lets see how long can i keep this account

[sowhat]

hi everyone! very happy i found this site! im new to this site, but NOT new to ebay. been a member with them since 1999 and have recently just started having major problems with them.

anyway, down to business...

obviously my goal is to avoid being suspended again from this point forward.

so i read the entire ebay stealth page, read how to clean my computer, read all 50 billion posts everyone wrote, read the stealth ebook, and now im reading all the threads in all the forums here. this is my first post.

sounds to me like with a little practice and patience you can master the “stealth” techniques. its sort of like playing the game from the outside. rather than on the inside, having to give up a bunch of personal info to eb/pp which they dont even need.

it seemed like a lot of people here were really struggling with the concept of why/how they were getting suspended right after opening a new account and having to constantly open new accounts over and over. i think most werent realizing that once you get suspended, the rules change. unable to go back to doing business as usual on ebay. i.e., you wouldn’t rob a bank and then casually walk around town. you would totally be disguised. all of your freedom would hinge on how well you were able to conceal your real self. hiding would become your entire focus. it seems like it’s the same concept here. before suspension, your focus was just making money, now the focus has shifted to keeping your account. money is no longer the first priority. strategy (hiding) is the priority. if you were let go yesterday and you are back up today selling the same items with similar details with a new account, then yes, it IS totally obvious its YOU AGAIN! that wouldnt be a good strategy and that's not hiding. that's being out in the open. and you get dinged again. i know when people get kicked off they lose money, and everyone wants to get back on asap and pick up where they left off, but i that is really the wrong frame of mind. if you concentrate on KEEPING the account, (by following all the rules on this site and in the ebook every single day), the money will just automatically come because you arent making any decisions or actions that come from greed (like posting 100 items the first day cause you want your money), instead you are making decisions that come from "what is in the best interest of this account right now" and that makes you more cautious. it may seem like a lot more work to always watch your step, but that's how you keep the haters off your a** and make the real money.

the suspension just means STEP YOUR GAME UP. if you lost $1000 after being suspended, you basically just paid $1000 to get on to the next level


with all that said, i was wondering how long has anyone been able to maintain their stealth account? i have not yet heard anyone mention that here. it would be cool if there was something like a ”chronicling” of one of these accounts. or a stealth account "in action". i will be starting my account this weekend, after proper preparation and making sure all of my ducks are in a row of course. im anxious to see how long i can keep it and how well i am able to defend myself against ebays tricks! should also help others here who may also be starting a new account as well. ive been on ebay a long time and i understand how they do business and i have confidence these techniques will work. i obviously wont be giving out too many details about the account on this thread, but you can pm me if you would like to know anything. i will post back regularly to advise how things are going with the account. here are the basic criteria i will be using when opening my account:

1. the goal is to keep the account for as long as possible
2. im starting with one account. i don’t want to bite off more than i can chew.
3. this account is used to practice and observe before i move on to more accounts
4. its for selling only
5. i will let it age for a while before doing any activity


this should be fun!

[aspkin]

Sounds like you're ready to get started. As long as you're doing everything that's stated in eBay Stealth and in the forums, and you take things slowly at first you should be fine. Let me know if you have any questions, pm me if you do, and I'll try to help out.

Good luck!

[2001kx]

i usually keep mine 1 - 2 years selling VERO.

[sowhat]

Hi! Sorry I've been out of the loop, I've been busy for the last week or so with work. I will send an update on my new ebay account shortly. One small thing to note is that my account is up and open and has been for almost 2 weeks. It is sitting just as a buyer account. No credit card on file as of yet. So far so good. The real test will be when I list items next week.

2001kx - thanks for the info. That's good to hear. That gives me an idea of what I can possibly grow to using my "new" accounts.

I will post another update next week(end) once my items are listed.

[sowhat]

Update:

- My account is up, open and running

- I’m using dial up. I check that the dial up phone number is the same every time for this account BEFORE dialing a connection. I IMMEDIATELY check the ip address each time after connecting BEFORE I log into ebay or paypal. Document it and compare it to the other ip’s I’ve already used. So far I have not had the same ip address. I’m also using Firefox and deleting cookies when I log off. I also created a gmail email address for this account.

- I created a separate user account on my computer for this account.

- My ebay, paypal and credit (gift) card are all registered with the same fake name, address, phone, credit card, etc. The only real thing is my bank account number on paypal.

- I couldn’t find a free local number remotely close to my area code/ip address/ fake address using any of the services mentioned on the forum. So I went with gizmo. It was the cheapest and they have an enormous amount of area codes/phone numbers. $12 you get to keep the number for 3 months or $36 to keep for a year. It also has voicemail. There is no need to forward calls to any other phone in order to punch in ebays pin numbers, the program has a dial pad that you use with your mouse. If you do forward the calls you will have to put money on your gizmo account. Call the number BEFORE giving it to ebay to make sure it works. I can give more info on gizmo if you want to pm me. (I don’t know how this works with pp since I read that pp likes a landline.)

- When I attempted to sell my first item, I got to the end of the listing and it told me to add either paypal, credit card or a bank account to pay my ebay fees. I added the credit card that has the same fake name that I also put on the ebay & paypal accounts.

- After I submitted the credit card, it immediately asked to call me.

- It called my gizmo number and asked me a question (I don’t remember what) then it said to press 5, and I think it asked me to press some other number. I did it all on the gizmo dial pad. I passed the ebay phone verify and was automatically allowed to sell right after.

- Now my ebay account is verified.

- I waited about 3 - 4 days before I started to sell. In the meantime, I opened the paypal account and added my real bank account number. Then added the same fake credit card I used on ebay. I got the two deposits in my bank account and put them into paypal. I also upgraded my account to a premier account. Now I am paypal verified.

- I created the auctiva account and got the token. Then made some listings to put on ebay.

- I currently have 7 items up and each of them for a 5 day auction. These are my first 7 listings on this account. I’m super paranoid and untrusting of ebay and paypal right now, so I’m taking it slow. I will list more when these are done and I actually have the money from the sale in my personal bank account. Then I will know its safe to proceed.

More later once the auction is over…

[sowhat]

Update!

Since I last logged on here’s what has happened…

1. My first round of auctions (stated above) on my new stealth account ended just fine. I was paid by the buyers, the money went from my Paypal account into my bank account without any problems.

2. I got VERO’d on one item so I didn’t sell on that account for about 2-3 weeks.

3. I put up more items last week and a few have ended and I have gotten paid for those items through Paypal and spent the money with no problems.

4. Although I’ve been listing items everyday since last week without any problems, I’m only listing 2 a day. Slowly working my way up over the next few weeks/months.

5. While I’m building this first account up, I also opened a second stealth account a few days ago to begin to spread out my inventory over a few accounts.

6. I posted my first listings on this second account yesterday and so far so good. I was able to sell by adding Paypal as my payment source and the phone verification.

7. I used the toll free central for the free phone number for 30 days without a credit card method mentioned in the forums and it worked great. It didn’t work for me using firefox or ie, but it worked in aol.

8. I keep my email open all day long so I can see when I get an ebay related email. When I do, I log into my other user account on my computer, disconnect my high speed and use a dial up. Record the date I went in and the ip number. It’s VERY ANNOYING to have to unplug the phone and plug in the dial up, but I guess that’s just how it is. Surprisingly, the dial up isn’t that slow.


So now I have two stealth accounts up and running and it is a little extra work to keep everything organized, but it's going smoothly and it seems to be worth it cause I’m making money again!!

CAUTION!!

DO NOT MULTITASK WHILE WORKING WITH YOUR STEALTH ACCOUNT. IT NEEDS YOUR FULL ATTENTION TO AVOID MAKING A RETARDED MISTAKE

More later.

[sowhat]

Hey guys!

Sorry I haven’t been on or posted anything in a while. I’ve been very busy with my stealth accounts! YAY!

Here are the latest updates:

1. I am now running two stealth accounts and both are selling high demand low priced items. I started building them up slowly. It actually didn’t take that long to build them up cause people started buying quickly so that allowed me an excuse to list a few more items each week. But I am still keeping only about 30-50 items up at one time. Haven’t had any problems from ebay or ppal. My auctions end everyday, and I withdrawal the money from ppal EVERYDAY to my bank account to avoid them trying to take any away from me. So everyday I start with $0 in my ppal account.

2. It may already be posted in the forums, but I’ve come to realize ebay does not like you revising listings (even if you truly did make a mistake you need to correct). Here is what I noticed:

- Whenever I made a revision from this page:



they requested a phone verification and I had to put in the pin number before I could make the revisions.

- Whenever I made a revision from this page (inside your "my ebay account":



I did not get a phone call request, I was able to make the revisions I wanted.

Does anyone know if you open an ebay account and you post all your auctions through Auctiva and never through the ebay listing page if ebay asks for a phone call? Just wondering.

2. Now that I feel like I’m getting the hang of things, I’ve been opening emails from ebay in my gmail account from buyers who ask me questions while connected to my high speed internet. Instead of dialing up and logging into ebay to answer them. So far no problems with doing this. I open those emails in my gmail account since gmail doesn’t open images and I can avoid ebay putting those little spy thingys on my computer. I respond to the buyer by clicking “reply” on my email and my response goes back to the buyers email address. I do NOT hit the yellow “respond” button on the ebay email (which doesn’t show up anyway cause there are no images in gmail). Then the buyer just responds back to my email address and we talk safely back and forth. I have been pretty lucky in this area that all my buyers have not blocked their email addresses when sending me a message.

3. I had a buyer ask to send me a money order for an item. I have no idea why I said, "ok". There was absolutely no way I could turn my fake name on ebay into anything that remotely resembled my real name. So I have a money order for a really small amount on my desk and no clue what to do with it. I was thinking of just endorsing the back with the name on the m/o and then my name underneath and deposit into my bank through the ATM. I’ve done this before with checks without a problem. Just wondering if I should attempt it again. I will search the forums for an answer.

That’s it!

Everything is running smoothly. About a month and a half after being kicked off ebay I am back up and selling where I was before!!

I will let you know if anything else happens.

[Modee]

Interesting! Nice info.

Yes just stick the M.O. into the ATM as long as under a K will go through no problemo. Some ATMs (some of the newer ones that scan the item directly) do not accept money orders AT ALL but the latest new ones will accept anything negotiable.

Very nice post - give and take. You give some nice data, and ask for some help. Unlike some of the leeches on here that just ask and ask and ask.

[sowhat]

Oh! And how could I have forgotten the best part!

I got a 21 day hold on a $6 payment from ppal!!!! YES I SAID SIX DOLLARS!

They said the only way to get the money was to wait 21 days, or the buyer had to leave positive feedback and like 2 other options I could chose from. I just emailed the buyer and told them ppal was holding their $6 payment and to please leave me positive feedback. She did and my $6 was released.

[sowhat]

Hahaha, thanks Modee!

[Stealth Man]

I think alot of it does have to do with the vero item and how much and how many. I sell wallets, VERO wallets, it seems everytime I go over 8 in one month there will be a take down. I had got stuck with with about 100(wallets) the 1st time I was busted(before I knew about this site and the stealth book) and used some friends as guenni pigs(and to move the wallets while I learned from them). I personally have had only 1 take down with zero suspension. Auctive is great for your auctions. Usually get posted to ebay right away instead of a 24 review Ive noticed. I am using about 30 accts and sell only 8 items a month(on each 1). sometimes 2 a week sometime 8 in one shot. But like you said start slow. I usually sell some junk form the 99 cent store etc. to get over 5 feedbacks.

I did a ring central number today routed to my yahoo phone in. Worked great. Keep going to google and they offer a free trail with NO CREDIT CARD for 30days. If I use a different "user id" and ip you can keep getting the free offer. Ive learned alot with the help of aspkin and Ive got info. And a few others around here. I guess I should start tech support like modee. But if Im making money on ebay why would I????