EBay permits sale of LDS garments

Firm says it was wrong to yank auctions of LDS clothes

It's OK to sell sacred religious undergarments on eBay.

Officials at eBay on Tuesday inappropriately halted the sale of the undergarments worn by LDS faithful, said a spokesman for the company.

Three separate auctions on the Internet auction site were yanked early Tuesday morning amid public pressure.

"We appeared to have pulled those listings in error," said Henry Gomez, vice president of corporate communications. "In this case the service representative became confused."

Gomez said the customer service representative feared offending members of the LDS community and pulled the listings from the site.

In a letter obtained by the Deseret Morning News to a seller of one of the auctions, eBay said the garments cannot be sold on its site without express written permission from the LDS Church.

The letter states, "Listing items such as the temple garments that are generally not publicly available and where the sale of such items could be highly offensive to members of the LDS religious community is not consistent with eBay's core values or our business needs."

Gomez said the listings did not contain any hate language and can be posted back on the Internet.

Dallas native Andrew Moody said he was upset eBay yanked two of his listings for the undergarments. When his auctions were pulled, both notched a high bid of $14,999, Moody said. Three weeks ago he sold a pair of the undergarments for $71 and eBay officials never said a thing.

"Either I'd like to be told I'm allowed to sell them, or I'm not," Moody said. "I don't want them to switch horses midstream because of public opinion."

Moody said he buys the undergarments from an "official distributor" but refused to name names. Garment distribution is a matter of trust, said LDS spokesman Coke Newell. LDS Church members must show a temple recommend to purchase temple clothing, not garments, he said.

Moody said he is pursuing other avenues of selling the garments.

The high bidder in a Sunday auction for a pair of the undergarments never coughed up the $1,000.01. Craig Greenwood, an eBay employee privately running the auction, said he is in the process of going through eBay seller actions to collect that payment. But a Florida woman said Greenwood offered the undergarments at a discounted price — only $55 — after the sale fell through.

"I have no bad intentions," said Melissa Allen, a member of the LDS Church. "I don't intend to wave the garments at a rally against the faith. I just wanted to see what they looked like."

During the church's October general conference, two conference attendees were incited to violence after street preachers donned the undergarments, deemed sacred religious clothing by members of the LDS Church. The two men were cited for assault and theft after ripping the clothing off the preachers.

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