Forum

May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

2002 eBay account potentially available for me to buy - not anyone else I promise, this is not an advertisement - wish I did have an aged account like that for me. I have actually already purchased an account on here today, and a VPN service - so I am getting my teeth into the process. But my hope is, like most of you, to have several accounts to fall back on.

Is there a resource on here that guides one through how to successfully complete a "buying an eBay account from a friend etc" transaction. As in not buying from an account vendor, but more the man on the street, friends, relatives, colleagues etc.

Can I just buy their eBay account, not Paypal? And then attach their eBay account to a different PayPal account.

What information do I need from them, after buying it?

How do I ensure the account is completely disassociated from the previous owner of the account.

The account was active and selling (mostly cheap CDs and DVDs in quite large quantities) up until about 6 months ago. I presume eBay cases could then not be opened on the account as 60 days have passed after the eBay sales? PayPal cases can be though, but I do not want the PP account. Or do i? lol

Would appreciate some guidance if poss on the process.

Thx as always, brilliant advice so far in my early days on the site.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

While you can do that it is very risk

Its best to get the eBay & the PayPal goes with the eBay

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

I presumed buying their PayPal would be a no go for them, as it would be like I would be able buy things in their name with their banks attached etc.

Its a colleague I am in discussion with, not somebody who is familiar with this world. Think of him as a regular joe.

Also he is a colleague not a friend friend so not one of those where I can temporarily have access to his bank etc.

How would you guys approach this scenario?

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

I just wouldn't get the account personally

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Walk away, make your own accounts.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Appreciate the advice! Wow I thought the reaction would be to get such an account by any means possible lol.

Is there no way I can make this work?

Would seem a shame, the guy is retiring from eBay entirely.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

it is not wise to buy a ebay without the paypal attached to it,

if he ever gets his original paypal closed it will cause risk to your account and same goes if you got the new paypal you used closed.

You also have no idea if there is already issues with that paypal account, and if there was, your ebay is pretty much useless, because once your paypal is gone, so is the ebay account.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Not without the original PayPal. Its just set up to have issues later on otherwise

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Gotcha, yep probably is not a "go" this from the sounds of it - lets assume though there are currently no underlying issues with either his Paypal and eBay account. They are both rock solid.

What way would you go about buying both the eBay and PayPal accounts?

Pretty sure he would not want to leave his bank account/s attached to his PayPal. Would it be a case of removing those links?

Like I say just throwing out hypotheticals here

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

I assume his PayPal is verified with either an EIN or SSN too so I would just walk away or you're gonna have some messy tax issues in the future

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

We don't have things like that in the UK

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Completely disregarded the user's flag. Thanks for pointing that out.

Ignore what I said

:doh:

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Haha no worries.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

i doubt he would want to give you his real id should you need it getting limited for selling iphones.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

What type of issues could arise may I ask?

Unlinking his current PP from the eBay account, attaching a different PP account to the eBay account I mean.

Chargebacks would go to the old PP account that he would have.

I get the message from you not having both the original eBay and PP would be a bad idea but nobody has said why this is? (Again from a me inheriting just his eBay account POV)

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

OK so looks like this may be getting closer - taking on just his eBay not his PP. The idea of historic chargebacks etc puts me off the PP massively.

I appreciate the vibes I am getting is that it may not be a good idea to take one not both (although still not sure why) but hypothetically if this was you and you were set on taking over somebody's eBay account only, what would you ask from them after your purchase of the account?

Would presume I would need him at his end (on his IP) to unlink his PayPal first maybe link mine to his whilst he is there? Change his registered eBay email address to a fresh one I give him etc? Change his phone number?

Then once he has done all that, perhaps not at the same time - I would be following the usual stealth rules otherwise, use a fresh IP when logging into it at my end, not change the name or password.

Again I understand creating a stealth account is the cleaner more sure way of going about this (which I am doing) but just putting yourselves in this scenario what would you ask for and in what order from the account seller?, who again has absolutely no knowledge of this stealth world (the importance of IP addresses cookies etc etc.)

Thanks again

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

if you take ONLY the ebay account you have still the same amount of risk.

If he gets his original paypal closed or has a negative balance from any claim, your paypal that you add will get affected to.

the original ebay and paypal account are LINKED forever and whatever will happen to those two accounts, will affect any new paypal you link to the ebay.

If he has a limitation in the future ( so will you)
if he gets closed ( so will you)
if he gets closed owing paypal money ( that will be your problem to)

If you make a new paypal account, it will also look highly suspicious if his original paypal was in John Smith and you make yours in Steve Jobs name.

I am sure if you use his REAL info to make a new paypal it could also not end well, as if you ever get closed owing money or anything else, the debt collecter or worse.. goes after him not you.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Understood thanks, so the main aspect is the effects something bad happening to either of our accounts is the crux here and that then being impactful on each other.

I just rang PayPal there under the guise of I was thinking of taking on a friend's eBay business account. Am I allowed to do this from a PayPal POV.

They said yes its absolutely fine, just unlink the PayPal account from the eBay account, and add your own to that.

But I get what you are saying in light of the long term feasibility of doing this, if something kicks off with his original accounts etc, a lot of trust would need to be involved.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

ask your self this. would you sell an ebay and or a paypal account to a none friend ?

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Guessing you mean as a seller of your personal account you would fear the new owner would do some damage to it and therefore you? Fair point.

To paint a picture however this is an elderly chap I am buying from, retiring. No intention whatsoever to trade on eBay anymore. Their account is outstanding probably one of the best I have ever seen. It is again from 2002, no ID changes in that time - their feedback score is over 160,000 with 5.0 DSRs across the board - a couple of negatives in the past 12 months, against 4000+ positives. They delt mostly in DVDs so if something really did kick off with a past sale I would be fine just refunding his buyer myself - but 60 days have past since his last sale so hopefully nothing drastic is looming. And chargebacks would again go to his PP account that he would keep.

I myself on the other hand have had the same account for 11 years, immaculate feedback and standing up until last week, and I am just wanting to continue where I left off tbh, in buying his account and using it.

So in terms of the credibility of who is selling it and who is buying it I would like to think we are both in safe territory here. The guy himself said he thinks its a shame to let his old account go to waste.

So he has nothing to lose really (if we are to accept both parties are bona fide!) - if we do get caught out by eBay as he is retiring anyway he loses nothing - and I have nothing to lose either except the payment I would give him for the account, which to be honest is very modest.

Can anyone at least give me broad strokes as to what they would do if you were of my mindset and were going to run with this. I.e. pay him, then:

step 1, get the old owner of the account on their own IP address unlink their PayPal

step 2, get them to change the registered email address to one I provide them with

step 3, under usual stealth rules I can then begin logging into their account, on a fresh user account on a new IP address. Start building up cookies etc on that log in.

etc

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Don't think for a second that PP agents are knowledgeable about the security flags internal to PP/eb - lot of them are just saying things to end calls...

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Yeah good point, I was through to limitations though, possibly a more relevant department than their first line CS agents. See what you're saying though

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

You certain this account was selling until about 6 months ago? Any longer and it might not be as "gem-like" as you think - just keeping it real with you

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

I've seen his last sale yes! Am I far wrong with my first 3 steps? I cannot be the first to have done this on here lol. How can I give myself the best chance poss of not getting caught out (please!).

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

How much you buying this account for?

Thats what you will lose, along with other kinds and sorts of drama.

All he has to do in the future is call ebay/paypal and say 'my account was hacked' and then he answers the questions, and they restore everything back to the original person.

Personally i wouldnt do this.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

I don't understand why this is being met with an immediate presumption either myself or the seller of the account will cause damage to either the account or the other party. I've already said both of us have ran our respective accounts immaculately for over a decade - quite a vote of confidence. Where is the optimism guys?

Are we not allowed to be advised on this forum on paths that do not lead us directly to buying an account from the askpin approved seller's marketplace tab or something? I said I have already bought a stealth account from here yesterday and am following stealth principles to a tee on that one. I have purchased the stealth guide, I am supporting the community here in other words.

All I am asking here is to have a crack at this route, and asking for assistance from the forum in following that path as safely as poss. I thought this would be the prime place to ask what information do I need from the seller when he does pass ownership to me, and in what order I should change things etc.

The amount I am paying for it is an amount I would not care about losing put it that way. Its less than the amount I paid for a 6 month old 500/10,000 account yesterday. I have also agreed with the guy to pay half now, the other half in 3 months when we know if it has worked or not.

The reward of taking on such an account (160,000 feedback 2002 account) far outweighs this risk - surely I am not the only that would take a punt on this if presented with the opportunity?. Once again hoping for the forum's assistance in taking this risk as carefully as poss! (please, again!)

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

well since you are spending less than £500 on the account, then take the risk.

Im not sure why you came asking for advice and when told why it can go wrong it is now an issue. Not all sellers here are out to make a quick buck off of you, so its wrong to assume, especially since giving advice to members is one of the reasons why we are approved to sell on here.

I myself have always answered every question you asked, even BEFORE you mentioned this option and was asking how you could go about selling your iphones on a account.

We have been on this forum for many many years, and have been through and experienced a lot of good and bad scenarios, so when you post what you are going to do we give the advice according to what you tell us.

There is no point in going on and on trying to help you out with this, you are going to buy this account regardless of what is said on the forum, so go for it. Just follow the stealth methods as normal and hope for the best.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Which are my thoughts ^

Apologies for over reacting, yep cannot argue with the help you and others have been to me so far - brilliant actually.

Just there are aspects that I will need from the seller that I may not be familiar, like would I need their secret answers to questions, will I need them to change their phone number. Should I get him to do all of these change these at his end under his own IP. Should I ask him to stagger these changes, not do everything at once - in which case, which order should I get him to change this info.

Aspects that are not detailed in the stealth guide, as far as I can see.

Thx again

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

you can change info without his help ( safer that way) the less he knows your new emails and passwords the better.
just dont do it all at once or you risk flagging the account up.

get the account, browse a few days and change things slowly.. then it should be fine.

when you withdraw from paypal or login to ebay the first time on your own pc/connection you may be asked to text a code to the original phone number.
paypal can also ask for this in future to.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Today is the day! Due to buy this at lunchtime, I am sure you guys will be proved right in the end but gonna take a punt on this.

Process is gonna be I am going to call him and he is going to be at his computer logged into his eBay account.

Hypothetically if you were me and you trusted the seller, i.e. him changing passwords, email addresses etc himself during the sale:

Is there ANYTHING that you would advise at this point I should get him to change, at his end on his IP address? I figure if alarm bells are raised there and then, he can resolve this there and then, on his IP address.

Rather than make such changes on my own fresh IP and it looking more fishy I mean. I understand if you have no alternative but to make account changes yourself on a fresh IP you should do this gradually and in stages (not all changes at once as Bunneh pointed out). But again I DO have the seller on his own computer/IP today to use to make these changes.

I just want to potentially take advantage of this time, if poss!.

Only things I want to change are PP link on the EB account, registered email address, and ultimately password. Name and address etc I am happy to leave as his.

Re: May have an opportunity to buy a colleague's (very) aged eBay account
 

Cancel that the seller has bailed on me :violin:

Probably for the best, looks like starting from scratch is the way to go for me!

Apologies for wasting everyone's time lol.