Protecting our eBay account ...

MikeyIGN · #1 04-22-2016

OK, so a little history. A few years ago I was successfully selling game activation keys. I had no issues selling these even when asking customer support staff on calls to eBay. Since then, I had a customer complain, he later withdrew his complaint and told eBay he over reacted. This didn't matter and I still lost my account.

I became ill. I must confess that the stress of this mess affected my health and it's taken some time before I felt the desire and courage to try again.

I have teamed up with a friend and am fortunate that even though he hasn't sold anything yet (he listed a book and priced it too high so it wouldn't sell), he actually has limits of 1000 sales and $25,000.

This is fantastic news!

Now, even though it's not a stealth account and we do not have to be as paranoid, I was hoping for some pointers to ensure we do not lose such a valuable asset.

I understand that due to his first listing being over 48 hours ago, that our account will have already had the manual check for a first item being sold.

In the next few days I want to start selling game keys again.

I have 3 questions:

1) How many different products can I list without flagging some form of automation flag? Like can I list a set number per day until our full list has been added?

2) The product has a near limitless supply from my supplier (well, certainly higher than we anticipate being able to sell). Is it better to show I have a lower amount and then selling most of the stock, or have my available stock to be in the thousands like I used to do?

3) Is there anything related and significant that I need to be aware of? I am not asking this to be lazy. I have actually bought the guide a few years ago but completely forgot my login and even user name due to various stresses. I know I could comb these forum posts, but I am dealing with a genuine eBay and PayPal account.

Many thanks in advance. I am so excited to get my life back together and earn some money! :-P

treyeazy · #2 04-23-2016

You have to start slow buddy and create many stealths

Ebayorbust · #3 04-23-2016

Did you take the necessary stealth measures with your friend's account to avoid being linked to your suspended account? New windows user account & Fresh IP?

Quote:

I am so excited to get my life back together and earn some money!

Don't get too excited. What you sell is notorious for killing off accounts. Your friend's account will get canned at some point. Will your friendship be able to cope with the issues this will cause?

RosieTosie · #4 04-23-2016

There are many many reports of friendships being lost after people have run eBay businesses together. You have already been under more stress than you comfortably handle with you last account selling the exact same thing, you think that won't happen again just because you are in business with someone else?

The problems you had are much more likely to happen again because eBay is a different marketplace these days to what it was in the past. As has been said no way will you be allowed to get far selling these game keys. They are way to risky to sell on s new account, uiyou would need to start off slowly with household type things that you no longer need or that you go out and buy from a pound shop so you can build up trust with eBay/PayPal.

GreenBean · #5 04-23-2016

Ouch ouch ouch...

My fingers got burned reading you are going to rush back into selling keys.

An important point is all accounts need to be treated carefully. Real & stealth are tags only.

We run ebay accounts that need to be nutured.

Good Luck.

Btw, is the account on ebay uk or ebay com? Your flag is UK but you quoted dollar values rather than sterling.

MikeyIGN · #6 04-23-2016

Hi, thanks for the responses so far. I am in the UK and my friend is US based. I have tried to sell MS keys in the past and this is something that eBay will suspend accounts for. I know they are not as strict with Steam and Origin keys. I do agree that we need to go nice and slowly which is why I asked for an idea. I am thinking of listing a few items, then waiting a week before I list more.

As for my friendship, we are both well aware of the potential loss of his account and for this reason, we both plan to buy stealth accounts and manage them. Also, we are ensuring that I never log into his account from my location to ensure my IP cannot be traced to his account.