How to buy porn on Ebay
May 6, 2012 11:25 AM Subscribe
Porn sellers want me to buy porn on Ebay. My husband and I want to buy porn on Ebay. But Paypal doesn't want me to buy porn on Ebay. How do I fix this?
I have used Ebay for a very long time with no problems. I also have a paypal account I've used with no problems as my primary method of payment. Recently, I found out Ebay has porn. Hurray! My husband and I want to watch it together, and it is way less expensive on Ebay, whereas porn titles can apparently often go for 30-40$ otherwise. However, when I went to bid on it, I got the error "BUYER_CANNOT_BUY_ADULT_WITH_SOLO_PAYPAL"
This makes for sad kittens everywhere.
I have attempted to look at all of Ebay's help files, with no luck in finding a workaround. A little internet research also shows that Paypal has apparently closed off paying for some adult-oriented merchandise. Okay, no big deal, pay another way. But yet, some of these sellers are selling their products with Paypal only-and there are bids on them, which means someone has figured out this workaround-maybe you!
Please help me figure this out- I would like to get to happy couple porn-watching without these aggravations!
I have used Ebay for a very long time with no problems. I also have a paypal account I've used with no problems as my primary method of payment. Recently, I found out Ebay has porn. Hurray! My husband and I want to watch it together, and it is way less expensive on Ebay, whereas porn titles can apparently often go for 30-40$ otherwise. However, when I went to bid on it, I got the error "BUYER_CANNOT_BUY_ADULT_WITH_SOLO_PAYPAL"
This makes for sad kittens everywhere.
I have attempted to look at all of Ebay's help files, with no luck in finding a workaround. A little internet research also shows that Paypal has apparently closed off paying for some adult-oriented merchandise. Okay, no big deal, pay another way. But yet, some of these sellers are selling their products with Paypal only-and there are bids on them, which means someone has figured out this workaround-maybe you!
Please help me figure this out- I would like to get to happy couple porn-watching without these aggravations!
As far as I know, most of those issues can be worked around by having a credit card option on your PayPal. I ran into the same issue buying unrated horror movies through Amazon. Once you have a credit card in your PayPal options, you can select "pay by credit card" - and then use it through your PayPal. The system makes no difference between "paying with credit card" and "paying with credit card through PayPal".
posted by MinusCelsius at 11:40 AM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by MinusCelsius at 11:40 AM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
If you'd prefer to pay with Paypal through Ebay, ask the seller to do a one-off listing not mentioning porn ("Sad Kitty special") and send you the link for purchase?
posted by humph at 12:35 PM on May 6, 2012
posted by humph at 12:35 PM on May 6, 2012
Could be just the Paypal payment issue, but it could also be "obscenity" laws getting in the way, especially if shipping for your porn is via the US Post Office.
I don't know where you live, of course, but in the U.S., the original Comstock laws prohibit the transmission of "obscene" material. Of course, obscenity is a very vague concept, and with internet porn widely available, you'd think the laws would be moot. But most of the states still enforce some form of the old obscenity laws.
In some cases, they've just never been taken off the books; in others, the laws have only been uodated to differentiate "tangible" obscene materials as prohibited. So you can watch stuff on cable TV or the internet, but not buy DVDs or videogames and have them sent to you. Yes, this is stupid.
Other states spell out even more stringent laws, though.
In Oklahoma, for example, the statute, "prohibits distribution of obscene material including electronic videogames or recordings; prohibits importation of obscene material, including electronic videogames into the state General statute; prohibits the knowing sale, distribution or display of obscene or harmful materials, including by CD-ROM disk, magnetic disk, or magnetic tape, to minors; prohibits the knowing transmission by computer of obscene or harmful material to minors General statute; prohibits harassment using electronic means." via
So, PayPal, the buyer, or ebay (or all three) may just be covering themselves by not even delivering "adult-oriented" material to certain locations.
Which sucks, yes. Hopefully, you are just facing an easy Paypal payment issue instead.
posted by misha at 1:41 PM on May 6, 2012
I don't know where you live, of course, but in the U.S., the original Comstock laws prohibit the transmission of "obscene" material. Of course, obscenity is a very vague concept, and with internet porn widely available, you'd think the laws would be moot. But most of the states still enforce some form of the old obscenity laws.
In some cases, they've just never been taken off the books; in others, the laws have only been uodated to differentiate "tangible" obscene materials as prohibited. So you can watch stuff on cable TV or the internet, but not buy DVDs or videogames and have them sent to you. Yes, this is stupid.
Other states spell out even more stringent laws, though.
In Oklahoma, for example, the statute, "prohibits distribution of obscene material including electronic videogames or recordings; prohibits importation of obscene material, including electronic videogames into the state General statute; prohibits the knowing sale, distribution or display of obscene or harmful materials, including by CD-ROM disk, magnetic disk, or magnetic tape, to minors; prohibits the knowing transmission by computer of obscene or harmful material to minors General statute; prohibits harassment using electronic means." via
So, PayPal, the buyer, or ebay (or all three) may just be covering themselves by not even delivering "adult-oriented" material to certain locations.
Which sucks, yes. Hopefully, you are just facing an easy Paypal payment issue instead.
posted by misha at 1:41 PM on May 6, 2012
Mod note: From the OP:
Thanks all for the help. I've tried asking the sellers, but the sellers I've tried to bid on seem to have questions disabled (possibly because of the volume they deal with?). I also tried adding a credit card on Paypal, but the problem seems to be that I can't even get to the payment stage of the process: when I try to bid on the item, it prevents me from even entering a bid, and gives me that error message in red on the top of the screen. This also means that sellers aren't exactly eager to relist as "sad kitty totally not porn," because I haven't won the item yet, by virtue of being completely unable to bid for it. misha, I am in the US (and that's awful!) but the sellers also seem to be located in the US, so it would seem Comstock wouldn't apply.posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:48 PM on May 6, 2012
Have you set your eBay location as being within the U.S.? Are you using a U.S. credit card? Do PayPal or eBay have any reason to think you are not located within the U.S.? Is your address listed as an APO or FPO, even if it's within the U.S.?
posted by clorox at 10:06 PM on May 6, 2012
posted by clorox at 10:06 PM on May 6, 2012
Log out completely from paypal and ebay, and delete all cookies from those sites. Then log back in to ebay and try to bid. It should take you to paypal and you can select the credit card option without an account.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:10 PM on May 6, 2012
posted by Rhomboid at 10:10 PM on May 6, 2012
If its not your location (has to be US or Canada for adult items), see if EBay has a place for you to enter your age in your account. You might have to attest to being 18+ or 21+.
posted by kostia at 11:44 PM on May 6, 2012
posted by kostia at 11:44 PM on May 6, 2012
Snarky "people pay for porn" answer aside:
Is there a reason to use eBay? There must be other services if you are keen to secure the physical objects, the studios themselves I imagine have payment systems.
posted by Mezentian at 4:38 AM on May 7, 2012
Is there a reason to use eBay? There must be other services if you are keen to secure the physical objects, the studios themselves I imagine have payment systems.
posted by Mezentian at 4:38 AM on May 7, 2012
Porn producing pro here.
Almost any title you can buy a physical copy of, you can find online as a digital download. Download and burn it to your own disc.
Membership websites are a great value for getting a lot of DVD quality digital downloads that you can keep and watch forever.
If you are into sane bondage, My self produced website, for example, offers hundreds of updates n DVD quality for around 30 bucks. That's the same price as a single physical pressed disc mailed to you from somewhere.
Good value+ good quality+ instant gratification = won't someone think of the kittens?!
Good luck.
posted by sandra_s at 12:15 PM on May 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Almost any title you can buy a physical copy of, you can find online as a digital download. Download and burn it to your own disc.
Membership websites are a great value for getting a lot of DVD quality digital downloads that you can keep and watch forever.
If you are into sane bondage, My self produced website, for example, offers hundreds of updates n DVD quality for around 30 bucks. That's the same price as a single physical pressed disc mailed to you from somewhere.
Good value+ good quality+ instant gratification = won't someone think of the kittens?!
Good luck.
posted by sandra_s at 12:15 PM on May 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Mod note: From the OP:
Clorox and MinusCelsius: thanks, your powers combined have fixed this. My location in Ebay was marked with an old APO address from years ago, even though I wasn't living there anymore. Once I updated that, and used the credit card solution with paypal, I was able to successfully push past it. I guess people living outside the US can't buy porn? So strange. Again, thanks.posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:51 PM on May 7, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by amanda at 11:26 AM on May 6, 2012