Hello From Canada!
My Story
I have been running my business (selling high end collectibles) for more than 5 years on eBay, had 6 employees and was TRS, 10,000 FEEDBACK all POSITIVE (a sole and sad neutral feedback only in 12 months). My dad used to help me run the business too as a director but around October he fell ill with cancer and passed away very quickly, around the same time I too was hospitalized and out for a few months. The gentleman who I had entrusted to keep running the store did a great job sinking it to the ground and in the span of two months, received countless Item not Received cases (and lost them since he didn't issue refunds and let eBay handle it), countless returns all for messed up orders (we used to do around 50-60 a day and if you do not follow proper inventory protocols etc, very easy to mess orders as many of you will know).
I was never ever aware of the existence of suspensions etc... until we were hit with the limitation and requested to submit invoices etc (for the first time ever) needless to say, during that same period we were hit with 21 returns in one day for two orders that were mixed up!
We got suspended. At the same time, I had put an extensive amount of the company's money on a new venture and our cash flow was effectively zero (I was always dependent on daily fat payouts to keep things alive), had to let go the employees and barely making my mortgage payments, groceries etc. Went down from being the King to being down and trodden in less than 3 months!!
Immediately, I tried to open many new accounts only to get suspended, went on youtube and google to find answers: most of the information out there is tainted to say the least.
Thank God I found this Forum!
I have been stealthily following the forums for the past 3 months, learning learning learning!
Wanted to make my first post to share some thoughts, ideas and QUESTIONS
General Notes, Observations:
Prior to purchasing the ebay
stealth guide, I followed some of the lower quality advice available on youtube etc ... and I will tell you, the information out there is RUBBISH!! the
stealth guide is simple but covers, in principle all the info you ever need, and the only topic I find to be slightly undercovered is MP - but its heavily covered by the moderators here on the forums!
This is the info I gathered from starting 12 stealth accounts over the past 3 months (of which 9 are still active).
TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, I AM NEW HERE AND NEW TO STEALTH
First account registered using Textme service / Fresh
Dedicated IP from
IPBurger survived for a few weeks, but was taken down after making the first 1K (in around 20 days), when I called trying to reinstate the account, I got lucky with North American support staff and this is what I learnt from a long conversation with the lady that helped me reinstate my account (and 10 other various conversations with eBay staff who helped (or refused to) reinstate new accounts that were suspended:
a- VOIP (all VOIP solutions) will be flagged by eBay, might not suspend you when you first start out but the moment you start picking up pace, they will take you down as a high risk seller.
b- IP (all data center IPs including
Fresh IP from
IPBurger) WILL NOT WORK! You may pass a few days or even weeks, but increases the risk profile of your account considerably. STICK TO
Residential IP from
IPBurger, but also know your settings within
IPBurger, make sure your settings are in sync (i.e. you do not want your ISP changing, but rather stick to the same ISP and let it rotate in different cities, do not stick to one city with various ISPs as that will TRIGGER your risk profile, make sure you set up your proxies proper and always reach out to IPBURGER Customer Service, they are very helpful and responsive and good at satisfying exact stealth needs for eBay).
c- I might still not be out of the woods, but it seems using same info for MP is OK! It might link you manually, but it doesn't link you through eBay bots, who seem to be fixated only with eBay registered info and not the MP info.
d- IMPORTANT POINT TO NOTE, call back number (the number you use for eBay to call you back) is registered and saved and CAN LINK accounts (i.e. you use an unregistered number on eBay to receive calls on various accounts, these accounts are linked!!!!) - I was given various IDs by a customer service agent and asked if they are related to me and explained that I am using a mobile phone of a friend since mine is dead etc..)
e- Linking DOES NOT ALWAYS result in suspension, but highly increases the risk profile of the accounts linked (not talking about links to suspended accounts).
f- Some confusion regarding name: it seems to me (having registered several accounts under my own real name for IDing purposes) using the same name even if previously suspended seems OK so long you do not use other details (i.e. address, numbers etc...) BUT PROCEED WITH CAUTION, this is my experience and I am still new at this! Slight variations always help, but DO NOT TRY VARIATIONS to pass MP, it wont, they need a match of first and last name (seems ID verification for DL is done by AI since it is almost immediate - I get an email/notification that ID is verified less than 3 minutes after I upload it).
g- SHIP FROM ADDRESS OF YOUR ITEMS, any slight variation between your registered address and ship from address increases the risk profile of the account considerably if you are a new seller, make sure the Zip Code/Post Code for your listings MATCHES that of your registration for the first items you sell. On one of the accounts that went down, I was heavily grilled on that issue when trying to reinstate: (they highlight that my account is a high risk, and go on to question me as to why I am selling from Town X when my registered address is Town Y (noting that both towns are approx 50 Kms away from each other).
h- Any change, whatsoever, of any information (registration, payments etc) on a new account WILL RESULT in an increased risk profile, and as such a higher likelihood of suspension.
i- PACE, PACE, PACE!! Pace yourself, Pace yourself!!!!! PACE YOURSELF, on one of the accounts that got suspended, I was told that my listing practices are a high risk, and after kidding around and being SUPER NICE to the Customer Service employee, who reinstated my account, I begged him to help me understand best practices and he refused naturally but finally squeezed that any new account should not, on average, have more than an aggregate of one listing a day!!
FYI, all suspensions I am referring to are not "after first item posted suspensions" but generally come in after a few weeks due to increased sale volume.
I am sure this number is not set in stone and he himself might not have a definitive answer, but he sounded very definitive about his advice to me! - This also depends on the riskiness of the item, but with LISTING practices, handle all items as HIGH Risk in the first 30 days !!
WARNING: by no means do I tell you to go and list an item every day, first week you should not list more than one or two items and only proceed to increase your listings conservatively AFTER tracking shows delivery on your first orders, this made a huge difference for me re continuity of new accounts.
j- IMPORTANT NOTE regarding reinstatement on new accounts!!! IF YOU DO GET suspended for listing too much/selling too fast DO NOT attempt to reinstate the account immediately. ALWAYS WAIT FOR YOUR ORDERS TO BE DELIVERED with tracking, this is the only thing that helped me to reinstate accounts that were taken down for selling too fast (i.e. more than 10 orders in first two weeks)!! Wait a week, make sure ALL your orders have been delivered and when you contact support staff regarding the suspension tell them you just found out you were suspended and HIGHLIGHT that all your orders have been shipped and DELIVERED - on time of course!
QUESTIONS:
I have so many questions for the seasoned masters and grand masters of the forum:
1- When is your account considered relatively safe to start doing higher turnover, I am not referring to Drop Shipping, Vero, or anything like that, I am taking about medium risk items (i.e. collectibles, some of which are really expensive). I was used to doing really high volumes on my lost account but I want to understand when is it safe to make around 1k on auctions per week? PER ACCOUNT.
2- 30 days vs 60 days vs 90 days: I have read many posts that clear an account of high risk of suspension (albeit without the account going crazy doing high risk listings or high risk turnover) generally at the 30 days mark, others at 60 and most definitely at 90 (conditional on listing practices and not listing Veros etcs.), while I understand there is no clear answer but would appreciate seasoned experts discussion on the matter if possible.
3- Listing on accounts after reinstatement: my question is, does a suspension (for high risk selling patters) reset your timer? (i.e., you get suspended a month into setting up your account, reinstate it after a week, do you have to restart the timer on your account and start with the original listing pattern or can you continue from the point you were suspended considering you accumulated new feedback and more delivered orders etc...)?
4- When is it safe to migrate an account from use of
Residential IP to Fresh
Dedicated IP from IPBURGER, considering I pay by GB on Residential and it can get quite expensive running many accounts if your listing practices are data intensive (you browse a lot, list big size images etc)? Or does IPBurger have an unlimited GB option or High GB option that is more affordable?
5- Using various accounts on
Residential IP (for Canada): how do I make sure I do not link the accounts, noting I am using Chrome and Sticky
Residential IP and manually make sure I do not hop from one account to another before IP switches, but how feasible is that long term (won't IPs end up being recycled etc...)?
6- Does a limit increase or access to promoted listings indicate that the account (under three months old) is in the green zone and as such can tolerate a bit more of a beating (in terms of how much is listed on it)?
7- I have seen many of the moderators mentioning maxing out limits as a method for increasing limits naturally, but could they shed more light on how to balance between maxing out limits and taking things slow on an account that is still very fresh and new (i.e. first two months of account set up) - what type of balance should we strike here (max out limits every month by 3 listings a day for instance if limit is 100)?
Thank you so much!!!
May your beards always grow thicker!
9 Stealth Accounts in 3 Months, Lessons Learnt, Questions 
