EBay deleted my auctions, how should I proceed from here?

[therrol]

I have a 1 year old ebay buyer account (verified as a seller account for a good few months now) and i've recently started selling a music related piece of equipment. I'm dropshipping, however i'm selling my item in a fairly low-competition environment so i've been able to make a good 80-100$ profit on a 40$ item depending on the model. My plan was that once i'd been able to make enough profit i'd just order bulk items to my house and ship them on my own, unfortunately the paypal 21 day hold has stunted that a little bit.

I had been selling two models and I was listing three auctions per day (two of the lower end model and one of the higher end). Yesterday, I got two more models in stock so I listed four auctions, one of each model. When I got home a couple hours that night, I had a bunch of VERO complaints.

MC019 eBay Listing Removed: Trademark Violation - Unauthorised Item (xxxxxxxxxxx)



Dear [ebay user][email]),

Thank you for your recent auction-style listing on eBay. Unfortunately, we removed the following item(s):

[higher end item]
[higher end item]
[lower end item]
[higher end item]
[lower end item]
[lower end item]


because [company], Inc. reported it to us for violating their intellectual property rights. When eBay is notified by a rights owner of an intellectual property rights infringement, eBay must remove the item in order to meet certain legal requirements.

The following information may help explain the reason for your listing(s) removal:

Trademark infringement is unlawful and violates eBay's policies. A trademark is a unique sign (such as a name, word, phrase, logo, or symbol) that a company uses to identify its products and/or services.

Using another company's trademark in a way that may confuse buyers about the source of goods or services, or confuses buyers into believing that the seller is affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the trademark owner is both illegal and against eBay's policies. Examples include counterfeits, unauthorised replica items and items that bear the brand or logo of a company without that company's permission.

Guideline: If the product you are listing bears the brand or logo of a company, but it wasn't made or authorised by that company, don't sell it on eBay. The sale of counterfeits and unauthorised replicas of branded products is unlawful and not permitted on eBay.

I actually recieved three of these notices, the first two had only one specific auction mentioned and the third mentioned the 7 above.

my questions:

1) I assume this will hurt the integrity of my ebay account, what steps should I take to keep myself from being banned? I am considering just selling one or two items per day until my first orders arrive and I get feedback. Currently I am at 9 feedback 100% positive.

2) How can I avoid future VERO letters like this? My idea was to not use the companies name in my auctions however use a large picture of their logo in my photos so customers know it's the name brand, however ebays bots hopefully won't pick it up.

thanks guy

[GreenBean]

Stop selling the items on ebay. Leave the account to sit for at least 90 days. Likely what is happening 'ebay bots' picking up your listings because of the photos but humans then pull the listings because of IP rights owner & the BSA arrangement..

[therrol]

Unlike a lot of people on this board I only have this one account to use. I can stop selling these specific items, but is it still a problem to list any other items at all?

[GreenBean]

You could list other items. But since your account has these violations, you are
going to need to be very careful. Have you checked your sellers' dashboard to carefully check the violations & the time frame? Look at that & see if it helps make a decision.

[Here We Go Again]

You just got 6 dings on your account with that 1 VERO letter.
When you re-list they will get pulled again.
When that happens your account will go NARU.

You have reached your VERO limit on that account.
The next warning will come in the form of a suspended account.

Time for you to take the long road and learn about Stealth Accounts and how they work.

[therrol]

Well, i've got the guide I guess I won't be making any more money this month :(

Taking everything into consideration, I think it will be best to let the account lay dormant for a little while. The last thing I need right now is my ebay account getting suspended and having one of those nasty "file a chargeback NOW" letters getting sent to everyone who purchased a product from me when I have over 1000$ on 21 day hold with paypal.

These violations don't expire until the end of april, I guess i'm hooped.

I know that my account is probably being watched now, however would listing these items without the brand name in the title or description help to prevent this type of thing on another account in the future?

what bugs me the most is that this company isn't even listed in list of ebay VERO members.

[aspkin]

It helps, excluding the brand name in titles and descriptions... but it isn't full proof. In the long run you can't win selling VeRO items... in the short term you may be okay if you're selling with multiple accounts, but don't expect your accounts to last long.

[Here We Go Again]

There are MANY VERO members who are not on the eBay VERO list of "About Me" Pages.
If you want to keep the account that you have gotten dings on, I would NOT list on it again until the "Alerts" go away in 90 days.

This is a wonderful time to get the Stealth Book and learn the ways of the Force.

[therrol]

i've already got the Stealth Book activation code in my inbox, when I get home in 2 days i'll load it on my home computer and check it out

thanks for your help guys