It is a controversial topic and alot of strong opinions...here is a quick summary and you can draw your own conclusions.
Legally no Brazilian Rosewood, regardless of whether it is pre-ban or not can not be sold and shipped internationally without a CITES certificate that has been granted based on paper proof that the source was pre-ban. Any vendor that states that they have another form of document or that can not supply a CITES certificate should not be selling internationally.
Having said that, CITES is an international treaty and local regulations vary country by country but in general CITES is concerned with international sales across borders. Because BRW was imported and sold for a few hundred years and was only restricted in 1992, there are still lots of caches of old stock around that is keeping guitar builders supplied, albeit at increasingly high prices.
The issue that is controversial is that there is still harvesting going on in Brazil and the chance that a dealer in Brazil has gone to the effort of getting CITES permits is extremely slim (to none). I have bought BRW sets from internal sellers on eBay that came with the proper CITES permits but in general that is almost never the case.
My personal belief is that old growth stock that exists and is found in an attic or wood pile should be able to be sold without restriction within the country someone is in, but eventually those sources will dry up, regardless of price.
Not only is there the ethical issue of dealing with unknown sources with questionable supply, there is also the chance that the wood you will recieve may not even BRW...there are other species that look very similar when seen in a poorly photographed auction listing. Several of the items I have seen listed (and I am not specifically talking about the particular source mentioned above) that to my eye and most likely not BRW.
To be completely open about it, I build classical guitars and build with BRW for my best guitars. If I am building a guitar for a player that is outside of the US or a player that tours internationally, I only use sets with CITES permits and include those with the guitar as it eliminates the risk of problems getting through customs. If the guitar is for a player in the US, then I use a set that is old growth and I know is pre-ban but will not come with a CITES permit and will not be sold with it.
I know that when the sets I have with CITES permits are gone, that I will at some point abandon BRW as a wood choice.
If you are looking for a better source for BRW than eBay and realize that it will cost more but be more reputable, I would check with some of the OLF vendors who have pre-ban old growth stock such as Allied and others.
All of this is just my opinion but for me the difference in cost in small and the peace of mind is worth the price gap.
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