Ebay have officially lost their marbles....can't list model airplane because of North Korean embargo

[fergua3]

ok, so i tried to list a plastic model aircraft of an American figher jet used during the Korean War.  It's a fairly common model, nothing special about it.  Anyway, when i tried to submit my listing it was blocked by Ebay because nothing made in North Korea can be listed for sale on Ebay.  This model was not made in North Korea, nor did i say it was anywhere in the listing.

I did not once use the word 'north' anywhere in the listing,  just 'Korea' and 'Korean'.  In item specifics, i  put the country of manufacture was China.  I even changed 'Korea' to 'South Korea'.  No dice.  Listing was blocked every time.

So, i had to list my  airplane model of an American aircraft used during the Korean War, without using the word 'Korea' anywhere in the listing.  That should reallyl boost sales...

[marnotom!]

I think someone who believes that an automated computer algorithm is capable of thoughtful analysis is someone who may have lost their marbles, but that's just me.  😉

In all seriousness, though, there are a number of items that come up for me when I type "north korea" into the item search bar, so I'm thinking it's possibly more a particular combination of words you're using or the category in which you're listing that's triggered the auto-block on your listing attempts, perhaps something to do with the "contemporary manufacture" subcategory?

Anyway, if nothing else, posting here has probably given the views for your item a bit of a boost.  😁

[fergua3]

well i had no choice but to use 'contemporary manufacture'.  It was that or say it was an anitque, or don't use the category.   I think it's a case of bots gone wild...or more precisely, poorly programmed bots gone wild.

[marnotom!]

As part of experimenting the way you did, I probably would have had a shot at not using the subcategory at all.

[fergua3]

i didn't know that was an option.  I thought you had to use all sub categories presented to you when choosing a category, otherwise it won't let you continue.

[kawartha-ephemera]

No worries. Microsoft will put ebay on a monthly ChatGPT subscription to solve problems like this.

[flipistics]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:

No worries. Microsoft will put ebay on a monthly ChatGPT subscription to solve problems like this.

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That's NOT funny, because I can totally see it happening.