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.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

Stinks to get hit with that. When it comes to embargoed goods, that's the kind of thing eBay isn't going to announce, and instead they expect sellers to follow the news. Sanctions on Russia became more strict after they invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022.

See the full list of embargoed goods here:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/embargoed-goods-policy?id=4323

I thought there were exceptions for collectible stamps and coins, but I can't find that info at the moment.

[12345jamesstamps]

Funny though....thousands and thousands are listed for sale by USA sellers...

It's 'open season' for reporting all these sellers of their items for sale?

[12345jamesstamps]

I am so confused still.

Why are so many stamps and things with Russia in the 'category' and in the 'title' and yet they are listed on eBay...but I got 4 delisted? And by who? Other sellers?

Inquiring minds want to know...well, actually just mine.

Does it have to do with Artificial Intelligence or is it because these big sellers get a 'pass card'?

[sin-n-dex]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Stinks to get hit with that. When it comes to embargoed goods, that's the kind of thing eBay isn't going to announce, and instead they expect sellers to follow the news. Sanctions on Russia became more strict after they invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022.

See the full list of embargoed goods here:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/embargoed-goods-policy?id=4323

I thought there were exceptions for collectible stamps and coins, but I can't find that info at the moment.

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Coins and stamps from Russia are excepted items and allowed to be sold. But who knows what happens with AI. They removed an Oman listing (two of them actually) telling me that I can't sell stuff from Iran. I was told it looks like Iranian money and Oman is similar to Iran, therefore I can't sell it here. I went on FB for Business (that's what it was then) and fought the violation and they removed it. But now I say Muscat & Oman if I list anything from there, and I don't list paper money because the guy on their note looks too much like the Sha of Iran.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

Funny though....thousands and thousands are listed for sale by USA sellers...

It's 'open season' for reporting all these sellers of their items for sale?

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I suspect you got hit with AI making bad decisions. If you're able to share the listings that were taken down (if that's even possible now), I'd be curious to take a look and see what AI didn't like about them.

I have offline friends that will also be happy to review this for me a bit later... my auctions start ending in 15 minutes and we have a standing phone call during auctions to talk about eBay matters.

C.

[wastingtime101]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

I thought there were exceptions for collectible stamps and coins, but I can't find that info at the moment.

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Coins and stamps from Russia are excepted items and allowed to be sold.

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Do you have a link to that policy exception @sin-n-dex ?

This policy references Nazi-related stamps and currency, but I can't find one about exceptions to embargoed goods.

Past discussions, including this one from 3 yrs ago, talk about pre-embargoed stamps from Cuba being allowed, however today's policy page specifically says:

Sellers can't list embargoed goods or pre-embargoed goods from these countries or regions

I tried pulling up the policy on archive.org to view changes, but it's just loading blank pages. This has been happening a lot when I look up eBay policy pages on the archive.

[sin-n-dex]

devon@ebay 

kyle@ebay 

elizabeth@ebay 

Can you please confirm that coins, stamps (and postcards while I'm asking) are not part of the Russia goods embargo and @12345jamesstamps Russia listings were removed in error by AI?

If there is an embargo including coins & stamps, can you confirm if that only applies to the current government post 1991, or does it include USSR/Soviet Union and Russia Empire which are different countries/governments before the current Putin Russia government was formed?

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

I thought there were exceptions for collectible stamps and coins, but I can't find that info at the moment.

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Coins and stamps from Russia are excepted items and allowed to be sold.

---

Do you have a link to that policy exception @sin-n-dex ?

This policy references Nazi-related stamps and currency, but I can't find one about exceptions to embargoed goods.

Past discussions, including this one from 3 yrs ago, talk about pre-embargoed stamps from Cuba being allowed, however today's policy page specifically says:

Sellers can't list embargoed goods or pre-embargoed goods from these countries or regions

I tried pulling up the policy on archive.org to view changes, but it's just loading blank pages. This has been happening a lot when I look up eBay policy pages on the archive.

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I don't have a link because I called to speak to customer service after reading the thread (since I have coins and stamps as well). They told me by phone that it's specific embargoed goods from Russia, and coins and stamps aren't specifically embargoed.

However on the embargo list Cuba (as an example) is listed in it's entirety, all goods, as per how the policy is written. So I didn't think there was any exception for stamps from Cuba.

The embargo policy does say for Russia it's specific items, but they don't tell what the specific items are. So I tagged a blues for clarification.

C.

[12345jamesstamps]

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

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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.

[sin-n-dex]

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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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I kinda wanted to see what got taken down (specifically those four) to see if there's words you used in your description that the bot didn't like. I told my offline eBay contact friend about the situation and all he said was to wait and see what the blues reply to this thread (we've both tagged them for clarification).

Usually when something's embargoed (for coins and stamps) like Cuba and Iran, there's not even a category to put them in. In the stamp forum people have discussed how to skirt the embargo and confuse the bots, but it seems risky if someone wants to report your listing. My software (SixBit) won't post anything for me if I mention the word "Persia" in the listing. I've gotten error messages when trying to post that I'm using terms that are "not allowed" or "words that violate policy".

I had fantasy coins and mentioned in my description the coins aren't legal tender (because they are fantasy coins, there's a category for that), and the software blocked me telling me I was using words that violated policy. (I'm guessing that's what I said that it didn't like). I also tried to post a fantasy coin with a condition of circulated because it had been handled, but the software wouldn't let me describe a fantasy coin as circulated or not, because they aren't meant to circulate at all.

So I do feel SixBit is doing it's part to warn me when I might say something that would violate policy (or something the bots don't like).

C.

[devon@ebay]

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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.

[12345jamesstamps]

Hello,

So why are there thousands of listings with the title 'Russia'..and the category 'Russia' stamps for sale?

And why only 4 listings were taken down and not more with the words 'Russia' that I was selling?

I ended all my listings  with the word 'Russia' to be safe.

Could this be an artificial intelligence thing?

[12345jamesstamps]

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.