Curation or Censorship? eBay's Very Public Decline

Recently, eBay crossed the Rubicon by prohibiting the sale of now-collectible Dr. Seuss works, relatively obscure books that are now out of print by the decision of the Seuss estate. With that action, among others, eBay lost its market distinction as an online emporium.

At one time, eBay was a unicorn. The online business achieved a level of trust in which customers feel comfortable carrying out large transactions in gold and silver, electronics and jewelry. The scammers are becoming more sophisticated, though, so security is an area where eBay must focus. In this new cybersecurity paradigm, eBay does not have time for nitpicking the merchandise decisions of its core sellers and buyers; nor can afford the overhead of having staff manually cancelling listings.

The premise of the online marketplace is that customers search for what they want and find it. If they can't find what they want, they will take their business elsewhere. I am sure that eBay lost bibliophiles who look for collectible and out of print works. That was eBay's niche in the book market, and they blew it in one week. Amazon and Barnes and Noble remain top sellers of commodity works like in-print books and textbooks. eBay was not competing effectively in that arena, nor should they try.

eBay is still the preferred marketplace of coin buyers. But if they go on a whim to cancel listing of coins from certain countries or regimes, then the credibility of eBay as an open marketplace diminishes for the numismatic community.

Now, staying above the line of the law was a founding value of eBay. Drug paraphernalia and cockfighting tools are banned. Prohibiting these sales likely helped to bolster the reputation of e-commerce. eBay has also engaged in well-understood social policy, such as not selling Hypodermic needles - though this is part of a lively debate on the risk and benefit of access to clean needles: deterrence and mitigation. Early in the current pandemic, it was advisable to stop marketplace sales of PPE- but small , certified, upstart manufacturers lost sales as they could not communicate with eBay et al. that they needed a wider distribution stream that e-commerce could provide. (NY Times)

User experience has suffered: by 2019 users were “bombarded” with irrelevant advertising. Sellers note that the pages have been overrun by “cheap Chinese merchandise”, and that “eBay can NOT operate as another Amazon”. To top it off, the flailing company is cancelling its longtime eBay bucks program in April.

eBay forgot it’s flea market roots, where buyers move on to the next seller's table, if they find one table to be distasteful. The browser does not quit the market, unless the majority of sellers have gone rogue. Or the owner of the market makes bad strategic decisions. 

Harry Byrd: The Bigot Who Closed the Black-White Wage Gap.

Harry Byrd, a segregationist who ran Virginia's political machine in the mid-20th century, is losing his place near the seat of government in Richmond, VA. A statue erected in 1976, featuring the long-term Senator sizing down the federal budget, is expected to be removed from outdoor display. How did he fall out of grace so quickly?

Too recently, White Supremacists dominated the Deep South. In contrast, segregationists were
"racial moderates" in the South, as they were called in their time. Politicians of the later group were often socially conservative, and fiscally liberal, the "Blue Dog" epitaph today. Public health and education improvements occurred in the mid-20th century by a separate and somewhat equal policy. 

 Atlanta, Memphis, and Washington DC hold America's 3 historically black medical schools. These cities, in general, were forward-looking and not in touch with racial attitudes in their surrounding region. Graduates of Black professional schools built a self-sufficiency in border state Black communities that leaders like Frederick Douglas  and WEB DuBois imagined. 

 

Yet in the heart of the Jim Crow era, many African-Americans worked as peanut, cotton and tobacco sharecroppers under the peonage system in "Black Belt" counties. Predominately Black urban occupations such as movie attendants, domestic servants, and shoe-shiners were exempted from minimum wage laws. (This shortcoming was symbolically closed in recent years). 

Federal directives on equal employment in the defense sector during and after World War Two played a key role in leveling the harsh discrepancy between Black and White income. Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia, a Democrat, maintained cordial  relations with President Eisenhower, the later of whom was able to push civil rights bills through a recalcitrant congress in 1957 and 1960. This relationship made Virginia a powerhouse in infrastructure (Dulles International Airport was build with federal funds), technology,  and the defense industry. In major Virginia cities, college expansions were paired with the opening of a Black college. Hospitals opened or were renovated in underserved communities (Credit to the US Government's Hill-Burton Act of 1946). The racial wage gap compressed further.

Source: Virginia Pilot

With an emerging black middle class came legal action that closed the chapter on Jim Crow. Strength of conviction and legal connections led plaintiffs to sue for equal rights. Cases include Morgan vs. Virginia (1946), desegregating interstate transportation; Boynton vs Virginia (1960), reinforcing the 1946 case; Davis vs Prince Edward County, which became part of Brown vs Board of Education (1954); and Loving vs Virginia (1967) on interracial marriage.

If there is evidence that the latter generation of segregationists delivered for minority citizens, it is found in voter turnout. The same Southern Democrats who defended segregation often gained support of Black voters towards the end of the 20th century. Governor George Wallace and Senator Al Gore, Sr, are two examples.

Virginia Pilot Link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pilotonline.com%2Fnews%2Fvp-nw-racial-income-gap-virginia-20200915-b5t4cl7p6fa7hkdtufpwrnj34e-story.html&psig=AOvVaw1LnHGSMJxgd3yiDhRFqXd8&ust=1612839349840000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAMQjB1qFwoTCMisp_ek2e4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD