What Do You Pay On Average to Run Your Stealth Account(s)

[mat_tz]

Not meant to get in anyone's business asking for specifics but I'm in the process of going stealth and after reading through a lot of these threads I realize a lot of maintenance will be required which I'm perfectly fine with but what am I looking at as far as cost?

What are averages paid a month to run Stealth Account(s)?

[jeffweico]

It all depends on your setup, but I would say it can be done for less than $10 per account if you go the cheap route up to maybe $30 on the high end.

Maintaining a working phone number costs between $3 and $8 per month. Some people use Google Voice to eliminate this cost, although I don't recommend it.

To connect, you will need something to give you a different IP address. A dongle can be used for several accounts and costs anywhere from $15 - $50 per month depending on the ISP. You could also use a VPN or a VPS, these vary between $7 and $15 per month.

Checking accounts can vary in price between $5 and $15 per month, but some banks waive the fee if you have electronic deposits, so once you start withdrawing from PayPal, you can eliminate that cost.

[MM78]

Agree with Jeffweico, It all depends on what type of setup your looking for.

[vogeltron]

Agree with Jeffweico, very spot on info. Only thing to add is the return address. Personally I use PO Box up to about 5 stealth accounts. (Probably not recommended) Don't really have to add it to eBay unless you get a bunch of return requests because then it shows the stealth addy.

I would say between phone, VPN (i use public wifi for some no recommended by members) and the box. It averages out to like $20 a month per account.

For US Stealth with the 200 transaction limit per year (really less if you want to avoid problems) you have to cut costs and take some risks. Especially if you aren't selling hundred dollar items.

[Haidukken]

Internet connection: £24 a month

Random phone, in my case an old Nokia: £10

Sim cards for stealths: Free, sea of providers out there to choose from. Plenty of companies give out free SIM cards nowadays and you don't NEED to pay monthly fee, but even if you choose to do so, the plans start from £1 a week or something silly like this

Netgear router for IP address change: £8

VCC account with inital deposit: £10-15

For me, the startup cost was around £50 but I have around 10-15 accounts that I have in various different stages of their life.
Most expensive cost was probably the initial Entropay deposit, so that I could get all the cards verified and done.
Bank accounts here in UK are free, I use quite a few savers.

I don't really think it's THAT expensive to start your stealth operation, but as Jeff mentioned earlier, you can ALWAYS improve and find new ways to operate.
For me personally it was very important to wrap my head around the actual process and set up everything so that I could use existing laptop, router and internet connection, in order to prove to myself that I'm able to run stealth accounts without problems and with great efficiency.

Now that I have my accounts all selling and producing profit, with NO issues or suspensions I will be looking at how could I improve my setup so that I would be more mobile for examble, so that I wouldn't depend on the equipment that I have at home.
I will be looking at different IP solutions for when I'm travelling. I'll be looking at different account types, banking solutions and also internet providers.


Once you get the basics right and feel comfortable, you can always improve your personal setup and some of these improvements do add cost to the operation, but also you will benefit greatly from most of these "expensive" changes or improvements.
Once you make money, make sure you invest some of it back to the stealth setup so that you would keep improving yourself and making more money.