To add to my earlier reply; I spoke with eaby customer service. I am given to understand that eventually all external ads will be removed from listings. This is to assist sellers by reducing competition on outside sites and fraud and hacking incidents. They are also suppose to remove the bar that shows similar items from other ebay sellers. Eventually. With regard to the links policy, you still have to either cancel and start over or hunt up the replacement html. ebay is suppose to add more reasons for ending a listing to reflect sellers trying to comply with the new links policy. This is supposed to be done in the next week or so. An email will be sent.
So they are aware that a lot of listings will have to be cancelled in order to be in compliance. Fun times ahead, folks.