High risk item sellers, new stealth accounts. Supplier invoices.

[iphone_seller]

What a week it has been, learned an absolute ton already - much thanks to the forum members here and of course stealth guide.

Very briefly 11 year old eBay account got indefinitely restricted from selling, I can still buy with it - 11 year old PP is still very good, although of course linked to now bad eBay account.

I have already set up one eB/PP stealth account, I intend to begin another this week. I decided to purchase a stealth eB/PP accounts to leapfrog the seller limits somewhat, that will hopefully become relevant once I get the opportunity to sell the items I want to (smartphones, usually new - as the name might suggest) in the quantities I want to. All in good time of course.

One thing that I keep coming back to re my stealth future, given the category of items I sell - is the process of verifying my stock inventory, with eBay and PayPal. This is inevitable given what I sell.

From everything I have read so far, the advice is to take it slowww - even if I have a higher seller limit to work with.

However I had a recent phone chat with PayPal (limitations dept). I am from the UK if that is relevant. And they said for sellers these days you usually get asked to provide supplier invoices upon the first sale of a mobile phone, no matter how long you have had the account for.

How do stealthers in my shoes / category tackle this?

My problem is that my products will be sourced from other eBay sellers. When I had to verify my supply source years ago (on my original account) all I had to do is point to those eBay/PP purchase transactions and that was fine for eBay and PayPal. But here I can obviously not do this, as I will not be using the stealth account to buy these products.

I see some posts saying there are services on here you can buy that will pacify eBay and PayPal in this regard. If that is the case I am happy to pay for such. Is my understanding here correct? That people can actually manufacture invoices for the stealth account, that will satisfy eBay and Paypal?

Not looking for the exact ins and outs, but I really do see this to be my biggest challenge re my stealth future. Probably better knowing what the score is now so i can best brace myself for this challenge.

As always, appreciate your advice. Cheers

[ScottieBoi]

If you are willing to pay someone to manufacture invoices, can't you just do this yourself?

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by ScottieBoi

If you are willing to pay someone to manufacture invoices, can't you just do this yourself?

Probably doesn't have the Photoshop skills. And if you mean purchasing from the manufacturer or a distributor, that tends to cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars (pounds?) which isn't practical for most online sellers.

@OP - I try to be helpful but your options are limited as I'm sure you know. I can think of the following ways around this:
- Make a one time purchase of ten or so phones from a recognized distributor in your area. In the USA there are a few online cell phone stores that have actual partnerships with cell phone service providers. So I think an invoice from such a supplier would be acceptable.
- Have documents fabricated
- Buy from the Apple store and hope they accept a receipt rather than a commercial invoice (doubtful)

I've never heard of an automatic invoice request in the cell phone category but I'm not going to argue with a Paypal rep. Really sucks if that's truly the case but I can understand why they would implement such a policy. I bought a phake S6 last year for my daughter (I knew it was phake) and there was NOTHING about the phone to even hint it wasn't real when I got it. They're most likely trying to get the phake phones off eBay. :(

[newjerseymax]

Get a real reseller account from supplier and hedge the margins by reselling phones you buy from ebay. Plus, you might find something worth selling from the actual supplier.

If you get hit with invoices you will be legit.

[iphone_seller]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes trying to prepare as best I can for this.

I actually have the photoshop skills, to a pretty high level I like to think. Ready to rock in that regard.

I just have no experience in what eB/PP will accept in terms of particular suppliers.

As you mention, I have official Apple receipts/invoices/packaging slips I can doctor - even to the extent of putting barcodes on them. I also can edit bank statements to make it seem I have purchased the item, from such outlets. Seriously I am all good on the 'ability' front.

I also have the same receipts etc to play with from large electronic stores here in the UK (John Lewis, Currys etc).

I am just curious which suppliers they will accept - as you hypothesise, there would not be much logic in somebody like me buying an iPhone at RRP from these large outlets/the manufacturer, and re-selling it for less on eBay lol.

I suppose I could argue I am selling at a loss, just trying to gain positive customer reputation to get the business going bla bla.

I am hoping eB/PP do not really overthink it - they just see official docs (invoices, bank statements) in the correct stealth name and they will give me the thumbs up.

From what I have read so far is that this supplier verification comes pretty early on these days - after the first sale of a phone PayPal told me. So I will only need to evidence the supply of say one or two phones (rather than dozens), in the first instance at least.

Edit: the Apple docs I have are actually commercial invoices, shows their VAT number on the invoice. Also there is a section for the serial number of the phone on the invoice. I am thinking I can doctor this each time potentially for every phone I sell - photo the serial number on the iPhone box next to the document. And that would go a long way I think - proves supply and possession of the item. Do your worst PayPal! Lol.

[phaz0rz]

Yeah man I think you're set. If you know your way around photoshop and you have official commercial invoices, I would think you have exactly what they're looking for. And like you said if they're requesting invoices on the first listing then it doesn't seem like it would be necessary to show an invoice for 10,000 iPhone 6's.

I'm interested to hear how things go once you do start listing phones on one of your new accounts.

[iphone_seller]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

Yeah man I think you're set. If you know your way around photoshop and you have official commercial invoices, I would think you have exactly what they're looking for. And like you said if they're requesting invoices on the first listing then it doesn't seem like it would be necessary to show an invoice for 10,000 iPhone 6's.

I'm interested to hear how things go once you do start listing phones on one of your new accounts.

Thanks - trying to be as cautious and prepared as poss.

I kind of want to get the sale of one out of the way ASAP as the category limits are in place 90 days after your sale, in that category I understand.

But resisting temptation and selling the low risk cheap stuff for now, as instructed!

[ebaystealth1974]

Originally Posted by iphone_seller

Thanks - trying to be as cautious and prepared as poss.

I kind of want to get the sale of one out of the way ASAP as the category limits are in place 90 days after your sale, in that category I understand.

But resisting temptation and selling the low risk cheap stuff for now, as instructed!

any updates?

[smartguy]

Take care of frauds also. If you are selling iphones on ebay ... and fraudsters see you are a new seller... they will smell you like a rats smell cheese with peanuts