The way Patrick Rodgers sees it, he has two primary locations for his business, which includes promoting Gothic and neo-medieval music, and selling collectible trading cards for a fantasy game called Magic: The Gathering.
One is on Fourth Street in Queen Village, where he has a landlord, a lease, and basic due-process rights for his Digital Ferret shop - including that his landlord can't just board up the store or summarily evict him.
The other is online at eBay, where he owns a store called the MTG Place - and where, Rodgers complains, the Internet-marketplace giant maintains an almost neo-medieval level of control.
For 46 days this winter and spring, Rodgers says, eBay essentially boarded up the MTG Place after accusing him of a "high volume of bad buyer experiences." His $20,000 of merchandise vanished from the site as if he were never in business there at all. Finally, eBay reversed itself, with an e-mail apologizing for "the inconvenience," but only after more than 30 frantic calls, e-mails and letters. ...