

The European Union tried the same ban a few years ago, but Scotland managed to persuade them that the fur was an ages-old traditional material and an infringement of their rights, so got an exemption. But I would be very doubtful if the EU is still so understanding, post-Brexit.

My reasoning is based on experience. I recently sent a package to an address in Amsterdam, and, from here in Aberdeenshire, delivery should have been made in 48-72 hours - which had been normal. The item was detained by Dutch customs, who gave my Dutch recepient the reason - they now hold anything from the UK for 30 days, to demonstrate how Brexit has failed..!

So you can guess how a 'banned' item would now be treated.