Thread: eBay just dropped my auction due to ivory scales

For educational purposes,this is what one would see on a legal elephant tusk ( sport hunted 80ish yrs ago)
In the case of marine Ivory such as non-fossil,white walrus ivory (sustanence hunted by alaskan natives)
A small hole is drilled in the tusk and a green ID tag is cabeled in place.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

With cases of Illegal smuggling Ivory can easily be dated as to when the animal was killed.
Sport hunted Tusks can still be legally brought into The U.S today.Yes,elephants hunters still exsist today.
All pre ban legal tusks are stamped with export numbers that can be traced to date and origin.
There are tons of legal Ivory in the world.

Yea, go to Africa Mr Big game hunter and shoot an Elephant and bring the Tusks back and see what happens to you in Customs.

That provision specifies sport hunting under certain conditions, very limited conditions like when they cull the herds in S Africa mainly and you have a permit to hunt. Then you can bring them back but you better have a mountain of paperwork from the S African Govt.

People smuggle Ivory into the country all the time and only a tiny fraction is actually detected. That's why there is so much turning up all the time.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Yea, go to Africa Mr Big game hunter and shoot an Elephant and bring the Tusks back and see what happens to you in Customs.

That provision specifies sport hunting under certain conditions, very limited conditions like when they cull the herds in S Africa mainly and you have a permit to hunt. Then you can bring them back but you better have a mountain of paperwork from the S African Govt.

People smuggle Ivory into the country all the time and only a tiny fraction is actually detected. That's why there is so much turning up all the time.

Am not a big game hunter and I would never want to shoot an Elephant,all Killing of african Elephants today is done for culling purposes and a ton of paperwork is required just to be allowed to do so.
That paperwork,combined with a license fee of $35,000.00 allows you to bring the tusks back to the U.S

It also goes without saying that the numbers/ID on the tusk is long gone once it is converted into a set of scales for your high end custom razor. Ivories on a vintage Helje or Sheffield, if they are original, are obviously 'legal' but some bureaucrat working for customs might not be easily convinced. Seems we're going back to Kafka's vision of the world.

What about horn? It is a natural material gained from an animal, does fall into the "You cannot sell" category?

Just wait until you have an auction pulled because you describe the scales being "French ivory celluloid". It was like talking to a brick wall explaining that celluloid is not in fact real ivory. Even after I changed the description they wouldn't let me run the auction.

Originally Posted by Silents

What about horn? It is a natural material gained from an animal, does fall into the "You cannot sell" category?

I don't think so. I recently sold two custom razors to a guy in Canada. One was Kudu horn and the other was giraffe bone. They went through Canadian customs with no problem, and no special documentation. I also know of a guy in Norway who bought a RW with horn scales ( used) and the same person has one, if not more than one, ivory from Mastro Livi. That would have been imported from Italy.

I have a couple of ivory scaled razors from Livi. I believe they are mammoth so maybe that is why he was able to import them to the vendor who carries them ? Not sure what documentation would have been required .... if any. They are pretty and shave great .... I know that.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

It also goes without saying that the numbers/ID on the tusk is long gone once it is converted into a set of scales for your high end custom razor. Ivories on a vintage Helje or Sheffield, if they are original, are obviously 'legal' but some bureaucrat working for customs might not be easily convinced. Seems we're going back to Kafka's vision of the world.

Thats the conundrum Jim.

I'm going to suggest a new term for ivory on Ebay.

Pachydental.

It's got a good ring and I bet it won't trip any alarms yet still conveys the material.

Here in the UK, EvilBay won't allow sales of any kind of knife either! Even completely legal small slipjoints, kitchen knives are against ebay's rules!

Back to the ivory, I really can't understand why any tusks collected by the rangers catching poachers are destroyed. The tusks are no use to the elephant any more and the police and rangers chasing the poachers need money to keep up their work. Why don't the allow them to legally sell the tusks and use the money to keep going?

Gareth