TLDR - Buyer has filed a mistaken counterfeit claim for a patch. Buyer never contacted me about their concerns. But now I can't get through the appeal process because none of the options fit the scenario.

The central challenge here is illogical assumption that items in the Historical and Political Collectibles category can be documented with manufacturer invoices from the past 365 days.

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I primarily sell NASA mission patches and pins here now. At one time I sold a variety of collectible items from the 70s through the 90s, and back in 2010 Amazon upgraded my access to listing in collectibles categories based on my reliability. Since that time, I've had to remove most of the listings because Amazon procedures for verifying authenticity do not apply. How can I provide official invoices for a product that hasn't been produced for 40 years?

Despite this, when I've been contacted by Amazon reps about increasing my sales, they insist Amazon still considers older collectibles to be part of their model. I've directly asked if I should just shut down anything that is not a new product, and I have been told NO.

NASA related items have continued to be viable since the imagery for mission logos is considered public domain. In more recent years NASA started a review process to create new products, but it is still not a "license." They primarily want to avoid anyone claiming something is an official NASA product.

Dating back to the 70s, at least a half dozen companies made various patches and pins. AB Emblem makes the "official" astronaut crew patches, but often the various NASA gift centers would sell patches made by other vendors. These are not "counterfeits" of the AB Emblem patches. They are their own interpretation of the mission logo design. In some cases the quality is better than the official NASA version.

Most of the patches I sell on eBay are the official AB Emblem version, but in a handful of cases my stock are other vintage releases from the time of the mission. I have bought out the stock of retired dealers, and there is no documentation on the original manufacturer. When the maker is known to me, I identify it, but I definitely do not describe them as official NASA patches.

In this case, buyer bought one of these non-official patches. The buyer did not consider it a proper match to the official issue, so they filed a counterfeit claim and low feedback. Had they written me about it, I would have simply refunded their money.

Now, though, to get the strike off my account, I have to a) plead guilty that I recognize this was a counterfeit, or b) provide factory invoices from the brand owner, which simply do not exist. There is actually NO BRAND associated with the listing, which I created myself in the collectibles category.

I talked at length to Amazon seller service on Friday, and they said they would document the conversation. But that I should then write this up and submit it through the interface in lieu of providing receipts. The response I got today was that a plan of action is not sufficient, and I needed to submit invoices.

How do I end this? I've considered writing the buyer to clarify this, but in general I've avoided this kind of contact with buyers.

Out of hundreds of SKUs, I only have a handful of patches that fit this profile, and I'm fine just removing anything else. But continue to be frustrated by Amazon contradictions in whether they actually allow vintage items to be sold here or not.

Anyone have a suggestion on how to end this? I don't see any options.