| sumjuaninca | 11-10-2013 03:32 AM |
Which approach is better? Stealths vs. Friends/Family
I've been reading these forums for a few weeks now and there seems to be two different approaches in how to go about setting up a new account. I'm trying to evaluate the pros and cons of the two approaches as I see them. Any input from the community would be great!
Camp 1) The True "Stealth"ers - there are many (perhaps most) of the members on these forums who seem to set up multiple accounts (often dozens) with the goal to sell small amounts across multiple accounts and ride each account out as long as they can. They use made up names, throw away phone numbers, shoddy VBAs, etc. This method requires an immense amount of micromanaging and to me hardly seems worth it for my goals as a seller. These accounts seem to last only a couple of months on average and are constantly being limited or shut down because of suspicious activity. But so many on here seem to think, who cares when you have 25 more accounts... Is it really that easy to just open all of these? The problems I can count with these sort of accounts hardly seems worth it. You could never really sell much on an account like this in the US.
Camp 2) The "friends & family" crew - these are the sellers here who have maybe 2 or 3 accounts which they refer to as "stealth" but they are really referring to a very different kind of account than the people in camp one above. This is much more like a legitimate ebay account that you are running in your friend's name. It seems to me as though these would be not be very hard to keep clean (as long as you're not an idiot and remember not to use any of your information from your restricted account). If you can send in a scan of your friend's ID and SSN and can verify your account over the phone, you should have an account that is fairly bulletproof, no?
My goals are to be able to run one or two accounts as a buyer/seller. I want access to my mail. Items that get returned to sender happen fairly often, I'm not ok with losing those packages. I want access to my mail. So should you. Basically, the way I see it is that as long as I can verify anything they throw at me, I shouldn't have any problems - so long as I'm selling legit items as a hobby and keep happy customers.
My plan of attack is as follows:
* Create an eb/pp account in friend's name
* Get a physical address PO Box at the USPS
* Add a DBA name to my PO Box - using my ebay userID as my DBA
* Use friend's name and my physical address PO Box as my eb/pp home addresses but my eb user ID as my ship from name and my returns name. This way I can always pick up my mail from the post office as it is also my DBA
* Produce whatever documents they ask for when they ask to verify, through whatever means necessary. Should be easy if my friend will verify for me.
* Get a MagicJack phone number as GV appears to cause problems for people (does this MJ# need to be registered in your friend's name too?)
* Get a BOA account in my name to link with pp, but don't ever use it to make payments to pp
* Get a reloadable prepaid CC in my friend's name to used for eb payments
This allows me to do business in my friend's name, but my DBA is only a way for me to pick up packages. I'm not actually doing business in that name (other than acting as an agent to my friend). I'm basically just acting as an agent on my friend's behalf. It would be entirely his account and info, I'm just managing it and using a PO Box that I have access to instead of his home address. That way I don't have to bother him at all. I can just give him a nice thank you at the end of the year each year. Seems like this approach should last a very long time...
Am I ignorant? Is there something I am missing? Why are so many people so set on these throw away accounts? Is it because they've already exhausted all legitimate accounts they could or is it because they actually prefer that method? | 
