Ebay Embargos Did You Know...

What I don't understand is how do they allow listing of Sudan currency in all forms?
If they ban stamps why not currency?

I tried to sell Charles Manson's album once.

Your problem is that you are trying to apply rational and consistent standards to a leviathan. You need to read more Heisenberg.

Let me just say that I've tried to sell Cuban stamps on ebay before, and was also stopped. And I AM in Canada. They're reach is unnerving.

A new movie about ebay will be titled "Dumber and Lazy". It will be a sequel to "Dumb and Dumber".

I believe that ebay has far exceeded its authority to block sale of US occupation stamps from 1898. I am hoping that someone from Cuba, New York will start legal action against ebay and/or PayPal. Apparently ebay doesn't believe that they have to establish that items blocked from listing, sale or payment actually fall within the scope of some embargo.

Clark

North Korea is also on the list

Clark is right ebay's policy regarding Cuba is crazy. I had several 1898 covers from US Military Stations in Cuba. Some of the more obscure Military Station covers are quite valuable and sell for 100s.

ebay bounced 1 of my listing for a cover mailed in 1898 to the US from a US Military base using a US stamp, I protested. After several phone calls, emails and different reviewers we worked out a compromise. They would let me sell these covers from Military stations in Cuba if the cover had a US stamp and a US address but those covers having a Cuban stamp could not be sold. Of course I didn't use "Cuba" in the title or the bots would have gotten me.

I was able to sell a few of the covers with Cuban stamps on Bidstart but I didn't take Paypal. What a pain!

I agree with previous posters in that ebay's arrogant behavior leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. But I also stand in awe at what they have achieved in both terms of earnings and technology implementation. For example, consider their algorithms. Of course we can all bring up significant issues with how they are too heavy handed (Cuba key word, filtering emails, etc.). But I think that this is a performance trade off they make; the algorithms may be lame, but they are very fast. Searching is another area in which can be easily criticized but I can think of no other mega-online entity which indexes things as fast as ebay does (including Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo). In my testing, ebay gets a new listing indexed and included in their search engine within 1-2 minutes. And while ebay can certainly get under a person's skin, if you purchase some of their stock you may find that you are less bothered by some of their crazy terms and conditions.
Don

I have formed the impression over time that ebay doesn't filter emails much if at all.

With emails you don't dare include an address written as john@msn.com because they will reject it right away. You can write it as john at msn dot com and it will go thru. Beyond that, I don't know if anyone reads what you wrote. Maybe they sample messages randomly or maybe they ignore them totally.

Messages become important when there is a problem between a buyer and seller. One of the 1st things ebay looks at is the message trail, intemperate messages from either party will make a difference in a dispute. As they say in the movies "Be Nice"

John, you can also attach a JPEG with your info so it is neither text nor in the body of you email.

They don't say that in the movies I watch. More like "I won't play the sap for you", "That wouldn't buy the headlamps" or "We don't pay mooks". Must stop translating that to e-mails ...

Roadhouse - One of my all time favorites!

Don,

While I agree that ebay is fast and relatively efficient at indexing, all of that is lost in the rendering of search pages that freeze the browser and prevent scrolling while unwanted ads are slowly loading.

I also don't agree with the concept that ebay or PayPal should be enforcers. If either entity detects a potential violation, they can report it to the appropriate government agency. The setup used by ebay and PayPal makes them the judge, jury and executioner. I am not sure that they have standing to do any more than report. Aside from that, the accuracy and effectiveness of their implementation is abysmally poor. A check of item specifics should indicate the location where the stamps were printed. Failing to include or misstating the origin could give ebay grounds for action. Failing to check items specifics means that the BOT approach was the lazy way out, but maybe the only method their language challenged coders would understand.

Again, I don't believe that ebay or PayPal has any more obligation than to monitor and report potential violations. What they are doing now is self-appointed vigilantism.

Clark