cannabisnews.com: Online Site Pulls Marijuana Auction 





Online Site Pulls Marijuana Auction 
Posted by FoM on September 23, 1999 at 17:07:53 PT
By Reuters
Source: Boston Globe
 The U.S. online auction site eBay Inc. Thursday said it pulled an auction for 500 pounds (230 kg) of marijuana although it had no way of knowing whether the sale was a hoax. 
The auction had described the merchandise as ''the best marijuana Holland has to offer'' and included a picture of three men, two with their faces blurred out, standing behind stacks of white packages. Although the auction was no longer available for viewing on eBay as of Thursday, it was posted by another online auction service, AuctionWatch.com, which reported that seven bids, in amounts as high as $10 million, had been made before the auction was canceled. A spokesman for eBay, Kevin Pursglove, said that while it can be hard to tell whether sellers are serious about such auctions, the company will usually play it safe and cancel any sales involving illegal goods. By Reuters, 09-23-99 18:25 © Copyright 1999 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc. 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on September 23, 1999 at 19:07:51 PT:
eBay Auction Goes Up in Smoke 
eBay Auction Goes Up in Smoke By Greg Sandovalhttp://www.ebay.com/Staff Writer, CNET News.comhttp://news.cnet.com/September 23, 1999 5:30 p.m. PTURL: http://news.cnet.com/category/0-1007-200-123002.html Three men attempted to auction 500 pounds of marijuana on eBay Tuesday night until company officials pulled the plug almost a day after the sale began. The sale began roughly 8:40 p.m. PT on Tuesday night and ceased sometime 21 hours later, according to a screenshot on AuctionWatch.com, which first reported the story. A spokesman for eBay confirmed that the auction was live for about 21 hours before company officials were notified. They quickly shut the site down thereafter, according to eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove. The three auctioneers, who appeared in a photograph next to numerous plastic bags filled with what looked like marijuana, claimed in a written description that the drugs were "Holland's Best." Seven people had made bids that had reached $10 million by the time the auction was closed, according to AuctionWatch.com. "We immediately notified the authorities," Pursglove said. "I can tell you that we will cooperate with law enforcement and help them with prosecution." This latest incident comes at a time when eBay is striving to take an aggressive approach to barring unlawful sales on its site. Earlier this month, in separate incidents, eBay executives shut down auctions that claimed to be selling a human kidney and an unborn baby. Federal law prohibits the sale of human organs. Though Pursglove declined to say what law enforcement agency eBay contacted, a spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Agency said officials there are planning to crack down on drug sales over the Web. "This is something we would be very interested in," said Jocelyn Barnes, spokesperson for the San Francisco DEA office. "We would start an investigation. We've heard of things like that coming up on these sites and have started to take a look on how to investigate. We do aggressively pursue those avenues." 
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