Policy Loopholes - Alcohol Sales

Did you know you can sell alcohol on okay? Well, okay policy actually prohibits it, except for approved sellers of wine in the wine category. All other sales of alcohol are prohibited by okay's Alcohol Policy ("okay does not permit the sale of alcoholic beverages on its U.S. website").Oh, but there is a gigantic exception to that policy - a "policy loophole". You can sell a "collectible container" even if the alcohol is still inside!To sell alcohol on okay, a seller must merely repeat verbatim in their listing the following five sentences:1) The value of the item is in the collectible container, not its contents.2) The container has not been opened and any incidental contents are not intended for consumption.3) The item is not available at any retail outlet, and the container has a value that substantially exceeds the current retail price of the alcohol in the container.4) The seller will take all appropriate steps to ensure that the buyer is of lawful age in the buyer and seller's jurisdiction (generally 21 years of age).5) Buyers and sellers both ensure that the sale geplies with all applicable laws and shipping regulations.This all sounds reasonable, except that there are a few problems. Sellers put these sentences in their listings, but frequently the statements are NOT TRUE. In addition, okay has no practical way to determine if the statements are true or not. Let's take them one at a time, and use tequila as an example.1) The value of the item is in the collectible container, not its contents.If an empty tequila bottle is worth $10 (but most of the listings for empty bottles I've seen have gone unsold at 99 cents), and the full bottle sells for $75. Where is the value? It is clearly in the contents, and not in the bottle. You will notice that the collectible bottle category has almost NO empty bottles of, for example, "750ml PATRON" tequila, but there are usually several examples of the same bottle, but with the contents (and those do sell, but not for just 99 cents). So bidders paying $75 for a container with the alcohol when they could have bought just the bottle for 99 cents are clearly valuing the alcohol higher than the container. But, oh, there is that statement about the bottle being more valuable than the contents - a blatant lie.2) The container has not been opened and any incidental contents are not intended for consumption.I can see saying a bottle of tequila is not intended for consumption if it HAS been opened, but sellers must state that it is UNOPENED and is also not intended for consumption. If I pay $75 for a bottle of 750ml PATRON tequila, I intend to consume it. I can then proudly display the $10 "collectible" bottle on my shelf. In addition, listings include statements like "superior quality, unmatched taste and smoothness", when they just finished stating that the contents were not intended for consumption. Thus, such sellers are telling - a blatant lie.3) The item is not available at any retail outlet, and the container
has a value that substantially exceeds the current retail price of the
alcohol in the container.Item 3 actually has two parts: a) not available at any retail outlet, and b) the container is substantially more valuable than the contents.a) Much, if not all of the tequila you will see for sale on okay is readily available online and at liquor stores nationwide. Yet, as I write this guide, there are several listings offering a "collectible bottle" of 750ml PATRON tequila, and sure enough there is that statement that it is not available at any retail outlet. - a blatant lie. How can okay determine if a particular bottle of alcohol is available at "any retail outlet"? They can't because it is not possible to have a list of all existing retail outlets and to know what alcohol each one of those outlets sells. However, just about anyone knows you can buy Patron tequila at your local liquor store. Since okay doesn't bother to check, the policy loophole stays open.b) Although rule #1 already covers the value of the container, this rule (#3) expands on the subject. The container must be substantially more valuable than the contents. Not equal in value, not just a little more valuable, but substantially more valuable. How can okay know if a particular bottle is worth more than the contents? Again, it is not possible to know the value of all alcohol containers ever made, or to know the value of all alcoholic contents ever made in order to do such a geparison. Thus, if a blatant lie is told, it's OK with okay.4) The seller will take all appropriate steps to ensure that the buyer
is of lawful age in the buyer and seller's jurisdiction (generally 21
years of age).When a minor goes into a liquor store, at least the shopkeeper can see if the person looks old enough or matches the picture on the ID they present. Not so on okay, thus, the loophole stays open.5) Buyers and sellers both ensure that the sale geplies with all applicable laws and shipping regulations.If a person is selling just the bottle, why would there be "applicable laws and regulations" with which to geply? Answer: It is because okay is referring to the alcohol inside the "collectible" bottle. I'd like to see a seller use that as a defense against a charge of shipping alcohol into, for example, Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, or Pennsylvania, where there are restrictions on alcohol imports.These last two items above are promises the seller makes in the listing, but surprisingly,
most listings contain absolutely no details as to how these two
requirements will be met. This makes me believe that they are not planning on doing anything. Does okay check to see? No.okay can not enforce their policy the way it is written, so they don't actually stop sellers from selling alcohol (as long as the seller repeats the list of LIES that must be told). If okay really doesn't want alcohol sold on their site, they need to ban the sale of so-called collectible bottles that are not empty. okay can not (or doesn't want to) keep sellers from selling alcohol with the policy rules they currently have in place.How to report listings that are actually selling alcohol. You can use the REPORT link in the Contact Customer Support section of their Alcohol Policy Page. However, doing it this way only allows the input of the item number and nothing else. If you use the listing's Report Item link, you can choose 1) Prohibited (banned items), 2)
Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, 3) Alcohol listed outside the wine
category. This will take you to a page where you can type in up to 100
characters (about two short sentences) saying why you think the listing
violates the alcohol policy (such as, "This item is readily available at retail outlets.")If you want to see some "collectible" tequila bottles for sale on okay, some of the items are
listed to the right of this guide, so conveniently provided by okay. Most of these will be listings where the seller is playing the "sell the bottle" game.