Paypal And Stamps From Iran, Libya And North Korea: They Said 'It Wouldn't Be A Problem'

As must have been evident from the moment I joined, I'm a new dealer who will start selling online on Nov 15th.

After reading many threads on this forum, and doing some reading at the PayPal site, as well as reading comments on the HipStamp forums, I was still confused as to whether selling stamps from the above countries, as well as Cuba, would get me in hot water with PayPal.

I called them up to let them know that I (hopefully) expect a flurry of incoming payments (as opposed to the bleeding of money for purchases over the last 6 months) once I launch. I took that opportunity to ask the person the following: I plan to sell on HipStamp, and I have North Korean, Persian, Cuban and Libyan stamps - can I receive payment through PayPal without violating any of their accepted use policies?

The person on the phone said it wouldn't be a problem.

However, even if I don't violate PayPal's policy, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't run afoul any Federal laws. Going to the government's site didn't really clarify a lot (tons of legalese, and I'm not planning to ship to those countries, nor am I based in those countries, and I'm sure not selling weapons to those or any other countries.)

The collective experience and feedback from this forum would be appreciated.

To the moderator: feel free to move this to the most appropriate forum or merge with any existing thread on this topic.

Thanks, @rogdcam
Correct, I referred to this list when talking with PayPal. They noted that I cannot make or receive payments from them, but with regards to Persian, North Korean, Cuban and Libyan stamps - I can sell them in the US, and get paid through PayPal. The URL I was referring to, which you list here applies to:

"In the US, you can generally expect that payments will not be accepted from the following countries:"

Oops. I misunderstood. Sorry. Yes, since the material is already in th3 US it should be OK. The problem will be listing the items in the first place.

The intent of the "bans" is to prevent the transaction and sale of Mint and Cancelled-to-Order stamps and related material (i.e.: Souvenir Sheets, Postal Stationary, etc.,). An individual COVER(s) addressed from/to and commercially/personally used and sold as such is not banned from sale and importation from countries outside the banned areas. As an example: Before the demise of Eastern Bloc countries (Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, East Germany, etc.)I purchased and or exchanged U.S.-Dollars or stamps for North Korea commercially used covers. These were all shipped openly via Registered Mail to the United States and PASSED U.S. Customs. NOT A SINGLE SHIPMENT was confiscated, rejected or refused. I simply instructed shippers to mark the contents as "Commercially Used Philatelic Stamps." When the material was sold, it was offered pubically and auctioned in the U.S. by a well established auction house without question or problem.

Sounds like it should not be a problem according to Hal. Good luck. I must say that I thought that we were talking about stamps, not covers.

Hal - Your caps lock gets stuck sporadically.

Be sure to let us know, but I doubt that selling material from these countries will be a problem if the material is already in the U.S. Trading between them and the U.S. is apparently not permitted.

Logic and common sense frequently play no part in the enforcement of these policies. Historically, both ebay and PayPal (no idea about Hipstamp) have taken the "kill a housefly with a shotgun" approach, using the simplest interpretation so that their bots and overseas support personnel don't have to apply context: If the listings has the words "Iran", "Cuba", etc., in it you run the risk of the listing being ended and/or having your PayPal account closed, regardless of whether you are shipping domestically only or not.

Maybe they've lightened up in how they are enforcing as of late, but be aware of the risks beforehand.