By Tim McGivern
~verIf there is one Internet address that proves the free market can thrive in cyberspace it's eBay.com. Just think, without leaving the home, you can purchase bunk beds, a car, a carrot shaped like a vagina, women's soiled underwear and serial killer trading cards.
Its popularity has been, as all the dot-com hype promised, revolutionary.
And to John Sojourner, in this modern free market society, one way to make a buck is to combine technology with the old-fashioned laws of supply and demand.
So last month, when he heard that folks were stealing road signs along U.S. Highway 666 in the Four Corners, Sojourner contacted a local sign-making company, ordered up replica signs that closely resembled the original and began auctioning them on eBay.
He quickly discovered that his hunch was right, that the demand far exceeded the approximately 15 signs that disappeared from a stretch of devil's highway in northern New Mexico shortly after it was announced in June that the highway's number would change to the less spooky (thereby less marketable) U.S. 491.
Sojourner said sales were slow but steady once he posted the merchandise on July 7, selling as many as 15 signs in one day during his first week in business. And at 50 bucks per sign, he proudly admits he was enjoying his new vocation as an auctioneer.
But business stopped booming on July 21, when Sojourner learned he was under investigation for selling stolen property.
His troubles started two days earlier when an Associated Press article ran on the cover of the New York Times, was picked up by CNN and appeared in papers as far away as Australia. The article explained Route 666 was being renamed because state authorities in New Mexico, Utah and Colorado were troubled by its familiarity with Satan (the number being "the sign of the beast" in biblical lore), then focused on the fact that every road sign from Gallup to Utah had been stolen.
The report concluded with the news that an eBay auctioneer was being investigated by the New Mexico Inspector General's office because he "purported to have a number of the U.S. 666 signs."
Sojourner said he didn't know about the news report or that he was under investigation until an irate customer e-mailed him threatening to break his legs for selling stolen goods. Then eBay suspended him from selling the signs, writing in an e-mail, "we were contacted by a government agency that requested that we not allow route 66 [sic] signs to be sold on our site. Until we hear from them otherwise we are not allowing these items to be listed with us."
Sojourner said he then contacted the state Inspector General's Office on July 21 and was told that investigators would be at his home later that day. When they arrived, Sojourner said a state investigator "admitted repeatedly and in direct words that he put the block on my eBay signs."
By all accounts, after a brief look at the merchandise in Sojourner's Albuquerque home, the state investigators found no wrongdoing.
Sojourner said in retrospect he doubts the investigators ever bothered to look at his eBay posting because if they had, they would have discovered that the signs were clearly listed as 12 inches by 12 inches in size, instead of the state standard of 24 by 30 inches. A photo of the sign also showed that "U.S." is printed above the letters 666 on the shield, authentic signs only post the numbers. He also questioned why the inspectors didn't first order one of his signs to procure evidence before shutting him down, which would have served their purpose without cutting off his business.
"(The investigator) said after he left my house he was going to call eBay and release my auctions," Sojourner said. "Instead of driving two guys down from Santa Fe to walk in my door for five minutes, inspect the sign and say "oh those aren't ours,' they could have checked my site."
Now here's where the story gets tricky.
Although Sojourner says he is straightforward about the signs being replicas with all inquiring customers, the description of his product was potentially misleading. It says, "This is not cheap mock up or knock off ... it is the real deal guaranteed without the hassles of chancing a federal offense for stealing government property."
Because he employed the same sign manufacturer that also contracts with the state highway department, and the metal and ink are the same type, Sojourner contends that his description is faithful to his product. Sojourner also points to his customer feedback postings, which listed 67 remarks--100 percent of them positive--as proof that he wasn't guilty of false advertising.
Either way, S.U. Mahesh, spokesman for the state highway department, insists that nobody from his department ever contacted eBay to freeze Sojourner's listing for the highway signs at any time.
"We did not contact eBay and put any stops on this," said Mahesh. "They contacted us."
When New Mexico officials asked eBay who authorized Sojourner's account to be frozen, Mahesh said the company would not disclose the person's identity due to their privacy policy. Mahesh said after the investigators returned to Santa Fe from Albuquerque, they notified eBay officials on two different occasions that "this guy is clean."
Also, it does appear any other government authorities were investigating the incident. Although Route 666 is a federal highway, the signs are state property, and according to an official at the U.S. Attorney's office in Albuquerque, there has been no federal investigation into the matter.
So why then is Sojourner still being told by eBay that he can no longer sell his signs, if the state highway department has cleared him?
Kevin Pursglove, an eBay spokesman, declined to discuss the specific details of Sojourner's acccount due to company policy, but said there were probably only two reasons why the signs were pulled from the auction: either the merchandise was stolen or a trademark was violated. Pursglove added that eBay will suspend sale of an item as a "reaction to a (criminal investigator's) request."
"Generally they can come back on eBay if they make a good faith effort to rectify the problem," said Pursglove.
As of Friday, Aug. 14, eBay has maintaned through e-mail that until they are contacted by a "government agency" the suspension ruling is not about to change. Sojourner has sent numerous e-mails to eBay with the state highway department's phone number pleading with them to confirm his innocence, but the company's policy explicitly states the investigators must contact them.
It's a maddening dilemma for Sojourner. He said trying to uncover where the communication lines between state investigators and eBay became frayed, and who ultimately is responsible for keeping him out of business, has been impossible.
He says he is not about to let the issue rest.
"I had four days with a huge amount of exposure in the media with nothing to sell," said Sojourner in an interview last week.
He has since been contacted by a lawyer who read the news reports and wanted to know if he was interested in filing a lawsuit.
Sojourner admits that he called the state Inspector General's office suggesting that he might pursue compensation for his lost business, but adds, "I'm not interested in dealing with a lawyer."
As for the state transportation department, Mahesh concludes: "It's a non-issue for us. It's up to eBay. We have nothing to do with this."
For a time, Sojourner's next business endeavor was to sell "The story of the guy that previously sold the Route 666 signs" for a single penny on eBay. He said if customers responded asking to buy a sign, he sold it to them for $50 plus shipping, but he only had to pay eBay a commission on the one-cent transaction, instead of the full 50 bucks.
All in all, Sojourner says he's learned a lot about the trials and tribulations of trying to achieve the American dream of business ownership.
