Good way of avoiding fees

mantisinc · #1 10-12-2008

Something I have come across recently thanks to a competitor reporting me actually.

Now with the 30 days listings, you can sell a LOT in one listing.

I do this with nearly all of my items. In this instance, I had 2 different items for sale, both 30 day featured first, with 800 items available on each. I'd sold nearly 600 on both listings, with about 8 days to go for each one.

I was reported by a competitor (I know who's reporting me which is even better), so the listings go removed... and all fees associated to that listing, were refunded. So that included final value fees of all I'd sold on each item, which totaled to over £2,400.

So now I have a balance in the region of -£2400, which is like winning a small ebay lottery or something

From this, I gathered that when listing such large multiple listings, add something small in the listing that could possibly get your listing removed, and if needs be - report yourself from another account. Stick away from VeRO or other major policy breaches, as you don't want to end up in a suspension situation.

But doing this occasionally can save a lot of money.

**aspkin** · #2 10-12-2008

Lol, whatever works for you.

divine422 · #3 10-13-2008

lol...nice.

BooMer · #4 10-14-2008

Funny.. It's like shooting yourself in the foot and still able to walk. Just hope that the other person don't report you when you only sold 1 item. That will just be a red flag on your record for nothing.

mantisinc · #5 10-14-2008

A platinum seller with 1 minor removal - saving £2,400? Not really much of a red flag if you ask me

But I agree it's a waste if you've only sold a couple of items. For someone with a stained record, I agree - would be a bit of a risk. But with a clean record, I think it's well worth it! Obviously not as a continuous thing....

Seller · #6 10-14-2008

When I first started selling on ebay I used the featured listing upgrade. I might give this strategy a try. At this point I just want to move as much merchandise as fast as possible.

Jonas · #7 10-15-2008

Oh and you know if you do that, then none of the buyers there can leave you feedback after it gets removed, either.

Jonas · #8 10-15-2008

If you want to avoid having eBay owe you money, then you start it at the first of the month and take it down near the end.

One thing that might work is have offsite hosting from a hosting company that allows porn and lets you make tons of random subdomains. Then host pictures there. Then change one to a something that's a violation, like if you can make it convincingly look like a tasteful very softcore porn of a topless woman that looks like it's to boost sales or put a bunch of listing terms in your picture so eBay's seeing a seller with listing terms in the pic or make the picture a huge image that's a political ad. Doing this and you control when it's taken down.

As for not getting fees back, don't do the same violation three times. eBay claims if you do the same violation over and over, you get jacked up.

Also you want to pad the account with lots of other items that are cheap fee-wise so the violation looks small in percent comparison to the others. You probably don't want to do more than 1-2 of these a month.

BooMer · #9 10-15-2008

I agree with the Picture Hosting, I host my own pictures and can change them anytime I want even with bids already in place. That is a better idea than just putting certain words in the auction that someone else can report you.

I would love to do this and save in fees but I don't want to lose my account and start over again if something goes wrong.

mantisinc · #10 10-15-2008

Not saying this is a sustainable method of avoid eBay fees - and in fact I'm not one personally for going out of my way to avoid eBay fees. I've paid every single eBay fee I've owed in my 17 year existance.

However, what I'm saying is that if you do sell a lot via 30 days listings with large amounts of items for sale on each, getting your listing removed can get a nice amount of fees credited back to your account.

As said above, if you want to shift a large amount of stock in a short amount of time, could work well.

JohnnyBeGoode · #11 03-11-2009

Yeah, but if you sold 600 items on the listings and they got pulled, didn't eBay send emails to 600 of your customers telling them so? How many of the 600 wrote to you saying WTF? and asking to cancel their purchase?

yaw1800 · #12 03-11-2009

they dont ask to cancel but you can bet that quite a few will contact you to find out why you were suspended or even open up a dispute for a refund (most likely these are the ones who recently made a purchase and havent received their item yet)

JohnnyBoy · #13 03-13-2009

eBay canceling auctions that have been sold and paid for has saved me alot of money. Only on one time I had to refund a buyer. The rest just a paranoid message or opened a paypal dispute. Send them a friendly message and let them know you have shipped item and all goes well.

Werfella · #14 08-01-2009

lol... keep doing what you do

**SaiJin** · #15 12-22-2010

You know, you are one of the reasons why eB become as strict as they are.
Abusing stuff for pennies and that'll ruin it for us who try to keep accounts.

Stealth accounts are made for the victims of eB. NOT to victimize eB.

I suggest you be careful and think before you post your next post in here.

oompaloompa · #16 12-24-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaiJin

You know, you are one of the reasons why eB become as strict as they are.
Abusing stuff for pennies and that'll ruin it for us who try to keep accounts.

Stealth accounts are made for the victims of eB. NOT to victimize eB.

I suggest you be careful and think before you post your next post in here.

here here saijin. completely agree