I have a stamp collection for sale - cannot sell for 1,1k because it might be worth more than 2,5k
Edited: TLDR
I got hit by a surprise notification when trying to lower my current auction price to $1.1k from 1.2k, with a message saying:
"It appears you're listing an item valued at or above US$2500 with shipping to the US. According to our eBay Seller Listing Policy, this item can't be listed unless you have a dedicated account manager. To continue, revise the shipping options or apply for an account manager's service at hisappeals@ebay.com."
I asked GPT Pro to do a thorough research and see if anything changed.
It came up with: You wrote that the total retail value they were evaluated at is $8k+, so most likely, your thread had been blocked because it exceeds the amount of $2.5k. Other users had been reporting this as well.
Now the thing is: in philately, bulk sale prices are often between 10-20% of the retail price.
It made no sense to get my sale limited because it has an evaluation price higher than ebay's allowed price limit.
And this thing only happened today, after about a month of lowering the price to my listing every week.
So I knew I didn't mess up, and tried to find a fix, here.
I just learned that over night, ebay lowered the maximum sale price for EU to US, from $2500 to $500.
Yet, they failed to notify their users of that. At least, I did not get any notification of this, not even after contacting support.
Even their support doesn't know of this change:
Support replied:
"
I understand that you are selling items worth $1200 not $2500 but still get error that you cannot list items worth $2500 or more. Rest assured, I am here to help you with the same and have shared complete information below.
After detailed investigation of your account and draft of listing, I have found that you are only listing items worth $1250 but getting error of high value item. I apologies for the inconvenience, in this case please share the screenshot of the error in the link below so that we can review that and help you with the same. Be assured, we will review your case and try our best to resolve this for you. "
This reply came 30 minutes before writing this.
Apparently, members of the community know of ebay changes better than ebay's staff does.
Now you understand what I was speaking of, and why 90% of the comments are completely irrelevant.
gone.c-33
·1 year agoNo it doesn’t help. And we’re not the ones affected with brain rot here.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year agoIt definitely helped me understand where the problem lies in this thread. I mean, that was already fairly clear from their first responses, but now it's much more clear.
p.more
OP1 year agoIt's literally how it went, but it doesn't help, because you guys judge the tone, not the message. Even though the tone was towards the rules, where the reason for the rules being implemented was not yet fully explained, I was called out for being rude to the members that replied.
This is fascinating American behavior.
Hint: "This is the dumbest thing I read this year." was aimed towards the rule change (with no explanation given), and not towards the member's reply.
After which, the Super user replied, called me out for being rude towards the users which left me flabbergasted.
So no, not a language barrier, a context issue - exactly why I called "brainrot". When the context becomes a bit too complex, people who spend a little too much time online, fail to follow the logic and "crash". They saw bad word "dumb" in one of my replies = I am rude to the user.
Too funny, for me.
Let's keep moving!
gone.c-33
·1 year agoOnce again I ask: is the US the only market you can sell this collection to?
Tone is a very big part of written communication, as OP, you’re setting it, therefore you’re responsible if replies follow your vibe.
Lastly, not everyone here is American, so this has nothing to do with the replies here.
p.more
OP1 year agoIn your reality, where people pretend to appreciate unsolicited opinions and criticism, and respond politely to every bored mind that enjoys going off-topic (and you're a prime example of this), things are expected to follow a different pattern, and people that have an opinion are indeed being judged or ostracized - that is your way.
In other words, in your bubble, where people lick each other's cheeks, and pretend that they love going en-par with lesser minded individuals, politeness is expected no matter how depraved someone's comment/reply really is.
In my world, when a question is asked, people answer the question or don't speak at all.
They don't debate gender equality, or global warming in a thread where a website issue was posted, and help was asked.
It is a known fact that only the lesser minds tend to group up together and try to win forum points, arguing and trying to make someone feel lesser, because they did not respond politely when provoked.
It is hilarious that you still try, though.
I am curious how this will escalate further, it's the only reason I stick around, since the answer to my problem was given a long time ago.
Cheers 😄
gone.c-33
·1 year agoWow. You’re really special.
p.more
OP1 year agoWe're all special! Some are just more special than others. â¤ï¸
*grabs cheeks*
msha3839
·1 year ago🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂ðŸ‘
p.more
OP1 year agoCan you sign my stamp collection, sir?
albertabrightalberta
·1 year agoNeither ebay nor the sellers on the site implemented the new tariffs.
If you don't like them, complain to the people able to make a change.
lacemaker3
·1 year ago@p.more,
As of now (Aug 27, 2025) you probably can't ship anything to the US, of any value. I can see two listings that you currently have on eBay.com, including the large stamp collection. You would be well advised to end them, because if they sell to a US buyer, you will not be able to ship them.
The postal services in Europe, and others around the world, have had to stop accepting package shipments to the US because of the elimination of the de minimis exemption. This used to allow packages valued at $800 or less into the US duty free. This exemption is being ended as of packages arriving to US Customs on Aug 29, 2025.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/de-minimis-postal-services-pause-us-shipments-rcna226957
Information from the Universal Postal Union in this article:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/25-countries-suspend-postal-services-to-us-over-tariffs-un/
The problem is that, the US is now requiring that all packages be shipped Delivered Duty Paid (DDP), which means that the sender has to prepay the customs, duties and tariffs to the US customs office. Before this, the Universal Postal Union members (including the US) had mutually agreed that such shipments would be Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDU), so that the responsibility for collecting customs, duties and tariffs from the recipients was on the receiving country. However, this change was enacted without allowing enough time for other postal services and shipping carriers to be able to implement it.
Also, eBay does not have any process in place to allow sellers outside the US to collect the customs and tariff charges from their buyers in the US when they pay.
p.more
OP1 year agoThe first helpful anwer!
Thanks for clearing it up.
So it's not ebay's anti fraud mechanism trying to fight fraud by limiting sales to under $500.
It's actually the result of the new tariff system.
Would have been cool if they supplied this info online.
I usually use GPT PRO to find all the relevant info on the web, but yeah, the bot is slow sometimes.
He couldn't find any info on why this was implemented by ebay.
I didn't get any notifications either. It was just a "Surprise -> you can't list items over $2500" even when my total price did not exceed $1200.
You get the confusion.
Got no notifications, no explanations, just people telling me it had been changed to $500, with no reasoning behind it, except "fighting fraud", which obviously has nothing to do with this.
pickapaper
·1 year ago@p.more
I would assume from reading this that you want to sell the collection as one unit. So, if the dollar amount is a problem for selling it on eBay, why not break it up into four or five smaller lots?
I don't know anything about your selling history but I hope you are familiar with eBay's Money Back Guarantee. Selling anything expensive is always a risk. If you were to sell this collection and shipped it out of the country and the buyer filed a "not as described" claim, you would have to pay to get the collection back and would have to hope that you got everything back and that the buyer didn't keep the best stamps. They could return something entirely different and you would still have to refund.
Have you talked to any stamp shops in your area to see if they would be interested in them? Or tried selling them locally?
p.more
OP1 year agoYes, except that I paid for evaluation, I have no clue how to split it in 4.
Unless I pay for another evaluation and ask for the lot to be split.
You get it, I hope.
pickapaper
·1 year ago@p.more wrote: Yes, except that I paid for evaluation, I have no clue how to split it in 4.
Unless I pay for another evaluation and ask for the lot to be split.
You get it, I hope."
Yes, I get it. When you say you "paid for evaluation", I assume you mean you had an appraisal done on the stamp collection, and it was appraised at "market value"? Was the appraiser certified and did he give you a formal written appraisal or "just a verbal"? And the appraiser only gave you one total for entire collection rather than any kind of breakdown? That's a little questionable if they didn't give any kind of breakdown; there is no way to appraise an entire collection of anything as one unit and be accurate with it.
p.more
OP1 year agoIt's complicated, you'd have to take my word for it.
I'm not here to prove anything or be questioned.
Bottom line is yes, I did pay $100 for the collection to be evaluated by someone with enough time to browse through almost 4k stamps. Local philatelist.
I'm not gonna pay again, to break it down into 4 lots, and make a mere $800 profit at most, if I manage to sell. I'll have to look at alternatives.
What I got is a general reply with: This is what you have (list of countries, thematics, etc.). This is how much it's worth. No, he didn't sort them into smaller batches and price every batch for me.
Again, the problem is not with the sale. The problem is with the "error" that appeared "out of nowhere, literally".
And their staff being uninformed of the change, that's another huge questionmark.
There are hundreds of similar sales to mine, currently on ebay, priced from $2k to $10k, but that's just the privilege of being from the US, right? 🙂
Let's leave it at that.
msha3839
·1 year agoYou paid $100 for local philatelist to apprise 4k stamps? And what makes you believe that this person knows everything about stamps? Your problem that you have no clue about stamps…I do..I collect stamps for over 60 years and my collection was evaluated by real experts in US and Europe at $ 1.6 million…you sound extremely angry and arrogant to other posters..good luck 🥂
p.more
OP1 year agoThanks, but the system question was already answered a while ago. Everything after that has just been people projecting tone and flexing collections.
p.more
OP1 year agoI see. So casual sellers can't sell items worth more than $500 from EU to US.
It's GG. Smart decision by them 🙂
Let's ruin it for all the casual sellers.
Let's even limit the growth potential for the new professional sellers to $500/item.
no GPU, Phone, etc sales from new people, even if they verify by ID.
I'm done with this website. This is the dumbest thing I read this year.
Thanks for the info.
soh.maryl
·1 year agoYou do realize that the people you're addressing here aren't the ones who make the rules?
Just checking.
p.more
OP1 year agoDid you understand the words that I wrote?
Apparently not.
I was not blaming the people in this thread about ebay's changes, my dear.
Read slowly: I was expressing how this change makes no sense, as it would only distance European sellers from the platform, from a purely logical perspective.
Thank you, hope you managed to understand this time.
soh.maryl
·1 year agoCondescending much?
johnrj1226
·1 year agoAu Avoir, Adios, Au Wiedersehen, Sayronara, Au Revior, Aloha, Cherrio, Adjö & Ciao! Of course, Good-Bye!
johnrj1226
·1 year agoread this
https://export.ebay.com/en/regulations/ebay-policies/ebay-seller-listing-policy-update-for-sales-to-the-united-states/
toysaver
·1 year agoDid you click the link and try to apply for an account manager? Might help. Your limited to listing items worth less than $500 if shipping to the US as of today. Aug. 27th.
eBay Seller Listing Policy Update for Sales to the United States
p.more
OP1 year ago> $500 as of today?!
It says > $2500
Also, the info I found is that the account manager service is only for big sellers, not for casual sellers like me, that inherit an item and sell once every 3-5 years.
Seriously weird rules. Incredible.
Can you please confirm?
powell-collectibles
·1 year ago$2500 was the limit. It is now $500. Clearly, eBay is seeing issues with orders above this value. They might be doing a favor to you.
 
p.more
OP1 year agoLove that logic.
I literally can't use the platform to fulfill my needs = they might be doing a favor to me. This is pure 🙂
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoIt makes sense when you think about what might be good for eBay versus what might be good for you. eBay has plenty of facts and data on their side. They’re making a decision based on the information that they have.
regardless, there is a reasonable risk with what you are selling. A lot of experience sellers wouldn’t list anything that pricey. Seems like you haven’t sold something like this before – it could be a bad situation. Splitting up the item really might be the best thing for you and eBay.