Question about ebay stealth

[Retailer77]

I just purchased eBay Stealth and I am reading through it, but there is a part I do not understand.
When you hit the $17,000 wall and paypal asks you for EIN info or sales tax certificate, can you use your real information and name? Will this get me flagged?
My goal is to use my friends info which includes his address, name, and photo ID and utilities bill.

BUT when paypal asks for tax info can I use my own genuine Tax ID and EIN info?

[slokor]

That wall is $20,000 and yes you can use your own EIN when you upgrade it to a business account since its the business name that youll be using and will show up.
And for the record - using a friend's identity and account is a bad idea and can only end badly...

[Retailer77]

Originally Posted by slokor

That wall is $20,000 and yes you can use your own EIN when you upgrade it to a business account since its the business name that youll be using and will show up.
And for the record - using a friend's identity and account is a bad idea and can only end badly...

Why would using a friends identity be a bad idea?
Even in the Stealth Book it states that this is one of the best ways to go?
If I use my friends name, address, and photo ID/ utility bill verification I do not need to wait FOREVER to start cranking out sales faster. Ebay will ask me for verification info only if I try to sell too much too fast, but this can easily be solved if I just provide ebay with the info they want, which is:
-Photo ID
-Utility bill
-Invoice from supplier.

I can provide all of the above if I use a friends information.

[MM78]

Originally Posted by Retailer77

Why would using a friends identity be a bad idea?

Several reasons.....1) Your friend has nothing to do with your business...unless your cutting him a piece of the sales. 2)If that account goes down, then what? find more people's info to use? 3)Stealth works just fine. 4)There's the tax situation as well, the last thing you want is getting your friend into some tax situation he may not need or want. 5) best to stay friends and not end up as enemies.

Even in the Stealth Book it states that this is one of the best ways to go?

Things change, you can't expect everything to always be the same.....Remember, you didn't know what VERO was until we brought it up.....and it's been around for a while now.

If I use my friends name, address, and photo ID/ utility bill verification I do not need to wait FOREVER to start cranking out sales faster.

Doesn't matter if you use your friends info, Ebay doesn't care if you have your friends DNA handy, you CAN'T sell like you did before....please understand this and engrave it in your mind, there is nothing you can do that will change that.

Ebay will ask me for verification info only if I try to sell too much too fast, but this can easily be solved if I just provide ebay with the info they want, which is:
-Photo ID
-Utility bill
-Invoice from supplier.

I can provide all of the above if I use a friends information.

You just don't get it.....repeat after me: "I need to go slow". You keep wanting a way to sell $50,000 a month right away and it's not going to happen. So you might as well accept it now and start slow.

[rsot]

Other things to note OP:

Don't rely ONLY on one account - make several and build them....this way you don't need to use friend's info/account.

Rotate sales through the accounts.

[Mitsu]

The thing about using friends/family information is, while it's somewhat faster to get back on eBay INSTEAD of learning HOW to stealth, you may be in the same situation with eBay closing your account down the road... then what? Use somebody else info? Start all over AGAIN?

A well made stealth account, converted to a business account and with a EIN attached, I'd argue, is AS powerful as a account in real information with a SSN attached. You just have to START SLOW and build trust + show you're capable to eb&pp... THEY WILL let you fly if you do things right.

I understand the desire to get back to where you were ASAP, but if you don't take the time to do it right you're just setting yourself up for failure. DO IT RIGHT and by this time next year you can have 3 completely separate all-star ebay/paypal accounts as well as a dozen+ backups... you'll have greatest amount of security you can have in this marketplace.

On another note, as far as documents go, you can supply eb/pp with everything they request (never an SSN though), you just need to find someone who can create them for you if you get into this situation (it's best to try to avoid a situation like this though).

[Retailer77]

Originally Posted by Mitsu

The thing about using friends/family information is, while it's somewhat faster to get back on eBay INSTEAD of learning HOW to stealth, you may be in the same situation with eBay closing your account down the road... then what? Use somebody else info? Start all over AGAIN?

A well made stealth account, converted to a business account and with a EIN attached, I'd argue, is AS powerful as a account in real information with a SSN attached. You just have to START SLOW and build trust + show you're capable to eb&pp... THEY WILL let you fly if you do things right.

I understand the desire to get back to where you were ASAP, but if you don't take the time to do it right you're just setting yourself up for failure. DO IT RIGHT and by this time next year you can have 3 completely separate all-star ebay/paypal accounts as well as a dozen+ backups... you'll have greatest amount of security you can have in this marketplace.

On another note, as far as documents go, you can supply eb/pp with everything they request (never an SSN though), you just need to find someone who can create them for you if you get into this situation (it's best to try to avoid a situation like this though).

Thanks for the reply, it is appreciated.
You seem to be the only user that understood what I was talking about when I stated that using a friends account is BETTER and a FASTER way to get back to high volume sales.
Im not sure what was so difficult to understand about what I was saying..

You do bring up a good point that if that account gets shut down I'm screwed if I do not have backup accounts, but to be honest I think the chances of it getting shut down would be slim just simply because of the fact that I know all the little rules about ebay and I know what would result in my account being at risk now.

Another thing about the whole VERO'S..I understand what they are....the point I was making about them was why would they be an issue in my case? I am selling products from a legitimate vendor and can provide invoices...so what can they really do?

[Mitsu]

It's not better, it's really not... and the only way I see it being faster is if you attach a SSN to the account early, then pp may give you more leeway to sell faster-- but you NEVER want to do this unless the account is yours and it's your SSN, so many potential CRITICAL problems.

Things happen man, and eB is very unforgiving when things happen-- if you've decided to make this your main source of income it doesn't matter how slim your chances of shut down are today, fact is if you're running only 1 account you're putting your livelihood at risk because they hold all the cards.

As a new seller, they don't know you, they don't trust you... they don't know if you're going to sell authentic brand name items for a few months, then swap to counterfeit... they don't know if you're going to ramp up sales to 50k and then one month decide to put ⊗⊗⊗⊗ shipping labels out, move all the money and then leave them with the bill to refund buyers... ect.

eb learned that it's sometimes better to just let newer sellers (and even sometimes established sellers) who are doing big sales to let them go if the risk is there. It doesn't matter if you can supply invoices, if eB and their reps are not fully comfortable with your account, items your selling & history... they will close you down without thinking twice about it.

[MM78]

Originally Posted by Retailer77

You do bring up a good point that if that account gets shut down I'm screwed if I do not have backup accounts, but to be honest I think the chances of it getting shut down would be slim just simply because of the fact that I know all the little rules about ebay and I know what would result in my account being at risk now.

You THINK you know....you don't, do you think were telling all these things just for the heck of it? No! If we tell you to go slow, it's because most of us have burned accounts in the process of selling.

Another thing about the whole VERO'S..I understand what they are....the point I was making about them was why would they be an issue in my case? I am selling products from a legitimate vendor and can provide invoices...so what can they really do?

To V.E.R.O your new account means nothing, they don't know you or even seen you and if they want to take your items down....they will. Also, not even sure if you read what I had already said before....Your going to run into Category Limits.....so even if VERO or Ebay didn't take your listings down, you would still only be able to sell a small quantity a month!!