Anyone figure out how to get around ebay throttling/rolling blackouts?

[james13v]

Before anyone says anything, I do have multiple accounts. But I have my main account, the big one, with all real info. I sell niche expensive items. I can't really make too many accounts.

I'm getting to the point where I'm gonna have a really good sales date, and I'm scared, because I know the next few days are going to be horrible. What an assbackwards world. I WANT lower sales days... because I rather have a high average, than high individual days.

So anyone find a way around it? Do larger limits allow for larger hidden sales limit? Having more items listed? More auctions? I can't seem to go above $10k a month. No matter how hard I try.

[RR2]

Do you hit your limit every month? When I hit my limits I'll normally have it upgraded in a few days/weeks.

[james13v]

Originally Posted by RR2

Do you hit your limit every month? When I hit my limits I'll normally have it upgraded in a few days/weeks.

No. My limits are $120k a month. I've never gotten over $60k in listings up.

But I think we are talking about different things. I don't mean my selling limits. I mean, the amount of SOLD limit, which is hidden and a secret. I've never been able to SELL more than $10k a month on average.

[idds]

I've noticed several times with ebay significant drops in sales with no apparent reason behind it like a holiday.

Then I noticed that a run of the same item would start selling out of nowhere, and then abruptly stop.

I also noticed it was easy to reach certain sales levels, but then it was a mountain to climb to get past certain levels.

With my background in math, I am certain all this is not random, there are algorithms that are distributing traffic and in a sense doling out sales to 'keep everyone happy'. The setup looks at your metrics to decide how much to 'reward' you for things they like, and then once that reward is exhausted you go back to business as usual, albeit with a bump. It tends to explain why they love to present their own search results unless the user filters for price, etc.

For the longest time I thought it was in my head, but as I kept seeing the same pattern repeat I'm 99.99% sure it's by design. Maybe I just said something everyone already knows.

[aspkin]

Agreed, idds.

Now.. of the accounts that are doing really well (lots of sales) .. what are they doing differently from accounts with low sales? If you can answer that.. you have your solution.

[yankee]

Mix of listing types. List the same item with Good til Cancelled and with a Fixed 5 day. I get lost of extra sales when it gets down to the last day or two.

Change up pictures and titles a bit to get around duplicate listing policy.

Auctions always get visibility but if I remember correctly your items are not great for auctions.

Then like you already said, do the same thing on multiple accounts.

I have been experimenting with tacky pictures. They get noticed and sell. I have a florescent pink background on a very manly item. It sells 3X as much as the same exact item and almost the same title with perfect pictures on the same account for $1.00 more. My guess is it stands out in the list when searching.

[idds]

Originally Posted by aspkin

Agreed, idds.

Now.. of the accounts that are doing really well (lots of sales) .. what are they doing differently from accounts with low sales? If you can answer that.. you have your solution.

It's hard to assess, mainly because of the randomness in the market... I'm sure that at least once I had a couple of a slow selling product go by no more than dumb luck. It makes it hard to derive a pattern from it.

If I had to place a bet I would narrow it down to a few elements in no particular order:

If you have a run of successful shipments on time, it seems it gets noticed and you get a reward.

If you get an uplift in a particular seller rating, a bump.

If you go a long time without a return or case being opened, or neg feedback (incl neutral).

EBay probably generates some form of internal score not unlike Google's page rank that you carry with you and it gets evaluated real time in results, coupled with some form of tracker similar to what you get when you count cards in Blackjack, when the cards are in your favor you get sales, too many face cards and you get curtailed.

[aspkin]

That makes a lot sense.

It's what PayPal does with regards to it's limits on accounts.

[tom191]

Hello all,

I by no means have any "Stealth" knowledge and I am no expert on eBay ether but I can share with you what my experience has been over the last five years of selling on eBay and maybe you can extrapolate something from that you can use. The only reason I am presumptuous enough to post my "Experience" is because I do have a lot of selling experience. If I'm overstepping please tell me and I wont do it again!

I have three accounts and one I was selling very high risk items on and it was indefently suspended about a month ago leading me to find this form and reading the books about stealth and buying some stealth accounts.

I will talk about my second account here which was set up in October of 2010. It started with a min balance and I quickly reached that probably in a few days and sold through. So I asked for a limit increase of course they gave it to me.

So this went on which im sure is everyone's experience. They raise my limit and I reach it and ask for an increase.

This happened without incendent until I reached about $100,000.00. My account was probably about eight months old at that time.

I should tell you this is not a stealth account but I opened it with a business name and gave an ein not my SS. I think I had to do that part over the phone and fax or email. It may be different now but it was a bit of a pain.

At anyhow at about 100,000.00 it seemed like I would have 100,000.00 listed of items that should have flown off the shelf's but once I hit about 85k in sales my listings would stop showing up at the top of searchs!

I could find them but eBay stopped promoting them!

I figured this out using a tool called sim rush rush to track all my google placment and I stratigicly optimize my ebay ads to show up in google search. It takes a lot of work and money to do that as many of you may know so when an item drops off Googles search for the keyword simrush alerts me.

So I started getting the alerts month after month and when I dug into the data it showed very clearly that eBay replaced my ads with my competitors.

This is before eBay officially released their "Sponsored Ad" policies which they did because so many of us figured out what they were doing. But now I think they are even worse then they used to be.

I know they did this to me at 100k then at 190k then at 300k and 500k and now I'm at 800k and I haven't had that issue in a while but I can tell you that once I saw what they were doing I called them on it. I always thank the operator who I first talk to and ask for the supervisor. I always explain what I see to that supervisor and ask to be escalated. In the old days this would get you to the USA call center but not true anymore but although their English is not to good I will say the people in the escalation department do a good job of resolving problems.

I find that if you tell them you see they are no longer sponsoring your auctions and have elevated your competitors above you and then (Heres the tip i can give you) I ask them how that is FAIR? I explain that all I want is a level playing field and then ask them what I did or what I need to correct so that they view you as a valuable seller and elevate my ads again appropriate to my seller rating.

So basically what they always say is assure me that i am a very valuable member of the community and that they understand that the market place needs to be a level playing field and they will send it for review.

At this point I ask them in escalation to increase my limits which they will tell you they cant do but if you insist they will do it. I just tell them I've almost reached my limit and I have pallets of product to post.

Almost every time within 24 hours my items were right back where they were before.

Also some months I do a lot of selling and some months I do a lot of buying but when I get anywhere near my limits I call and get them raised.

You can see I haven't hit my limits in a long time





Actually over the life of this account I haven't even sold my limit!









But that seems to always work when I tell them I have a lot of items to list they will raise my limits in escalations. Heres my current limits






I love selling on eBay and I hate being restrained by limits and I'm sure you guys fell much the same way so I hope this helps someone.

[NewYork]

Thanks for posting the photos... I sit and look at my own all day every day, but to see someone else's, I don't know, but for some reason it's soooo interesting!

[rsot]

Originally Posted by NewYork

Thanks for posting the photos... I sit and look at my own all day every day, but to see someone else's, I don't know, but for some reason it's soooo interesting!

The long post was nicely supplemented with photos, indeed - made it interesting.

[yaBeh8ater]

Very fun to read post. I'll bet tom is a rich guy. 43 transactions and 43,000 in one month!

[idds]

Truly wealthy people wouldn't have the kind of time, I wish I were an exception to the rule.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by idds

Truly wealthy people wouldn't have the kind of time, I wish I were an exception to the rule.

Truly wealthy people have all the time they want. They no longer have to work themselves. They get to run for President or go on African Safaris while other people keep the cash flowing

[idds]

Originally Posted by yankee

Truly wealthy people have all the time they want. They no longer have to work themselves. They get to run for President or go on African Safaris while other people keep the cash flowing

You mean retired people, and some of them are truly wealthy.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by idds

You mean retired people, and some of them are truly wealthy.

Tim Ferris for one. Seems everyone knows who he is. I can list an easy hundred more in the mid 30s to mid 40s.

The definition of wealthy is literally to not have to work and make enough income to live well. Truly wealthy people have nothing but time. That does not mean they choose to not work.

[idds]

Originally Posted by yankee

Tim Ferris for one. Seems everyone knows who he is. I can list an easy hundred more in the mid 30s to mid 40s.

The definition of wealthy is literally to not have to work and make enough income to live well. Truly wealthy people have nothing but time. That does not mean they choose to not work.

We're diverging from the topic, but I'll reply because I disagree. Anyone that recognizes they have enough to get by is choosing to work. Wealth is subjective, for example, a millionaire in the face of a billionaire ceases to be wealthy.

Not everyone recognizes they have enough, not everyone retires with enough. While the topic is subjective, a distracted observer can usually separate out who is who, but I don't know who Tim Farris is. If you give me 5 metrics on someone I can probably make the call with 95% accuracy.

If I was wealthy in the sense that I did not need to work, I wouldn't be shilling wares on the internet, especially with the effort stealth accounts involve - my time would go elsewhere.

[yankee]

Rich is to have money. Wealthy is knowledge to make money. Definition of wealthy has already been stated but to live above your means without having to work.

Everything else is non sense and irrelevant. Your very narrow and inaccurate idea that to be wealthy you have no time is just not accurate.

The most wealthy people do whatever the **** they want whenever the **** they want. Age or retirement(choice by the way) is not in the equation.

Your entire statement says that you have created a job for yourself and not wealthy at all. What does that have to do with wealth? Clearly you are not wealthy or you chose to do this. Either way, you made my point.

So my question is, could you stop working today and live above your means indefinitely? If your answer is yes, then you are wealthy. If the answer is no, then you are not even if you are rich

Rhetorical. Just something to think about.

[yankee]

The difference between wealthy and rich is very simple. It's knowledge. Wealthy people know how to make money. Rich people only have money. Once you know how to make money, you can build sustainable wealth. The money never stops coming. If you have a reversal of fortune, it's not a big deal. You just make it back.

My first hand point of view. It is ok to disagree but this pretty much sums it up. Wealthy is not objective. Measure of how wealthy is just a measure of wealth. Rich is 100% objective and should never be a goal IMO.

This was a fun Friday night discussion. Thanks for making me think. Now I have to go back to paining a new office(I chose to paint myself, I do not have to)

[tom191]

I'm sorry if I got the post off topic by posting pics of my account but as someone new here when I re-read my post before submitting it I thought that I had to add a little credibility to it to show that I have some experiance about eBay selling and I'm not some 14 year old who is making stuff up. (No offence to 14 year olds who arn't making stuff up)

I am not rich by my definition.

I am not rich by any of your definitions!

I have three business and I employ 22 people and at the end of the year if work 4,680 (I think thats 90 hours a week...lol) and walk away (after paying my boat load in taxes which is usually about 42-49% before personal taxes) with a few hundred grand I would consider that a win. I have only had a few of those years and I need at lest two more before I retire!

So no I'm not rich I just make a lot of money - employ a lot of people - pay a lot to the government - pay my bills and feed my family along the way.

Also I sell in some very lucrative high dollar niche markets but my risk it tremendous.

Back on point - take every opportunity to ask eBay for what you want. The worst they can say is no but they rarely ever do in my experience if your a good seller to the community.

Thank you to those how thanked me in the post!

[aspkin]

Such an AMAZING post! Thanks for posting your experience tom191, it's extremely insightful.

If you have anymore insights, feel free to share. I'm sure we can learn a thing or two from your experiences.

[yankee]

This thread ended up being a very good one. Thanks Tom191 for sharing and having an fun and inciting debate