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9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

Hello From Canada!

My Story

I have been running my business (selling high end collectibles) for more than 5 years on eBay, had 6 employees and was TRS, 10,000 FEEDBACK all POSITIVE (a sole and sad neutral feedback only in 12 months). My dad used to help me run the business too as a director but around October he fell ill with cancer and passed away very quickly, around the same time I too was hospitalized and out for a few months. The gentleman who I had entrusted to keep running the store did a great job sinking it to the ground and in the span of two months, received countless Item not Received cases (and lost them since he didn't issue refunds and let eBay handle it), countless returns all for messed up orders (we used to do around 50-60 a day and if you do not follow proper inventory protocols etc, very easy to mess orders as many of you will know).

I was never ever aware of the existence of suspensions etc... until we were hit with the limitation and requested to submit invoices etc (for the first time ever) needless to say, during that same period we were hit with 21 returns in one day for two orders that were mixed up!

We got suspended. At the same time, I had put an extensive amount of the company's money on a new venture and our cash flow was effectively zero (I was always dependent on daily fat payouts to keep things alive), had to let go the employees and barely making my mortgage payments, groceries etc. Went down from being the King to being down and trodden in less than 3 months!!

Immediately, I tried to open many new accounts only to get suspended, went on youtube and google to find answers: most of the information out there is tainted to say the least.

Thank God I found this Forum!

I have been stealthily following the forums for the past 3 months, learning learning learning!

Wanted to make my first post to share some thoughts, ideas and QUESTIONS :)

General Notes, Observations:

Prior to purchasing the ebay stealth guide, I followed some of the lower quality advice available on youtube etc ... and I will tell you, the information out there is RUBBISH!! the stealth guide is simple but covers, in principle all the info you ever need, and the only topic I find to be slightly undercovered is MP - but its heavily covered by the moderators here on the forums!

This is the info I gathered from starting 12 stealth accounts over the past 3 months (of which 9 are still active).

TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, I AM NEW HERE AND NEW TO STEALTH


First account registered using Textme service / Fresh Dedicated IP from IPBurger survived for a few weeks, but was taken down after making the first 1K (in around 20 days), when I called trying to reinstate the account, I got lucky with North American support staff and this is what I learnt from a long conversation with the lady that helped me reinstate my account (and 10 other various conversations with eBay staff who helped (or refused to) reinstate new accounts that were suspended:

a- VOIP (all VOIP solutions) will be flagged by eBay, might not suspend you when you first start out but the moment you start picking up pace, they will take you down as a high risk seller.

b- IP (all data center IPs including Fresh IP from IPBurger) WILL NOT WORK! You may pass a few days or even weeks, but increases the risk profile of your account considerably. STICK TO RESIDENTIAL IP from IPBURGER, but also know your settings within IPBURGER, make sure your settings are in sync (i.e. you do not want your ISP changing, but rather stick to the same ISP and let it rotate in different cities, do not stick to one city with various ISPs as that will TRIGGER your risk profile, make sure you set up your proxies proper and always reach out to IPBURGER Customer Service, they are very helpful and responsive and good at satisfying exact stealth needs for eBay).

c- I might still not be out of the woods, but it seems using same info for MP is OK! It might link you manually, but it doesn't link you through eBay bots, who seem to be fixated only with eBay registered info and not the MP info.

d- IMPORTANT POINT TO NOTE, call back number (the number you use for eBay to call you back) is registered and saved and CAN LINK accounts (i.e. you use an unregistered number on eBay to receive calls on various accounts, these accounts are linked!!!!) - I was given various IDs by a customer service agent and asked if they are related to me and explained that I am using a mobile phone of a friend since mine is dead etc..)

e- Linking DOES NOT ALWAYS result in suspension, but highly increases the risk profile of the accounts linked (not talking about links to suspended accounts).

f- Some confusion regarding name: it seems to me (having registered several accounts under my own real name for IDing purposes) using the same name even if previously suspended seems OK so long you do not use other details (i.e. address, numbers etc...) BUT PROCEED WITH CAUTION, this is my experience and I am still new at this! Slight variations always help, but DO NOT TRY VARIATIONS to pass MP, it wont, they need a match of first and last name (seems ID verification for DL is done by AI since it is almost immediate - I get an email/notification that ID is verified less than 3 minutes after I upload it).

g- SHIP FROM ADDRESS OF YOUR ITEMS, any slight variation between your registered address and ship from address increases the risk profile of the account considerably if you are a new seller, make sure the Zip Code/Post Code for your listings MATCHES that of your registration for the first items you sell. On one of the accounts that went down, I was heavily grilled on that issue when trying to reinstate: (they highlight that my account is a high risk, and go on to question me as to why I am selling from Town X when my registered address is Town Y (noting that both towns are approx 50 Kms away from each other).

h- Any change, whatsoever, of any information (registration, payments etc) on a new account WILL RESULT in an increased risk profile, and as such a higher likelihood of suspension.

i- PACE, PACE, PACE!! Pace yourself, Pace yourself!!!!! PACE YOURSELF, on one of the accounts that got suspended, I was told that my listing practices are a high risk, and after kidding around and being SUPER NICE to the Customer Service employee, who reinstated my account, I begged him to help me understand best practices and he refused naturally but finally squeezed that any new account should not, on average, have more than an aggregate of one listing a day!!

FYI, all suspensions I am referring to are not "after first item posted suspensions" but generally come in after a few weeks due to increased sale volume.

I am sure this number is not set in stone and he himself might not have a definitive answer, but he sounded very definitive about his advice to me! - This also depends on the riskiness of the item, but with LISTING practices, handle all items as HIGH Risk in the first 30 days !!


WARNING: by no means do I tell you to go and list an item every day, first week you should not list more than one or two items and only proceed to increase your listings conservatively AFTER tracking shows delivery on your first orders, this made a huge difference for me re continuity of new accounts.


j- IMPORTANT NOTE regarding reinstatement on new accounts!!! IF YOU DO GET suspended for listing too much/selling too fast DO NOT attempt to reinstate the account immediately. ALWAYS WAIT FOR YOUR ORDERS TO BE DELIVERED with tracking, this is the only thing that helped me to reinstate accounts that were taken down for selling too fast (i.e. more than 10 orders in first two weeks)!! Wait a week, make sure ALL your orders have been delivered and when you contact support staff regarding the suspension tell them you just found out you were suspended and HIGHLIGHT that all your orders have been shipped and DELIVERED - on time of course!

QUESTIONS:


I have so many questions for the seasoned masters and grand masters of the forum:

1- When is your account considered relatively safe to start doing higher turnover, I am not referring to Drop Shipping, Vero, or anything like that, I am taking about medium risk items (i.e. collectibles, some of which are really expensive). I was used to doing really high volumes on my lost account but I want to understand when is it safe to make around 1k on auctions per week? PER ACCOUNT.

2- 30 days vs 60 days vs 90 days: I have read many posts that clear an account of high risk of suspension (albeit without the account going crazy doing high risk listings or high risk turnover) generally at the 30 days mark, others at 60 and most definitely at 90 (conditional on listing practices and not listing Veros etcs.), while I understand there is no clear answer but would appreciate seasoned experts discussion on the matter if possible.

3- Listing on accounts after reinstatement: my question is, does a suspension (for high risk selling patters) reset your timer? (i.e., you get suspended a month into setting up your account, reinstate it after a week, do you have to restart the timer on your account and start with the original listing pattern or can you continue from the point you were suspended considering you accumulated new feedback and more delivered orders etc...)?

4- When is it safe to migrate an account from use of Residential IP to Fresh Dedicated IP from IPBURGER, considering I pay by GB on Residential and it can get quite expensive running many accounts if your listing practices are data intensive (you browse a lot, list big size images etc)? Or does IPBurger have an unlimited GB option or High GB option that is more affordable?

5- Using various accounts on Residential IP (for Canada): how do I make sure I do not link the accounts, noting I am using Chrome and Sticky Residential IP and manually make sure I do not hop from one account to another before IP switches, but how feasible is that long term (won't IPs end up being recycled etc...)?

6- Does a limit increase or access to promoted listings indicate that the account (under three months old) is in the green zone and as such can tolerate a bit more of a beating (in terms of how much is listed on it)?

7- I have seen many of the moderators mentioning maxing out limits as a method for increasing limits naturally, but could they shed more light on how to balance between maxing out limits and taking things slow on an account that is still very fresh and new (i.e. first two months of account set up) - what type of balance should we strike here (max out limits every month by 3 listings a day for instance if limit is 100)?

Thank you so much!!!

May your beards always grow thicker!

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

Welcome to the forum OP - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:


Kind of a long intro post - do you have backup accounts going or sticking with only 1

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

I learnt the hard way to start working backups ASAP so you do not start from scratch, I have been following a lot of your responses on the forum (very insightful, especially re Canada) - thank you!

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

Welcome as a new member and your insight on how and why eBay suspend accounts is commendable and a valuable addition to our contributions.

One of the answers you are looking for is question 1. It is and was generally thought that after 90 days sales and listings the account was thought safe, however gently increasing sales would be recommended as a sharp increase will raise suspicion. Obviously stay away from VERO and drop shipping products.

I have been where you are, staff ruined my eBay and I got suspended years ago, hence I am on here and you can continue under stealth a successful business on eBay.

I have never heard of listing one item a day???
If this is your full time job,how can you just list one item a day?
Have you heard of Etsy?
Many Ebay sellers have Etsy shops,the FVF is lower

if you read his long post,he has multiple stealth accounts.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

I am talking new accounts for the first month based on what the customer service agent recommended.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

Thank you for your answer and for your words :) I hope to learn more and to get back my business !

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

High value contribution. Thank you.
For the call back number, do not worry about this. I have use this for hundred accounts without any problem. Just be confident to explain the situation.
Agree with slow pace to nuture the account as long as you can. Mine is around 3 months.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

A great and through post, in terms of IP address, have you not tried tethering through mobile hotspot? I had no luck with IP burger but have successfully created 4 accounts that are still running through mobile hotspot.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

thanks for clarification

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

I have been thinking about it but the IPburger Residential IP has been working perfect for Canada ! Setting up new accounts on the fresh and dedicated ips didn’t work for me and the accounts got flagged.

Make sure you are using residential and make sure the settings within it make sense to especially sticking to the same ISP.

I haven’t tried mobile tethering yet

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

I find IP burger is a bit on the expensive side and if tethering works for me then I will stick to untill it doesn't.

You know the saying, if it ain't broke...

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

All I use is mobile tethering for creating accounts. Once they are up and running I might choose to buy a proxy but mobile seems easier and cheaper for multiple accounts.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

works very well - dynamic IP source

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

Data is so expensive here, do you have any recommendations for Canada? (most affordable mobile data?)

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

you don't need a ton of data if just using the IP for ebay - what's your budget for a cellphone plan/

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

I am setting aside around CAD100 a month, what are your thoughts?

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

I created my stealth accounts several weeks ago and here is some information may help you (May not be 100% correct but give you some idea):
1. As other experts said, 90 days after the first item sold.

3. suspension is a signal of danger, the eBay account with my real information get suspended after I sold 50 items in the first 20 days (Even though they were all very cheap items). A very friendly eBay agent helped me to get back my account but it was suspended again a few hours after I relist one of my lists (That product may be high-risk but I didn't know that). Anyway, an account getting suspended means eBay BOT tagged it as a high-risk account, you should definitely be careful in the next 30 days (maybe longer, not sure about this).

4. It should be anytime you want, I am not sure about this but I bought an account from a Chinese seller (They sold a lot of accounts to other Chinese sellers). Based on the eBay message and the email history, I figure out that this is how they create stealth accounts:
1. Get a new email address.
2. Register an eBay account.
3. Apply to be a seller on eBay on the same day. (These 3 steps are down on a mobile based on the login history of eBay)
4. Then, they log in to eBay on an Amazon VPC and warm up the account (add things to the shopping cart) the VPC uses a data center IP.
5. After 5 days, they list the first low-risk item.
Once you register an account on a Mobile IP/Residential IP, you will be ok to log in with a data center IP.

6. Not sure about the limits but before my account got suspended after I sold the high-risk item I said above, eBay hold my money for 30 days instead 15 days for all the orders after that. (That's the reason why I think that item is high-risk) I believe this is a signal showing that my account has been tagged by eBay BOT as a high-risk account.

7. I don't know the answer but here is what I did: I listed 30 items on one of my 1-month-old accounts at once (Just for testing), it's a variation list, and each item is only 3-5 dollars. One day after, eBay automatically increase my selling limit. (Without sending me an email). I believe a safe way to increase your account selling limit is lay low for the first month, sell low-risk products and get a few feedback and slowly increase your lists after that.

Thanks for the information you provide, It helped me a lot.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

So I have been struggling to create Canadian accounts for a year and a half now. Here is my question. Does the name , DOB and the address all have to be matching ? Can I use a RANDOM name , RANDOM address, RANDOM DOB?

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

Thanks a lot! This is great. I hope we can always prosper together.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

Use a variation of your name. Let’s say your name is John Doe, use Jon Doe. Don’t use a previously suspended address. Use a friends address or a relatives. Your DOB must match with your DL. After you create the account and warm it up for a few days. List a low risk item. After it sells, eBay .CA will request that you submit your DL. Don’t worry use your own even if it mismatches the name slightly. Make sure surname is a match. Then you’ll be fine. Scale up slowly. Don’t sell high risk items. Don’t partake in bad behaviours and you’ll be back just fine.

Re: 9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions
 

That's plenty for any mobile data plan - fido, rogers, bell