# PayPal Problem Selling Knives



## SuperSharp (Nov 15, 2016)

Wondering if I'm alone on this one. I received payment for a couple knives sold in the BST forum through Paypal. The email from PayPal states that the transaction is flagged for government regulation. What? I called PayPal and the operator had to look up what it all meant. Apparently there was a word in the notes from the buyer (Tanaka Fujiwara 195mm 210mm gyuto) that threw a flag that a sanctioned item may be getting sold or paid for. A google search showed the paypal flagging does happen fairly often. The lady on the phone recommended I don't sell kitchen knives outside the US because it's apparently a sanctioned item? The payment came from a person with a US address. I'm confused. Anyone else experience this? The lady at PayPal thought it would be resolved and released by morning.


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## gic (Nov 15, 2016)

Well ebay currently has 163,872 knives for sale and I betcha most of them get bought through paypal, this sound so weird


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## YG420 (Nov 15, 2016)

I once bought a knife through bst and sent payment to Canada, but the funds were held up for a week or a few days due to a "periodic audit." Never heard of it but the funds did go through.


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## JBroida (Nov 15, 2016)

we used to use only paypal... never had trouble (though sometimes orders would get flagged, they cleared up on their own in a day or two)


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (Nov 15, 2016)

Remember that some local ebay sites (UK) don't allow knife sales at all.

It might also have squat to do with knives, but with brand names - a similar sounding brand might have filed a notice with them to monitor or reject certain unauthorized imports or counterfeits.

Certain measurements in description might also raise eyebrows if they conform to weapons calibres etc...


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## SuperSharp (Nov 15, 2016)

The payment just cleared without further contact or issue. Still no clear explanation, so I'm guessing a word or combination of words must have tripped the wrong filter somewhere.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (Nov 15, 2016)

BTW, most of Europe has similar laws concerning import-restricted knife types (none of which should concern anything remotely resembling cookware), the UK however is very strict about not selling knives to minors (cutlery or not, a 16+ exception for cutlery seems to exist in scotland). Wonder how apprentice cooks that are under 18 are handled....


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## spoiledbroth (Nov 15, 2016)

One word: China XD


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## WillC (Nov 15, 2016)

You have to be careful with wording sometimes, I had a piece flagged because the sale was described as a "serpentine damascus pattern", the buyer received a note from eBay regarding the sale of live animals act or something similar.


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## toddnmd (Nov 15, 2016)

I wouldn't put too much stock in the random paypal customer service person's word. She was probably just guessing as well.
Glad the transaction went through.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (Nov 15, 2016)

damascus, as in damascus damascus, is a rather non peaceful place right now, no?


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## SuperSharp (Nov 15, 2016)

Looking back at the PayPal note, my transaction said "damascus" as well in addition to the other words I listed before. Who knows...


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## chefcomesback (Nov 15, 2016)

LifeByA1000Cuts said:


> damascus, as in damascus damascus, is a rather non peaceful place right now, no?



This problem existed for few years ,
When buying knives or Damascus billets if they are marked as "Damascus " Paypal suspects it may be a fee for someone's services in Damascus and it gets blocked or delayed for possible links to the funding of war , use kitchen Tool or pattern welded knife etc instead . Saying that I had payments delayed due to PayPal acting up too


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## aboynamedsuita (Nov 15, 2016)

I think I've had this happen a time or two not sure if it was the time when I spelled out shigefusa kurouchi wa-petty on an invoice or something else, I've sent a lot of knives. Once I recall for sure was when I made a donation to BST, it got reviewed for reasons I'm not entirely sure about.


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## AzHP (Nov 30, 2016)

When I first read the title I thought it was going to be something like that story that was going around before about a customer claiming something was a counterfeit violin and was instructed by ebay to destroy the "counterfeit", causing the seller to lose out on both a priceless violin and the amount that was paid for it. Glad it was something innocuous and got sorted quickly!


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## fatboylim (Dec 1, 2016)

tjangula said:


> I think I've had this happen a time or two not sure if it was the time when I spelled out shigefusa kurouchi wa-petty on an invoice or something else, I've sent a lot of knives. Once I recall for sure was when I made a donation to BST, it got reviewed for reasons I'm not entirely sure about.



Tjangula, the donation may have gone through a check to make sure it wasn't a bogus charity. Unfortunately there are many dodgy charities being used for money laundering. Glad it all went through in the end.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (Dec 1, 2016)

@AzHP they probably thought it was about a mass produced brand name counterfeit, and the reason they rather have the buyer destroy it is probably to avoid making the buyer liable for shipping someone a counterfeit if he ships it back (especially since a ruthless seller could orchestrate nasty revenge/blackmail plays that way).
I guess the seller, if he has proof the violin was not counterfeit, could actually sue for damages here.


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