Category change on eBay?

A few lampworkers have been discussing lately something which concerns
most of us here... the lampwork categories on eBay. We were talking
about how lots and lots of us emailed eBay and they gave us a new
category; lampwork handmade US. Unfortunately, that category is woefully
inadequate, as it really doesn't specify what we *need* it to specify,
which is whether it is artisan lampwork, and whether it's made in the US
is irrelevant. Narrowing it to US lampworkers only hurts non-US lampwork
artisans and the customers who are looking for good-quality artisan
work, regardless of counrty of origin.

The thing this dedicated focus group (HAW) of lampworkers came up with
is the category "Lampwork - handmade - self-representing artists". This
was actually Lori Peterson's brainchild, if I understand correctly! I
think eBay would be amenable to that because they already have a
category in paintings for self-representing artists... which they won by
emailing eBay and asking for it.

It wouldn't keep liars and scammers from posting their mass-produced
lampwork there, but it would at least be a more accurate category for
all self-representing lampwork artisans worldwide, and that would
benefit both sellers and buyers of lampwork. If anyone here thinks this
is a good idea and one that we beaders as a whole could benefit from,
please take a moment to email eBay and ask them to make this change.

Here's the link for making uncsolicited suggestions (they made it a bit
hard to find)

http://pages.ebay.com/help/welcome/suggest.html

This is what I said in my suggestion:

"Hi,

I am a self-representing lampwork artist selling on eBay, and I'd like
to suggest the addition of the category "Lampwork - Handmade -
Self-representing artists".

The current category, "Lampwork - Handmade - US" was a step in the right
direction, but unfortunately it excludes a great many of our
international colleagues and doesn't specifically narrow the offerings
to artists selling their own work. I think that the self-representing
category will make it easier for lampwork customers to find the kind of
work they want, and will exclude those reselling mass-produced, imported
(but still handmade) lampwork, while including exceptional talents
worldwide who are selling their own work.

Thank you for considering this suggestion."
--
-Kalera
http://www.beadwife.com
http://www.snipurl.com/kebay