Cuban cards - eBay

[h2oya311]

As an FYI, I heard from the lady who has been selling Cuban cards recently on eBay that her paypal account has been blocked because she was selling "Cuban items". How ridiculous!!

Anyway, below is her email to me (translated into English). If you find it weird that similar cards are now being sold by a different eBay user, you can rest somewhat easily that they are not copycats. It's actually from her.

Thought this nice community should know.

Thanks!

Email from Cecilia:
Please remember excuse my English. As you should realize I had to remove all listings for EBay, I have had a problem with my PayPal account which has been restricted temporarily, everything was due to a transaction where the buyer has the word "CUBA" on the invoice, right now they do not admit that Cuban goods sold, and more to explain to them that are very old Cuban items that do not break the law and in particular that are cards with pictures of ballplayers in the United States, would not understand.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but they wanted me to remove all the items that had the word Cuba for sale, for me this has been a big problem, I and my children live on these sales. Today I am writing to you, first to apologize for the inconvenience and also because I've thought of a solution to the problem and where you can buy cards that are of interest.
I'm going to start selling the cards in an account of a friend, but I'll remove the word Cuba, because I do not want any more trouble. Within 24 hours I'm going to list them all again, all be placed at the same price, you can see them tomorrow afternoon to the following account (bucanero1975) once again thank you for your recent deals and sorry for what happened, best regards.

Cecilia.

[Brian Van Horn]

Derek and everyone else,

I am the moron, idiot, dufus, dweeb, nincompoop, jerk and general moron at the bottom of this matter.

I bought a card from Cecilia and as a reminder to myself I put Cuba on the reference line. This set off a series of events which has been fascinating, irritating, stupefying and generally idiotic. The latest part of it is that I received the following from PayPal:

"PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening the accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information to help us provide you with secure service. We would like to return your account to regular standing as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.


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What is the problem?

•Aug 26, 2014: You may be buying or selling goods or services that are regulated or prohibited by the U.S. government.

We would like to learn more about your business and/or some of your recent transactions.


(Your case ID for this reason is PP-003-362-588-089.)


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How can I return my account to regular standing?



It's usually pretty easy to take care of things like this. Most of the time, we just need a little more information about your account or latest transactions.

To help us resolve this issue, please go to the Resolution Center.

We'll review the information you provide and email you if we need more details.


Once you complete all of the checklist items, your case will be reviewed by one of our Account Specialists. We will send you an email with the outcome of the review."

Lesson learned. If paying someone through PayPal, don't use the word "Cuba."

[Brian Van Horn]

Oh, by the way, they want me to sign an Acceptable Use Affidavit:

Affidavit of Compliance with and Acceptance of PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy


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I have read and agree to the terms of use specified in the Acceptable Use Policy section of the User Agreement for PayPal Service.

I understand and agree that I am responsible for making sure that the transactions I enter into using PayPal are legal and do not violate the terms of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy.

I understand that my previous activities have been deemed by PayPal to violate the Acceptable Use Policy and I agree that if I do again violate the terms of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy, my account access may be limited or my account may be closed without advance notice, regardless of whether the violation takes place through eBay or another online marketplace, through my own website, or through any other forum.

I also pledge that my current usage of PayPal is legal under the terms of the User Agreement and that I will not use PayPal in the future to accept payment for goods or services that are illegal or are prohibited as described by the Acceptable Use Policy or the Restricted Activities Section of the PayPal User Agreement.



Type "I Agree" here:

By typing "I Agree" in the box above, I hereby agree to the terms of this affidavit.

[D. Bergin]

Yup, this doesn't surprise me. I had read that Ebay was cracking down on anything Cuban related, whether it was legal ephemera or not. Was wondering when it would hit the card market.

It's pretty silly.

[Brian Van Horn]

On this matter, the blame is simply mine.

[Jeffrompa]

It has been my experience that their are many Cuban watchers of items who are watching and reporting items . If it is " pre embargo " it shouldn't be prohibited but it seems like if an item is reported it is removed without investigation . Guess they have taken it further now .

[ValKehl]

Derek,
I, too, received this same email today from Cecilia, who comes across to me as a very nice person. I've had several communications with her over the past several weeks re her 1924 Diaz cards. In my first communication, I asked her if she had any Washington Senators cards, hoping that I might be able to pick up some of the ones I need for my card collection of players who were on the Senators 1924 World Series Championship Team. She kindly gave me a list of the Senators cards she had and promised to list all of them on eBay at the same time in the near future. She did as promised, and I was able to win 2 of the 3 cards I badly wanted - "Oyster Joe" Martina & W.H. McGrew - which arrived in today's mail.

Despite placing an insanely-high, last-second bid, I was outbid on this this poor-condition Paul Zahniser card: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CUBA-1924-Ba...vip=true&rt=nc
I assumed that a 1924 Diaz set collector decided he just had to win this card, regardless of the cost. But, Cecilia kindly informed me that the Zahniser card was won by a Zahniser relative with the same last name, which softens my disappointment a bit!
Val

[Leon]

Just curious if this was the seller? I picked up this card and think it could be some sort of vintage reprint. It's really hard to tell even holding it in hand.. I like the players name though...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281389978843...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT



.

[Brian Van Horn]

Leon,

That is the seller.

[Exhibitman]

Nice to know eBay isn't hogging the supply of village idiots but has spread them around to its sister companies. What we need to do now is put "Cuba" into every listing.

[painthistorian]

We have experienced the most absolute moronic policy issue last 2 days regarding selling any pre 1951 Cuban League Baseball Cards, graded or ungraded. Now paypal will threaten to restrict and possibly limit your account if you have any mention of Cuba, or Cuban in your e bay listing or paypal HTMK description box..we found this out very recently without warning or knowledge, they told us to PULL listings off e bay but since e bay accepts these cards and it was less than 12 hours left, e bay refused to cancel. We have spent over 7 hours on phone talking to mostly inept people, only one very sharp paypal supervisor finally explained this....both paypal and e bay refused to resolve this as it is impossible for even them to contact paypal compliance division. They stated we have to reject any paypal payments and return them to buyer or risk further problems. This is so absurd as this is pre 1958, paypal supervisor stated this is a FEDERAL MANDATE to them and gave some federal agency as the party that requires paypal's crackdown without any knowledge of when item was produced. It even applies that if you sell an auto graphed pictured of Cuba Gooding Jr or Mark Cuban, or Cuban Missile Crisis book, they will be flagged also as the settings they use flagged and outlaw key words...welcome to 2015. They make you promise never to sell these items again and its still not totally clear as e bay still allows these cards to be sold and still requires we accept electronic method of payment (paypal) with NO warning about this policy. What a horror!

[autocentral]

This happened to me. I put "Cuba Photo" in a description of payment and they flagged me and halted activity from me (the buyer) for about 20 days. I called the very first day to resolve the problem and it took them 20 days to conclude nothing.

-Nick

[Scocs]

....and this comes AFTER we're normalizing relations with Cuba?!

If that's not bad enough, now I can't buy an 8x10 glossy of Mark Cuban on EBay? Can I buy one in Cuba...?

[Exhibitman]

Looks like the Feds got their hands on some village idiots too...

[painthistorian]

This incident really has not done any damage to us as we never lost any services, just quite inconvenient. We have refunded everyone that purchased thru e bay since we could not end early. We also gave everyone option to pay by check or MO or opt out... e bay still allows these cards to be sold but NO ELECTRONIC TRANSFERS THRU PAYPAL! of course e bay requires us to use paypal so it is quite a slippery slope but a customer can request to pay the old fashioned way and WE WILL GIVE FREE SHIPPING to anyone that bought their cards last night. I said all that in one breath!

Now about that Cuban Missile Crisis Historical Book we planned to sell, well that one goes to donation.

I took it on the chin, and for the hobby, now everyone should avoid that dreaded word on paypal!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by painthistorian

This incident really has not done any damage to us as we never lost any services, just quite inconvenient. We have refunded everyone that purchased thru e bay since we could not end early. We also gave everyone option to pay by check or MO or opt out... e bay still allows these cards to be sold but NO ELECTRONIC TRANSFERS THRU PAYPAL! of course e bay requires us to use paypal so it is quite a slippery slope but a customer can request to pay the old fashioned way and WE WILL GIVE FREE SHIPPING to anyone that bought their cards last night. I said all that in one breath!

Now about that Cuban Missile Crisis Historical Book we planned to sell, well that one goes to donation.

I took it on the chin, and for the hobby, now everyone should avoid that dreaded word on paypal!

Larry, learn how to breath when speaking . Thanks for the heads up about the word "Cuba" on ebay. Don't use it!!

[Scocs]

So let me get this straight: I can purchase a book on the Cuban Missle Crisis on Ebay, but can't use Paypal to pay for it?!

Is the C.E.O. of Paypal aware of this...or was this his idea? Or was this Marco Rubio's idea??

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Scocs

So let me get this straight: I can purchase a book on the Cuban Missle Crisis on Ebay, but can't use Paypal to pay for it?!

Is the C.E.O. of Paypal aware of this...or was this his idea? Or was this Marco Rubio's idea??

Unless Marco Rubio collects baseball cards there is no reason to mention him that isn't political. Please no politics or references like this you made. It will cause other members to respond and then.....well, we don't want to go there. As far as this "Cuba" mess with Ebay and Paypal, it is ironically stupid, imo.

[dabigyankeeman]

Wow, I have bought quite a few of the Cuban Propagandas Montiel cards made around 1946-1947 on Ebay. Neat stuff. Ridiculous to try to make people stop selling these great collectibles.

[Scocs]

Leon,

My bad. Seems like you can still sell these Cuban items on Ebay but you can't use Paypal to pay for them.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.....

Scott

[bbcardzman]

Originally Posted by Scocs

Leon,

My bad. Seems like you can still sell these Cuban items on Ebay but you can't use Paypal to pay for them.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.....

Scott

Wait a second, there was point in time where eBay made sense?
Guess I blinked cause I missed that one!

[painthistorian]

Hi everyone- Just got a notice from e bay now that "Cuba" is on the embargo list and selling any products that originalted from Cuba as of 2015, is prohibited. Also, they are not returning the final value fees for the 4 cards that I had credited the buyers since they ended, wow this is getting better! Leon, I finally took a deep breath!!!!

[D. Bergin]

Hmmm. Just to be safe, I just cancelled a bid on a 1920s Cuban boxing card I had up, Ended the auction and scheduled a re-list with the words "Latin American" and "Caribbean" replacing "Cuban" and "Cuba".

I feel silly having to do this.

[Harford20]

I also received the "Cuba Embargo" notice as noted below. The card title does not even have to say "Cuba" for eBay to cancel the auction.


From eBay overnight
We noticed that item(s) offered for sale on this account weren't listed in accordance with our Embargoed Goods policy. We realize you may not have been aware of this policy, or that this may have been a simple oversight, so we're including some policy information to help you with your future listings and to make sure they don't run into any problems. We also had to take the following actions:
- Listings that didn't follow eBay guidelines have been removed. A list of removed items is available further down in this email.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).

The card you listed was made in or comes from Cuba, a country against which the United States is imposing an embargo. Because eBay is a company based within the United States, it and its subsidiaries are bound by the trade restrictions of the United States Government. As a result, we do not allow any products from Cuba regardless of if they were made or brought into the country before the embargo. While we appreciate you choosing eBay to list this item, we must ask that you not relist it. We would have loved to explain this to you over a phone call, however, this item was removed outside of our calling hours. (9:00 AM to 9:00 PM)

Here are the listings we removed:
291362927844 - 1946 Propagandas Montiel TED WILLIAMS #44 - PSA Auth - Los Reyes del Deporte

I am now glad that the Montiel set that I had started to collect "morphed" into collecting the 1939 Playball set about 4-5 months ago. The Montiel set may now be near-impossible to complete (except in AH complete run listings that I would never be able to afford).

Dave

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Harford20

I also received the "Cuba Embargo" notice as noted below. The card title does not even have to say "Cuba" for eBay to cancel the auction.


From eBay overnight
We noticed that item(s) offered for sale on this account weren't listed in accordance with our Embargoed Goods policy. We realize you may not have been aware of this policy, or that this may have been a simple oversight, so we're including some policy information to help you with your future listings and to make sure they don't run into any problems. We also had to take the following actions:
- Listings that didn't follow eBay guidelines have been removed. A list of removed items is available further down in this email.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).

The card you listed was made in or comes from Cuba, a country against which the United States is imposing an embargo. Because eBay is a company based within the United States, it and its subsidiaries are bound by the trade restrictions of the United States Government. As a result, we do not allow any products from Cuba regardless of if they were made or brought into the country before the embargo. While we appreciate you choosing eBay to list this item, we must ask that you not relist it. We would have loved to explain this to you over a phone call, however, this item was removed outside of our calling hours. (9:00 AM to 9:00 PM)

Here are the listings we removed:
291362927844 - 1946 Propagandas Montiel TED WILLIAMS #44 - PSA Auth - Los Reyes del Deporte

I am now glad that the Montiel set that I had started to collect "morphed" into collecting the 1939 Playball set about 4-5 months ago. The Montiel set may now be near-impossible to complete (except in AH complete run listings that I would never be able to afford).

Dave

Wow, that is something else. That means somebody who knows cards is methodically going through Ebay listings and reporting them even though they have nothing to do with any "embargo", for whatever inane reason, I can't imagine.

I also identify boxers in listings as being FROM "Cuba". Wonder if this will eventually catch up to me, even if the products have nothing at all to do with Cuba.

I know Leon already mentioned, not to mention politics.....but somebody with political clout with some sort of axe to grind is obviously behind this new inquisition. Why else would nobody give a crap about this sort of stuff for over a decade, and the second we grow a little more enlightened and liberal on the matter, all of a sudden it's a huge concern.

[painthistorian]

It may be the "Search" for Cuban Cards that is now giving ebay the ammunition to find these issues, I really do not think they have a baseball card expert that can or would do this, many of us have these sets in our search, now these sets may be flagged.

[Peter W Thomas]

Marco's idea i am shure

[steve B]

The stamp people have been dealing with this for a few months. Even stuff printed by the BEP when Cuba was a colony was getting removed.

Probably some group with plenty of time and some political clout searching and reporting everything.

Ebay has never been all that smart when it comes to figuring stuff out. A friend of mine had a WWII Marlin arms matchbook pulled because it was "Nazi memorabilia" When he called them and pointed out that it was US made by a US company and showed a US soldier bayonetting and stepping on a Nazi flag they actually looked and agreed it was ok. They'd simply pulled it when someone complained.

Steve B

[Exhibitman]

Those morons are misreading the regulations. The main regulation that covers Cuban goods 31 CFR § 515.201, has an effective date of 1963. Anything here before that time is not subject to sanction. There are also numerous exceptions to the law that make a blanket rule overbroad, such as stuff you can bring back with you if you go to Cuba lawfully. Also, the transaction prohibition on new imports involves goods of Cuban origin that are outside the USA, not stuff already here:

31 CFR § 515.204 Importation of and dealings in certain merchandise.
(a) Except as specifically authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury (or any person, agency, or instrumentality designated by him) by means of regulations, rulings, instructions, licenses, or otherwise, no person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States may purchase, transport, import, or otherwise deal in or engage in any transaction with respect to any merchandise outside the United States if such merchandise:
(1) Is of Cuban origin; or
(2) Is or has been located in or transported from or through Cuba; or
(3) Is made or derived in whole or in part of any article which is the growth, produce or manufacture of Cuba.

Ebay is taking a shotgun to a surgery.