Why can't I buy magnets from China?

3  2018-01-20 by elasto

I'm in the US and was trying to get neodymium magnets from Ebay. I thought it would be nice to have good magnets to go on my fridge. My order from Nov 15 never arrived after 8 weeks. I contacted the seller 3 days ago and we agreed they would resend the shipment. Today I find that order has completely disappeared from my order listing page, and there is no refund notification from Ebay, and no refund on Paypal.

A few weeks ago someone had a post, I think on here, that permanent magnets will no longer be sold to the US. Are authorities finally cracking down on Ebay sellers?

EDIT 1: Sounds like the rumor about banning permanent magnet sales was false, and the seller likely had their Ebay account removed for some other reason, thus resulting in the order being completely removed from my order list. It's happened before, about once a year. Lots of Chinese sellers list unrelated items together to lower the price, and make their item appear earlier in search listings sorted by price.

I filed a complaint with Ebay and the seller has about 5 days to respond. If there is no response from the seller, Ebay will refund me the money. And I ordered magnets from another person so I can continue to make my fridge magnets. :)

29 comments

1  HeavyWinter 2018-01-20

Go to the store and buy a magnet, you really think it's illegal to put magnets on your fridge?

1  elasto 2018-01-20

Crazier things have happened. It's illegal to catch and save rainwater in some states, like Colorado. But I was also following up on this rumor I read.

1  HeavyWinter 2018-01-20

You can have a few rain barrels in Colorado no problem. Don't act like it's some Orwellian ban on all rain water.

The law is there to stop massive collection of rain water needed to maintain some local ecosystems. Not residential rain water collecting...but more like on the industrial scale.

1  MsRoyal 2018-01-20

Just throwing this in: Rainwater collection is regulated because of a guy in OR who was collecting multiple Olympic size pools worth (he had boats in one) & seriously impacting the surrounding environment. Most of the "crazy" laws are due to aholes like that. Idk, but it could be that someone did some weird shit & got regs added regarding magnets.

1  S_words4_500 2018-01-20

Lol, I dig, but let's not stifle cheap crafty sobs like me because the madness of a schmuck. I'm sure a couple of murders via crochet needles have happened in in this crazy world, can I still make hats? : ) I'm very much overgeneralizing but the drift is there

1  MsRoyal 2018-01-20

Oh, I hear you (cheap & crafty, myself), just saying it's usually just one asshole ruining it for the rest of us. Watch out they'll mandate squishy rubber tips on all crochet hooks if they catch you talking like that, ha!

1  Enok-Stroth 2018-01-20

What makes them think because one asshole does it that they can prevent others. Who gives them control of the rain. And where it lands. Why should they have any kind of control. Was that guy on his own property? I'm just wondering, out loud. I'm sure I can do some research but often times I like to ask the person who brings it up.

1  MsRoyal 2018-01-20

He had multiple resoviors set up the size of 20 olympic size swimming pools, literally big enough for boats. Rainwater (or at least most of it) needs to absorb/runoff in order to protect incredibly delicate environmental balances. So even though he was technically on his own property his actions were harming the property of others + the entire surrounding area. It was one of those "My right to swing my arm ends at my neighbor's nose" type situations.

1  Enok-Stroth 2018-01-20

Interesting case. Lead me to a few more interesting cases. Thanks for bringing it up.

1  MsRoyal 2018-01-20

Yay! You're welcome & happy reading! Did you get to the one about why they regulated against folks building their own wind turbines? If not def check it out. That guy was a real piece of work.

1  Enok-Stroth 2018-01-20

No read one where this couple had to remove a 40 year old pond because they did not have the water rights to it apparently.

1  MsRoyal 2018-01-20

Ooo, what an intriguing story! I'll look it up. Water in particular is a tricky thing. Near my hometown there are two nearly dry rivers that used to be huge roaring things. One was affected by diverting for farming, lakes, & wells & both by the Hoover dam. As someone who came up in the desert & so respects the hell out of water, I'm a pretty big proponent of slowly, but surely, doing away with those, ultimately harmful, types of human interference.

1  IAMAExpertInBirdLaw 2018-01-20

Most states that's because mosquitos breed in them

1  HeffalumpInDaRoom 2018-01-20

Maybe they should outlaw my bed...

1  elasto 2018-01-20

Not in mine. I cover my barrels with screening, and sometimes put a comet goldfish in each one. Comets are 25 cents each. They love mosquito larva.

1  NonDucor_Duco2 2018-01-20

That hasn't been true for awhile

https://www.google.com/amp/denver.cbslocal.com/2016/05/12/gov-hickenlooper-signs-bill-to-allow-rainwater-collection/amp/

1  canitbe73 2018-01-20

Go to a store and buy a magnet and look where it was made.

You can most definitely buy magnets from China.

1  Fizrock 2018-01-20

What? I own some neodymium magnets. Maybe don't buy from a sketchy dude on Ebay.

1  KreepurZ 2018-01-20

I wonder if the Rare Earth Element battles are still going on.

China has attempted to corner the market in order to drive up the prices. This has been going on since the 90s.

Trade embargoes of REE let a lot of military analysts see how real of a threat, China was to the stability of the Global Economy.

Unless something has changed recently, China has the only large scale mining of REE’s right now. They stopped shipment of all REE’s Japan for a few months, we can only assume they still have some limitations.

I just don’t see how this would impact fridge magnets...

1  AmishAtomicPhysicist 2018-01-20

Magnets how do they work?

1  Bacore 2018-01-20

Magnets are little pieces of metal that capture gravity. It's sciencey

1  babaroga73 2018-01-20

Mag(ic)nets!

1  IAMAExpertInBirdLaw 2018-01-20

Sounds like you got scammed

1  elasto 2018-01-20

I suspect the seller account got removed for some other problem, and so my order just disappeared from my Orders page. But the order was still on the list of orders on the Ebay resolution page.

1  2McDoublesPlz 2018-01-20

I was attempting to buy magnets a few months ago and before I placed my order, while my wife's phone was off, Google maps popped up on her phone looking down at my house. Still haven't ordered any lol... need to try again soon.

1  of_mendez 2018-01-20

probably cause they mess with the scanners

1  elasto 2018-01-20

What do you mean? Magnets don't mess with barcode scanners unless they are really close. High-speed barcode scanners can scan from 1 foot away, so that should not be an issue with 12mm wide disc magnets.

1  of_mendez 2018-01-20

I was just brainstorming, maybe they are trying to stop you from discovering something about magnets

1  stupidfuckingtroll 2018-01-20

Get them from amazon they have some sick ones. Alibaba works fine too imo