Selling a limited company ebay & Amazon account

[Mr UK]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience successfully selling a limited company that has an Ebay & Amazon account?

(The new directors not complaining about being banned after the sale, and Perhaps you the seller created a new limited company EBay/Amazon account after the transaction without getting banned?)

From what I can find:
Regarding eBay, the T&Cs say you can’t sell an Ebay account. However it does not mention about selling a company account.

Regarding Amazon T&Cs, it says “If ownership of a Business changes for any reason the new owner has to establish a new seller account”.

However, if you read this UK solicitor website, they are saying it’s doable as the accounts belong to the company.
https://www.ellisjones.co.uk/news/bu...ng-a-business/

Thanks

[Mr UK]

Anyone out there?

[Mr UK]

I obviously understand that people do sell ebay accounts even though it's against ebay T&Can't. There's people on here selling them, I'm just wondering about limited company accounts

[rsot]

No experience here with selling limited company accounts - all the best as you sift it out

[murdered_by_ebay]

if account belongs to limited company which was also sold it is not a real sale of ebay account as the owner remains unchanged but company officers change

this is likely to lead to new verification at some point , with amazon for sure , with ebay depending on whether adyen monitor change of owner details at companieshouse

obviously new owners should be residents , non residents may work for amazon but it is a risk , ebay do not want non residents for sure

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by Mr UK

I obviously understand that people do sell ebay accounts even though it's against ebay T&Can't. There's people on here selling them, I'm just wondering about limited company accounts

If the ebay / amazon accounts come with the company then it's not considered selling an ebay account.

That ebay account will have a company name on it.

[Mr UK]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

If the ebay / amazon accounts come with the company then it's not considered selling an ebay account.

That ebay account will have a company name on it.

Thanks for the response

So because the Amazon/EBay account belongs to the company, even if I sell the company it would not be considered as "Selling the ebay account". The company is still the owner of the ebay/Amazon accounts, it's just the ownership of the company that has changed.

EBay/Amazon doesn't have to know that I actually sold the company do they, they just have to be notified about the change of directors.

Is this correct?

[Mr UK]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

if account belongs to limited company which was also sold it is not a real sale of ebay account as the owner remains unchanged but company officers change

this is likely to lead to new verification at some point , with amazon for sure , with ebay depending on whether adyen monitor change of owner details at companieshouse

obviously new owners should be residents , non residents may work for amazon but it is a risk , ebay do not want non residents for sure

Yes I understand thank you.
I contacted ebay to ask them this question to, but I deliberately didn't mention the part about selling the company and its corresponding ebay account. As I thought they'd say "no you can't do that!. So I just said to them: " in the future I may be resigning as director, and a new director will be taking over the company, is it acceptable for a new person to take over/operate the company ebay account"
And they said yes, you just have to update the new director/stakehlder details

EBay and Amazon don't specifically need to know that I'm selling the company and handing over its ebay and Amazon account to the new director do they?
They just need to know about the change of directors/officers and update it on the accounts

[Mr UK]

I asked this same question on the ebay forums, but I got a backlash of people saying:

"NO! you can't sell an ebay account under any circumstances, it doesn't matter if it's a limited company or not!"

To which I replied:
"But the ebay account belongs to the company, so if I sell the company then the account still belongs to the company, it's just that the director/stakeholder of the company changes"

And they're still like "NO you're not aloud!"

So I'm wondering if they're just hard core enforcers of ebay T&Cs.


Didn't ask it on the Amazon forums.

[Mr UK]

The reason I ask this is because my plan is to build a business brand (using a limited company) that sells on Amazon and eBay, and then in say 5 years time, hopefully the business will be generating lots of revenue/profit through its ebay and Amazon accounts. Then I can sell the company for 6 figures. Then start the cycle again.

[Mr UK]

If anyone does have any real life experiences with selling a limited company with ebay and Amazon accounts please share them, even years after this thread is created.

I believe the man that created Victoria Plumbing (big UK company) started off selling goods on ebay. He built the store "First2Save" and then sold the company for over £1M to start his new company Victoria Plumbing. The ebay store still runs today by the new directors.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/man-h...after-24373864

[Hank]

Mega sellers aside who will have a different relationships with ebay/Amazon, the accounts are registered in the name of an individual not the Limited Company.

If you change ownership of the Limited Company then we would have to assume the named individual would also want removing from the accounts.

But for sure, even as soon as the bank account is changed it will trigger verification with Amazon never mind PSC's and they'll pick up on any changes. Suspension is very likely. With ebay I cannot say but it's looking increasingly likely that Adyen apply similar protocols so expect the same.

Bottom line is that Amazon and ebay accounts cannot according to their policies be sold, even transferring ownership is fraught with issues even if you try and slide under the radar.

Only way I would proceed is to do it formally by laying all cards out on the table and seeing if they can accommodate you in some way. Jerking the system will surely end up in tears.

[Hank]

Originally Posted by Mr UK

The reason I ask this is because my plan is to build a business brand (using a limited company) that sells on Amazon and eBay, and then in say 5 years time, hopefully the business will be generating lots of revenue/profit through its ebay and Amazon accounts. Then I can sell the company for 6 figures. Then start the cycle again.

If it's reached a stage where you think you can sell it for six figures then you'd keep it any employ someone to manage it for you.

Anyway, keeping it real then I simply wouldn't worry a jot about transfer, it is unlikely to happen as you think.

[Mr UK]

Originally Posted by Hank

If it's reached a stage where you think you can sell it for six figures then you'd keep it any employ someone to manage it for you.

Anyway, keeping it real then I simply wouldn't worry a jot about transfer, it is unlikely to happen as you think.

I guess you're right, with the rise of ecommerce there's got to be people out there that can you could hire to manage a large ecommerce store.

For example
If the store/s were making £100,000 profit per year and you found an "ecommerce account manager" (or whatever their job title would be) to run the store for say £30000 a year then happy days.

A nice problem to have in the future.

[Mr UK]

Originally Posted by Hank

Mega sellers aside who will have a different relationships with ebay/Amazon, the accounts are registered in the name of an individual not the Limited Company.

If you change ownership of the Limited Company then we would have to assume the named individual would also want removing from the accounts.

But for sure, even as soon as the bank account is changed it will trigger verification with Amazon never mind PSC's and they'll pick up on any changes. Suspension is very likely. With ebay I cannot say but it's looking increasingly likely that Adyen apply similar protocols so expect the same.

Bottom line is that Amazon and ebay accounts cannot according to their policies be sold, even transferring ownership is fraught with issues even if you try and slide under the radar.

Only way I would proceed is to do it formally by laying all cards out on the table and seeing if they can accommodate you in some way. Jerking the system will surely end up in tears.

I suppose. It's frustrating if you can't sell them on as part of your company, as you'd think they should be treated as assets along with the company.

I know you have to build up the feedback and then the next person could ruin the feedback etc etc

I guess huge retail cooperation (such as superdry) will make their own agreements with Amazon and eBay

[Hank]

Originally Posted by Mr UK

I suppose. It's frustrating if you can't sell them on as part of your company, as you'd think they should be treated as assets along with the company.

Whilst not formally advertised, I'm sure you can simply change the named account holder when you sell your Limited Company. It will surely happen for a megaseller but for mere mortals like us they simply can't be bothered with the agro.

With the world almost revolving around online business nowadays then even £1M is nothing, loads of tales of sellers of this size on ebay and Amazon being treated poorly when they have account issues or need to make changes.