I can't list my old British Sudan stamps!

[widgetc]

I went to relist some old British Sudan stamps and was not allowed to. I checked on the .com site and found:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Stamp-Collectors/No-More-Cuban/5200144218

Also no longer allowed are stamps from:

• Burma (Myanmar)


• Cuba


• Iran


• North Korea


• Sudan


• Syria

This seems to apply even if neither the buyer or seller are from the U.S. or use the .com site, and it even apples to pre-embargo used stamps as far as I can tell. Not good news.

If eBay is using the key word “Sudan” to block even any souvenir item like a stamp cover from Sudan, TX could be difficult to list.

P.S. There are still a lot of these still listed but relisting is blocked.

[pierrelebel]

It is a problem that surfaces from time to time.

Why?  Because the folks at eBay have little understanding of the American laws governing such stamps.

For example, current American legislation allows sale of (embargoed) stamps from Cuba if they are already in the country.  They cannot be imported from Cuba or anywhere else.  To prevent their listings on eBay.com is, once again, plainly stupid.

Once upon a time, a was a member on the Stamp Advisory Committee at eBay.com.  It was about ten years ago.  At that time, members of the committee were experts in the field of philately, including the then executive director of the American Philatelic Society (APS).

That was then, this is now...

I still remember about five years ago when eBay, without any warning, ended all listings in the "Stamps" category with the word "Ajman" in the title.  Why?  Because someone with limited knowledge of the industry convinced the folks at eBay that those were not "real" stamps but should be qualified as labels.  It took intervention from the APS to have eBay realized they had screwed up.  They acted too quickly without checking their facts. Stamps from Ajman are nicely listed in most worldwide catagues sush as Stanley Gibbons and Michel.

In the meantime, sellers like myself and many others were suspended from eBay. I managed to get some action after three days from senior management to get my suspension lifted.  Others were not so lucky and were out of business for a week - despite the fact eBay had acknowledged their mistake!

And no, those listings that had been pulled were not reinstated.  They could not be relisted as eBay had removed access to them. It was painful - yet it was their mistake.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. 😞

[rose-dee]

the folks at eBay have little understanding of the American laws governing such stamps.

It isn't just stamps, either Pierre.  EBay seems to lack knowledge on the laws governing other aspects of online selling.  I'm referring in this instance to trade mark and copyright laws.  These are two different animals, legally speaking, and Canada has clear legislation dealing with them.  However, apparently eBay has established policies on these subjects without proper expert legal guidance. 

As a result, all it takes is one ignorant, uninformed whistler-blower, or a computer search, to signal a supposed "infraction" and have eBay wipe out a whole group of listings.  In my case, the ignorant, uninformed whistler-blower happened to be an eBay employee, likely somewhere in Timbuktu, and probably trained to robotically find key words in listings to flag, without the judgment or understanding to come to a proper conclusion. 

I was naive enough to assume eBay.ca must have an expert legal department (or at least consultants) who considered these things and formulated appropriate policies based on Canadian law.  I've learned to doubt this.  I've also learned that eBay Customer Service reps have little or no insight or understanding in these areas, and simply rattle off the policies that are in front of them, which in themselves are flawed. 

Like you, I was personally fortunate in having the matter resolved to some extent because of my persistence and my knowledge of the legal issues involved, but I wondered how many others had had the same experience and were never able to get fair intervention. 

By the way, is there a legal department at eBay.ca?  If one exists, I was never able to get through to it via telephone.

[pierrelebel]

" is there a legal department at eBay.ca? "

🙂 🙂 🙂

You may have the wrong idea about the size of eBay.ca.

If you ever go to Toronto, you can visit their office. You may be surprised at the handful of people who make up eBay.ca - a shadow of its earlier operations.

Except for the few technical and marketing employees in Toronto, eBay.ca operations are now mostly run in San Jose, California where the servers are located.  Customer service is provided by eBay.com employees in the USA and/or (mostly) contractors in the Phillippines.

The Canadian customer service centre located near Vancouver was closed four years ago when the jobs were outsourced mostly to the Phillippines:

http://www.marketnews.ca/content/index/page?pid=5343 

They use a large Canadian legal firm for their legal work although most of the legal stuff is done in California.  If you read carefully, you will notice that both your eBay and PayPal User Agreement are governed buy the laws of California. 

Jordan Banks, eBay.ca first employee and Canadian country manager from 2005 to 2007 was a lawyer.