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Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

So I had been selling trademarked items on ebay, well knowing what I was doing was wrong/illegal. I ended up getting limited for selling "different items" than usual. Long story short, needed the money for an emergency medical bill.

I submitted the documents that Paypal had asked for, (this is my legit and only account), and now after reading a lot of posts here, I am starting to get anxious that I shouldn't have submitted those documents and had just abandoned the account.

I'm not worried about losing the money at this point... I'm more worried that the authorities will get contacted and I will be in serious trouble. I've read some awful things online.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Welcome to the forums - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:

First question - how many sales, volumewise and saleswise?

Keep in mind that this forum isn't meant to give legal or financial advice in general.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Highly doubtful ebay/paypal will contact the authorities because theyre not the party that you offended against. That would be the rights owner of such products and those would usually request the info from ebay/paypal and contact you directly by mail if they were planning on taking any steps against you.
No need to panic just yet. if you do intend to continue with such product sales though itll probably be advisable to proceed using stealth accounts to do so.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Not looking for legal advice at all. About $1800 profit.

I haven't received any emails or anything in the mail and have taken down my listings.

I'm just curious if you think ebay may contact authorities or anything like that.

Really wish I could rewind a few months ago and change this....

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Read my response again - already answered your question friend.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

I was replying to the first responded, thank you for your answer! I hope that is the case.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Do you think it's worth me trying to get my account restored? The only think is I owe money to Paypal credit.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

What did you sell?

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Used Condoms.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

FFS, you missed the bus again. This is totally Daft. You need a better trick for 2018


The OP joined way back in 2015. You missed the Welcome then.

:FF:

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

No, you missed what slokor said.

The owners of these trademarked items would contact eBay to get your information.

Your real issue is with what is called the IP rights holder.

In view of what we have said, I would suggest you become silent.... I am sure you get my drift.

:peace:

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Meh, my comments were relevant to the OP. OP should also know better if he/she indeed joined in 2015 and has been active by then.

@OP, PP account is worth saving but if PP sees you as selling risky items....chances are strong that you won't be reinstated regardless of the amount of proofs you submit

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Unless you have Homeland Security at your door or Certified Letters from the Rights owners you have little to worry about.

You said you sold $1800 in profit but how much did you sell? $1800 is not much in all reality. I personally would never sue someone for $1800.....

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Not much more than that, I was having about 85% profit margins.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Thanks man, like I said I already submitted my documents to Paypal but it's been about a week and all they've confirmed is my SSN and Address.

I made a mistake when I said all my listings were taken down, there are still some up there but I have set the price so high that no one would ever buy.

Do you think it would look suspicious if I ended every item immediately?

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

You don't have anything to worry about. As long as you don't owe eBay fees they will not pursue you in any way. Like others have said it would be the trademark owner who would pursue you if anyone did. If you didn't receive a cease and desist while your listings were still active, it's safe to assume the trademark owner is not going after you.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

No. It would look perfectly normal for you to end your listings since you are not able to receive any payments with your PP limited.

It's somewhat normal for Paypal to take forever verifying invoices. The absolute worst thing that can result from this is Paypal rejects your invoices and your Paypal becomes permanently limited.

I know you're paranoid right now but everyone here has told you the truth. eBay/Paypal don't sue sellers for selling counterfeits - trademark owners do. Paypal isn't going to report you to the trademark owner.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

ebay or paypal have no right to take any legal action against you unless you short them money.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Thank you so much for all this information. The only thing is I can actually still receive payments and refund buyers with my limitation. I just can't purchase anything or withdraw my money.

Here's a screenshot of my limitations: https://image.ibb.co/daDVCG/limitations.png

Think it would still be a good idea to end everything?

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

I would end them. There's no point in them being active. On the off-chance one of your items does sell, that would be that much more money you won't have access to for 180 days once your account is fully limited in February.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Awesome thanks. I was just thinking maybe leaving them up but revising them so they look super legit would maybe help with their decision on restoring my account.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Also, do you think I should email paypal to try to speed up the review process?

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Leaving your listings up at a stupid high price makes you look more suspicious than pausing all sales until you've resolved the issue with your Paypal account IMO. :juggle:


I would try calling in if anything. There have been tons of threads on this forum about people who successfully sped up the process by calling in. Forum members say if you call in the rep will sometimes review your documents and make a decision about your account while you're still on the phone.

I haven't really noticed those kind of results with people emailing (I guess since it's slower), but that's something you could try.

This is all based off of experiences I've read about here. It's very common for UK stealthers to call in and speed up the verification they have to go through after a certain amount of sales.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Well, I would not be too concerned with authorities at this point. But if they wanted to come for you, you did make it very easy for them to find you. But the limitation you got is usually not due to the authorities getting involved.

I would not abandon the account because frankly, it is too late if they want to find you anyhow. Best way for authorities to find the person is by following the money.

Good luck getting your account back. Do not sell anymore foos foos on your account if you value it. And also, above I said it is doubtful that the authorities know about this. But if you continue selling foos foos then that may very well change.

EDIT: Also, dont be signing for certified mail if you dont know who they are.... Just saying

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Too late now to worry, so don't. Besides, who is going to come arrest you, the trademark police?

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

Keep making jokes, until Homeland Security shows up.

Attempt to commit and conceal offenses against the united states, class C felony here in Missouri.

That's what they charge you with when you import your trademarked knockoffs from overseas and the Chinese seller marks some off the wall thing like "Phone Cables" and puts a value of $.50 cents".

Ask me how I know

Knowingly importing items from overseas, and accepting packages that have been marked as gifts or incorrectly, will land you in deep **** if they choose to.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

They won't speed up the process for anyone.
In the earlier days when I think like this, I ended up getting in deeper trouble with the reps, no matter how nice they sound on the phone.

Speeding up the review process means a manual review by a human and I just don't trust paypal to do the right thing ever.

But you decide what you think is best for you.

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

no leave it alone, just wait out the 180 days, it already started when you first got limited..

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

:pound::pound::pound::pound::pound:

:behindsofa:

Re: Sold Trademarked Products and Got Limited...
 

I have done a plenty of research on this topic and here's what I came up with;

No doubt, if you sell foo-foos, especially from your legit account you are exposing yourself to a lot of risk. If the items you're selling are already on the radar of the IP owner, then they would either takedown your listings or buy from you via undercover buyer and send you a C&D letter via certified mail afterwards. After that, if they chose to pursue you and sue you in a court (usually Federal court) they would be able to easily obtain a judgement of 100K+. That will tank your credit and most of your non-exempt assets would become a target. However, the good news is that it would be still a civil case.

As for the criminal matters; they are typically rare and most of them have 2 things in common - either a VERY LARGE amount of money is involved OR the items that you sell pose a safety hazard. If none of the two conditions are met, I wouldn't worry about it, personally.

And please remember, this is NOT a LEGAL advice - I am just sharing the results of my research. Always seek proper legal help if needed.