An Ohio law scheduled to go into effect May 2nd would require every Ohioan who sells on eBay to become a licensed auctioneer. That would require $200, posting a $50,000 bond, a one-year apprenticeship to an auctioneer and calling bids in 12 auctions and failure to do so could lead to a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.
The primary author, Larry Mumper, says the law will be changed to exempt individuals.
Let's assume for a second that eBay sellers from Ohio need to be regulated. To think that the proper way to do that is to make them licensed auctioneers shows a profound lack of understanding of what eBay is. There is really pretty much nothing a "real world" auctioneer could teach that would be of much use on eBay. eBay itself does what the auctioneer would do. If they really feel they need to regulate these people then it needs to be as if they're a small business, not as if they're auctioneers.
