Looks like paypal is going to win. Store will close.

25+ years as an APS member and they are shutting me down. 1026 listings on hipstamp to go away. Paypal has my account. All my sales, not many but enjoyable after 10 hour days at the plant are Payment pending, letters about sanctioned items.
Better contact the APS and stop the circuits. I guess stamps from persia are a bad thing..regardless of collectability..
I opened a Skrill account. Ever sent a copy of your passport to an email in a foreign country? You know as proof of "You"? Just to sell and enjoy stamps. I have.
I have a few orders that I cant accept payment for with collectors waiting.for their stamps to arrive. .
I have reached out to the many stamp clubs I am member of..none can help.

If any member can tell me how NYSTAMPS, on ebay and maybe on hip can sell Persia month after month without the nightmare I have, please tell me...I'm losing sleep over stamps.
Thanks to all for help.

Comments

  • 14 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • HipStamp, Stamporama, and a few other philatelic-related sites disguise the "blocked" countries from the invoice information sent to PayPal. Ebay, obviously doesn't. You don't need to shut down your HipStamp store, just don't have an Ebay store, or don't list blocked countries on Ebay.

    PayPal and Ebay several years ago made a business decision to simply ban anything from US-embargoed countries, rather than determine the time frames wherein the embargoes apply.
  • Michael,

    Lee most likely got his Paypal account suspended due to MULTIPLE violations of Paypal's Iran policy. Over the last year or so he has complained multiple times that Paypal suspended payments to his account or frozen his account for this very reason.

    Here are some of his comments

    https://www.hipstamp.com/forums/discussion/comment/11474/#Comment_11474

    https://www.hipstamp.com/forums/discussion/comment/10995/#Comment_10995

    Once he got his account frozen the 1st time he should have realized that they flagged his account and were watching him closely to see if he was still violating their Iran policy. It's not like he only had a single warning about it. And Paypal takes those policy violations very seriously and they can shut someone down because of it.

    As far as why some of the sellers on Ebay can list that stuff,I have no clue at this time as to why.

  • Ah, OK. I remember now.

    Well, not using a payment collection site would cut back on sales, but some sites don't require using one in order to sell.
  • And to make matters worse the OP is selling Iran stamps issued after 1979. (Just a quick look show stamps from 1999,2003,2009 etc)
  • Lee,

    Your issue is with Paypal not me. You can vent about what Paypal did all you want,it will not change the facts that you did post multiple times about this issue and the fact you had issues with your account with Paypal and what did YOU do about it? You had 2 choices and those were YOUR choices you could either follow what Paypal asked you do or ignore their warnings? Which did you choose to do? And what do you think was going to happen?
  • Lee,

    I also go back long enough to remember when Paypal first implemented this policy. The first thing they did was limit the account if you were listing Cuba and North also. (I got the notifications and the limitations on my account until I pulled those listings. Once they checked my listings they removed those limitations)

    Paypal does NOT start with suspending or closing accounts until they go through their process.

    And the biggest problem with your OP is you left out half the story. The other threads are the rest of the story that needs to be told in order to get a complete picture of what is really going on.


  • Found out why NYSTAMPS can sell Iran stamps. They aren't EXPORTING them. They only ship them within the US.

    Paypal told Lee what to do back in Oct of 2018

    This is in Lee's own words.

    They just told me I cant ship outside of the USA on Iran. Ok..BIG LETTERS...I WILL COMBINE. maybe that did it.

    It is was in this thread. And they told him what he needed to do to be Paypal compliant.

    https://www.hipstamp.com/forums/discussion/comment/11474/#Comment_11474


    So from what it looks like Paypal is doing is they will not bother the US sellers selling those items UNLESS that US seller is trying to export them. And if that is the case,real simple fix don't sell them outside the US if you're a US seller.

  • Yeah that might be all of that "In the USA
    " stuff but they sure flagged us for French Sudan, going to California, think they're still in the USA. I too have often wondered how some of these jokers get away with selling Cuba, Iran/Persia North Korea, Sudan Blah Blah etc. All of the naughty list countries I pulled down from my store in 2014, over 1,29 listings. Hey I'll say it straight, I figured if this guy/gal can sell them and get away with it I am too. Seems like you said, NYStamps, Noblespirit and a few others (on Ebay) can get away with it and some can't. I'm just not going to deal with those countries then I don't have to sweat it, Sorry didn't mean to just horn in uninvited but this french Sudan deal really got under my skirt the other day, or maybe it was the customer I had who accused me of really being a man hiding behind my wifes name on our account because I screwed myself up on paypal.

    Seriously? Well anyway I feel your pain. Nuff said. Kitty R
  • edited January 2020 1 LikesVote Down
    If you sell Iran/Persia stamps on ebay.co.uk there is nothing illegal and paypal accept it, there is no problem. But It is against the law (embargo) if you sell your Iran/Persia item on ebay.com which is an american domain.
  • The politicizing of philately is never a good thing. We collect and sell history. An embargo on history is never a good thing. I know some will reply and say that the government of Iran who sponsors terrorism will profit from the sale of new issues. But where does the line get drawn. ?
  • Sadly we stand no chance against any 'rules' the big guys force on us. No matter how stupid.
    You just have to play along or quit.
    I used to sell used and vintage clothing on ebay and constantly got VEROed for alleged trade mark violations. 10-12 total over 5 months. EVERY SINGLE ONE was BS, but ebay says: The VERO member decides and I am more than welcome to battle it out with them. Needless to say, their undertrained enforces in some 3rd world country don't care. Most did not even respond.
    So I had to give up that line of items. Just wasn't worth it at all! Sucked though, as it was a lot of fun. Unlimited supply at rock bottom prices. Easy to ship, won't break. Loved it while it lasted.
  • They nailed me for iran and north korea.
    I removed those items from my account.
    They also held my sales twice for 2 weeks for 99 and 256 low value items orders
  • stamps are very dangerous, could be weaponized into philatelic uranium. (insert sarcasm. couldnt help myself lol)
  • Just stop selling the countries in question. It's that easy. BTW nystamps gets away with it because they don't use the "I" word in their description. Another way of doing it.
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