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[jeffweico]

We have all been there at one time or another.

Let me see if I can try to answer your question...

Your chances of ever getting the real account back are slim to none. As you have stated, you cannot pay the $400 owed and there is no way they would allow you to sell again before that is cleared up.

And, even if you clear it up, they still would not allow you to sell. In their eyes, you pose an unacceptable risk to them. Explaining what happened will not help. They do not care. Plenty of the members here had an original account that had TRS or Powerseller status, or both. Rarely do they reverse their decisions.

I am with you on the supply and demand issue. I do not view this as price gouging. Any time that something is in short supply, prices go up. Some people will try to paint you as a crook who would overcharge some poor innocent parents for a gift for their child. But, the fact is, they have a choice. Cabbage Patch Dolls, Wii game systems, Tickle Me Elmos, and all of those other "must haves" eventually come down in price.

I had a wonderful childhood, and there was a lot of love in my family. Nobody can say they loved their parents more than I loved mine. But I did NOT get everything I wanted at the moment I wanted it. Sometimes it was an affordability issue. Sometimes my parents may have objected to what I wanted on their personal moral grounds. Sometimes I was behaving like a brat and didn't deserve whatever it was that I desired.

Yet, somehow, I managed to survive. :-)

I learned about supply and demand. Price elasticity. Substitution. And most importantly that there are things in life more important that all the crap that they are always trying to sell to you. Now, as an adult, I have to police myself. Some things that I want I buy right away. But more often than not, I think about it first. Will I REALLY get enough use out of it to justify the price? If I wait a few months, will the price drop? Can I afford this right now? Sometimes I have to tell myself NO.

Too many people don't know how to do that anymore. They charge up their credit cards to the max, then take out a second mortgage on their home - THEIR PLACE TO LIVE - to pay for even more junk. Then, they declare bankruptcy and YOU and I end up paying for it.

It is only price gouging if it is something that people NEED. By NEED, I mean something that cannot be done without, that there is no substitute for, that could cause health problems or even death if it is not secured. For example, you get snowed in somewhere, with 30 other people. You have some antibiotics with you. Someone else's kid gets sick and there is a doctor who says the child needs the antibiotics or he will die. But you are the only one who has any. So, you agree to give them to the child in exchange for the family's house and car, plus $10,000. THAT is price gouging. That would be immoral. I would never do anything like that.

Nobody NEEDS a Beanie Baby. So, if I had the last one, and you just absolutely MUST HAVE IT for a Christmas gift, then I will charge you just as much as I can, the more the better. And I will have a clear conscience.

In this case, I do not think the OP is an immoral person. They were trying to earn some money for their family and got in over their head by taking on a product line they did not fully understand how to deal with. The OP has stated that they would like to pay eBay/PayPal back, but currerntly they do not have the funds to do so. That doesn't make them a scammer. That is just bad luck. They have made a mistake, and vowed not to repeat it.

So, to the OP, I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck. Go stealth, pay eBay/PayPal back when you can and take care of your loved ones. You are the kind of person that I LIKE to see get helped by these techniques.