Question regarding similar address

fieldhockey · #1 10-05-2012

I was suspended last month for vero violations. My items are hand-crafted, made to order, and I was selling on average $5,000 to $6,000 a month. Since I had just purchased all new equipment and supplies, I was devastated. I will probably attempt a Stealth account at the first of the year, but honestly had just accepted the fact that my selling days were over for now.

After telling my next-door neighbor about what happened, she is thinking of opening an ebay shop and paypal account, listing my items, and basically "buying" them from me as they sell. She will do all the packing and shipping, and pretty much just let me know each day what she has sold and what I need to make for her. Since she is literally my next-door neighbor and our address is exactly the same except for a one digit difference in our street address, I worry that she may have a problem.

Some of the other things that I have thought about are that: she knows nothing about Ebay so I will have to show her the ropes, probably have to do the listings myself, at least until she feels comfortable. I am thinking that I will need to take all new photos and somehow make the listings look a little different. My photos are actually digital samples, so I am wondering if I create all new samples on my computer and email them to her, will it somehow be connected to my computer? We have different internet services, so I don't think that ISP issues should be a problem? I know that I could never log onto her account from my house.

This would actually be a Godsend for me, as I was having a very difficult time keeping up with my orders, and this will allow me to make my items, sell them to her, and not worry about anything else.

I would think that a new seller should not be required to state where she purchases her items, and that me selling my items wholesale to her would be perfectly within Ebay's rules, but the address is what is worrying me and I don't want her to get up to her neck in orders and then run into problems because of my issues with Ebay.
As a side note - my items are not something that would be considered "Vero-able".

I had a couple of violations for using a celebrity name on my items, so I went in and removed about 150 listings that I thought could possibly be questionable. Unfortunately, I left one up there that had an automotive name on it and they got me. Actually, because of a rather strange email I received from another seller just a couple of weeks prior, I am 99.9% sure that it was a case of of another seller eliminating their competition.

Sorry so long, but until I can work up the time and energy to go Stealth, can anyone see any potential snafu's with this plan?
Thanks so much.

GreenBean · #2 10-05-2012

Welcome to the forum

1st snafu was a long post with no paragraphs! It's too hard to read.

I'll be blunt. This is not a good bail me out of my problem plan. What was the actual violation? Age of account & other problems if any?

Your neighbor will immediately be linked by the address.... one digit difference does not work. Ideally 'stealth' means new everything & nothing linked to old info.

A new account doing even 1/3 of your volume will be checked. ebay/paypal will want invoices.

This is not to say you could not sell again. You would have to make other plans to succeed.

fieldhockey · #3 10-05-2012

Thank you for your reply Bill, and I apologize for the length and format of my post!

To answer your questions, I have had the same Ebay account for over 10 years and have never had any problems, issues, or violations prior to this. Over the years I would sell different items, usually hand-made crafty type things, nothing too big in volume. My feedback was about 1775.

I started selling vinyl car decals earlier this year (designed with graphics program on my computer and then sent to plotter/vinyl cutter) and this is where my problems started.

I received three Vero violations for three different decals in one week. It was my fault, I didn't do my homework, and knew very little about trademark laws, etc. (I had made decals using a celebrity name, a cartoon character, and a quote from a current, popular movie (The Hunger Games). I received a 7 day partial restriction which I took very seriously and scoured my listings and removed over 150 of them that I thought could be questionable and decided to make and sell only decals that I designed myself using my own artwork.

Unfortunately, I left one up that said "My other car is a Jeep". I was notified of my suspension at the same time I received the Vero for that decal.

Stupidity on my part, I just truly did not think for one second that would be a problem and most certainly would not have risked my successful business on one $3 decal.

Of note, I don't feel that I am trying to outsmart Ebay here. After all I"ve been through these past few weeks, I'm not sure that I'll ever feel comfortable doing business with them again.

My neighbor will be 100% and soley responsible for her Ebay and paypal account, shipping her orders, feedback, etc. I have just been presented with an opportunity to sell my decals wholesale.

If they question her identity and she provides proof, can they really dictate where she can and cannot purchase her inventory from?

Sorry this is long again, I tried to break it up into paragraphs this time ):

hackteck · #4 10-06-2012

i have used and still do use stealth accounts sucessfully where i changed the address from lets say 123 anything st and i changed it to 123 anything st apt #2b etc and this works for me for years