Embargoed Goods ????

[12345jamesstamps]

Hello everyone!

I wish when eBay makes changes they tell us 'the sellers'.

I woke up to 4 listings taken off by eBay....only 4 items!

Still half asleep this morning I took off the other '38' more myself.

I suspect one of my competitor's reported 4 items and that is why they were ended?

I have to believe that since I still had 38 listed.

Russia has been quietly put on the embargoed goods policy by eBay.

No one told me.

I guess it's open season to report all these sellers selling Russia stamps.

Nothing with the name Russia can now be sold.

[worldcoinauctions]

I've sold a number of USSR items, different country that no longer exists 🙂

Can't sell Cuba anything. 

Once had an experience where I was not permitted to list a coin from Algeria because I put the name of the ruler at the time in the title and it sounded like it was from Iran, took his name out and no problem....

[sin-n-dex]

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@worldcoinauctions wrote:

I've sold a number of USSR items, different country that no longer exists 🙂

Can't sell Cuba anything. 

Once had an experience where I was not permitted to list a coin from Algeria because I put the name of the ruler at the time in the title and it sounded like it was from Iran, took his name out and no problem....

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I had a similar problem with a couple of Oman banknotes (but no ruler, the picture of the ruler made it look like an Iran note, even though it said OMAN).

The OP had Soviet and pre-soviet stamps removed by AI. I took mine down today, don't want to take any chances. AI isn't always that smart, and then what happens is you're arguing with a CSR who believes the AI is right.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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devon@ebay wrote:

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

I kinda feel I am getting picked on personally by eBay since there are so many listings from USA sellers with the title Russia and the category Russia...and 4 of my listings were taken down by eBay today.

I took ALL Russia listings down because I don't understand the specific policy when other sellers...thousands are selling Russia items.

devon@eBay

kyle@eBay

elizabeth@eBay

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Hey @12345jamesstamps! It sounds like the items listed may have been from Russia, which is considered Embargoed Goods. Embargoed Goods are not permitted to be listed on site due to various restrictions placed by the US government for embargoed goods.

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devon@ebay 

The wording in the list of embargoed countries states that only specific things from Russia are banned, without telling us what those things are. When I research Russia embargo, they talk about things like oil and natural gas, not coins and stamps.

I spoke to an eBay CSR on the phone yesterday who explicitly told me coins and stamps are not covered by the embargo. Now you posted they are embargoed. So which is it? Us sellers can't guess at the rules, it needs to be clear in the policy or we accrue suspensions for something that isn't made clear from the start.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

Just the title and category says 'Russia'.

No words 'Russia' on the stamps...their all in Russian language.

A set of money stamps were taken off and 2 stamps from 1917 in these 4 lots.

So strange.

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They need to get rid of the Russia category altogether if we're not allowed to sell coins and stamps from there. It's misleading to give us a category to put stuff in, then slap us with a violation for listing it.

devon@ebay 

[sin-n-dex]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

The US Government decides which countries and which goods are subject to embargos.

Ebay implements bots after the embargo is announced and public knowledge. Sellers should be aware of these actions since the limited number of real new organizations do make reference to them. But unfortunately, there are fewer real news organizations and many people do not get news from them.

The first many come to know of an embargo is when Ebay takes down their listings. I do not think there is anything to blame Ebay for. They are just following what the law requires.

Sellers who wait for Ebay to take action are breaking the law, without knowing it. They could have had problems before the Ebay action if the government was aggressive in enforcing the embargo.

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Embargo, noun: an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country.

If a seller is in the US and has items from Russia that were obtained at a time when trade was allowed (like say these stamps are Soviet, or pre-Soviet, or simply before the Ukraine war), how are they violating an embargo to ship it to another location in the US?

By definition embargo is a ban on trade with a country. If the US sellers are "trading" with other US buyers, I don't see how they're breaking the law. The embargo is a ban on trade, ie imports. So I get this doesn't absolve me since my Russian stamps are actually in Canada, so if Russian items (including stamps) are embargoed, technically I wouldn't be allowed to sell them. But the OP is in the US, so he's not breaking any trade laws by shipping them to another US seller.

C.

[buyselljack2016]

Don't know much about AI, but from what I do know it seems that AI is pretty smart.  It's those that control AI and tell it how to think that are not that smart.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

Don't know much about AI, but from what I do know it seems that AI is pretty smart.  It's those that control AI and tell it how to think that are not that smart.

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I disagree. AI is not very smart. It is quite stupid and remains stupid if the information used to train the AI tool is lacking in intelligence or flawed or biased.

It does not differ from programmers who are unable to code a simple test because they do not know the parameters for what must be tested or what the criteria are to pass or fail the test.

Human or artificial intelligence, in the absence of training and intellect, fail.

[1786davycrockett]

devon@ebay 

"It sounds like the items listed may have been from Russia, which is considered Embargoed Goods. Embargoed Goods are not permitted to be listed on site due to various restrictions placed by the US government for embargoed goods."

What @12345jamesstamps is discussing is pre-1991 stamps and coins from either the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Imperial Russia, plus several stamps that were created during the Russian Civil War between 1917 and 1922.  NONE of these stamps (or coins) have ANYTHING to do with the current, post-1991 Russian Federation, and should NOT be subject to embargo, as they are of an historic significance.

In short -- these are items from countries and governments which no longer exist.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I just sold an item from the USSR but it was from WWII so it seems like it is a hit an miss with what is allowed. The real irony in this is that the sanctions are supposed to apply to exports to the USSR also. Thanks to some creativity by a few countries Russian buyers are getting around the sanctions and purchasing items from just about every country that is supposed to be supporting the sanctions. The State Department reports that while the sanctions initially impacted the Russian economy that is no longer the case. 

[wilsonharborsales]

Many Countries that were in the Soviet Union prior to 1990 including Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and East Germany.  Since those were all part of Russia, are pre-1990 items from there embargoed as well?

[sin-n-dex]

I like how all the replies are pointing out how ridiculous it is to make this such a wide spread embargo when it's only Russia in it's current government that is subject to the embargo.

Hopefully Devon comes back and replies to a couple of the posts where we asked for clarification. I did talk to an eBay CSR, but they might not have understood that I was asking about all Russian governments, and coins and stamps. They might have thought I only meant Soviet Union or some other issue that stems from poor communication when we ask a CSR to clarify policy.

One could try on FB, but I haven't been on there since they moved it. But I've noticed on FB that when it's policy questions that are not account specific, AI regurgitates it's policy back at you in the same form as posted on their help pages. If I wanted to read the help pages, I'd do that, I'm messaging for clarification on the help pages.

C.

[1786davycrockett]

devon@ebay 

@12345jamesstamps 

The current Russian Federation government receives NO compensation for stamps and coins produced before 1991.

Several of these items were manufactured over 100 years ago -- long before there was a Russian Federation -- and the Soviet-era items are in direct philosophical conflict with the aims of the post-1991 Russian Federation -- so including those items in the "embargo" definitely makes no sense.

Doesn't anybody at eBay HQ know ANYTHING about Russian history?!?

[12345jamesstamps]

This is just a followed-up.

I hope I don't step on anyone's toes.

A lot of buyers as well as sellers use the "report this item" of a listing hoping to remove listings.

It appears to be artificial intelligence and not really anyone reading anything you post.

When you "report this item" the "description or reason why" has to be almost written word for word why listing should be removed...from the reason it should be removed under eBay rules...not your personal views.

   Example: "items from Russia subject to International Sanctions"...and "Russia is an embargo country".

That is what eBay states...and what was put in the reason the listing to be taken off.

Apparently I blocked someone and didn't know we can't list Russia anything.

I had 40 listings but only 4 got removed.

And if you clink on "Russia stamps" or anything "Russia"...there are thousands of listings.

It's someone using the "report this item" and it is generated by Artificial Intelligence.

[rockyroadtradingpost]

@12345jamesstamps @1786davycrockett 

I just had a 50+ year old textile taken down based on this embargoed goods policy on the same day I listed it.

Funny thing is, I created the listing from a "Sell Similar" off an almost identical item that sold last month, and there are many others currently listed, which have been up for months.

I wouldn't think competitors reported my listing, as mine is a much smaller size and is no competition for theirs, but you never know.

It's a beautiful item, so I'll just keep it as a piece of history.

[rioco_56]

Same exact thing happened to me with Algerian and Albanian stamps. I used the rulers names and apparently the algorithm thought they were Iranian. Removed the names and they were accepted. I wished they fixed that since some collectors look out for specific rulers etc. Oh well.