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Question re types of ebay accounts
 

Anyone venture a guess on what percentage of eb accounts are ste*alth? I would think it maybe 20-25%.

What do you base your guess on?

Interesting question. I've often wondered this myself. I'd would guess around 15%. But that's just a guess.

I would guess about 10%.

I don't think that anywhere near that many people come back onto eBay after being banned, or know how to do it correctly, to maintain an account that will live on... I'd guess that it's well under 0.1%. lol

Well just that it seems incredibly difficult to sell on ebay and be unscathed by policies that you didnt know of, vero, feedback idiocy where neutrals count against you, scammers dinging your DSR to justify their claims, etc, etc. So before you know it and without warning the real account you`ve had for many years is hosed with no appeal possible. And weve seen it countless times on eb where the same item shows up under multiple accts (mostly to chinese sellers seems to me) and also sellers or your competition disappearing for some time and then appearing later with slightly altered ids.

And this is only for us oldtimers that have to rely on ste*alth just to get back in business. What about every new kid starting out wanting to sell on eb these days and looking at 10/1000 limits staring them in the face.

Of course then there are those who do it to spread their sales out among a number of accounts - either to get around limits or for other reasons.

It just seems to me that as eb becomes more draconian - and the trend says it will keep getting worse - more and more will be forced to embrace the ways of ste*alth.

So no, I dont have hard evidence to back a claim of 20% but I have to believe that at least 1 in 5 sellers has been impacted negatively by ebays tactics and have turned to going underground in order to survive.

Maybe you are right... I was only thinking of the hardcore sellers that go at it fulltime or part-timers that depend on it to help pay the bills. Probably the largest chunk of banned accounts are folks just dabbling around at it and couldnt care less if they sell on eb or not.

Only thing I know is that the percentage grows everyday. Ebay/paypal likes to shoot itself in its own feet. Ebay needs us. We keep almost all of their departments employed :d

:thumb: gainful employment is such a wonderful thing.

Pity the companies do not merit praise.

:pound:

e/b have 10's of millions registered users.

Even if you said 50 million by your reckoning that would be between 10 and 12.5 MILLION stealthers. No way.

I would guess Elijah is probably closer to the truth of it.