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Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

So I have had a stealth eBay account up and running for about 3 years now, I sell clothing for under £10 and I'm currently allowed to list just over 2500 items a month.

I sell to my maximum allowance every month and the amount I can list goes up bit by bit each month. Unfortunately this is a slow process and I know for a fact I could probably list double what I do now with no issues at all.

Is it worth me calling eBay and asking them to up my selling allowance or is this just asking for trouble?

I've also just lost top rated seller status and now above standard, although I hope to regain that ASAP.

Any advice would be very welcome.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Personally I would avoid ringing eBay when possible.

Even when everything is above board eBay sometimes decides to limit accounts regardless.

I would say the best thing you should do if you wish to sell more items is get a second stealth account going.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Hmm, thought you might say that. I do have several other stealth accounts that I don't use so much simply because switching between them all safely is a bit ball ache. Mainly the changing of IP address's

Perhaps I'll give them a second look.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

The reason I am here is because I called up ebay to raise limits after running stealth for 18 months (god knows how I lasted that long looking back). They hapiliyy obliged then limited my paypal 2 weeks later... just after i bought more stock to adjust to the new limits!

DO NOT CALL! Be grateful you have those high limits and start a second, third, 4th... ;)

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Changing IP should be a breeze. What are you using for internet access?

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Why go near ebay at this point?

Address why you lost TRS quickly. Dont let that linger.

Repair this first.
:ranger:

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Don't call - you have already been hit with a loss of status...you could expect worse if you call in

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

After reading your comments I'm definitely not going to call eBay.

I have 3 other stealth accounts up and running, the problem is switching between them all quickly, ideally I would like a system where I can access all accounts at the same time, the way I'm doing this currently is having one account open on my desktop and one on the laptop connecting via a dongle.

I can easily change my MAC Address on my router and thus my IP for the other accounts but this means I can only really work from one account at a time. With eBay demanding you post things nearly instantaneously these days and respond to any problems frighteningly quick it makes it hard to offer the level of service I want to across all 4 accounts.

Anyone know of a better way I could be doing this? I'm open to suggestions.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Good decision.

4 laptops and 4 dongles would be a simple way to make that possible.

You just need to post the item within the time frame stated in your listings. There is not any evidence that I have seen to suggest eBay track how long it takes for a seller to respond to a buyer (unlike Amazon).

If you want to do it all via the 1 laptop using the one internet connection then simply rotate though the accounts though out the day. This is the method I use generally, spending 30 mins on one accounts before moving onto the next.

You could also look at services like Auctiva and Ink Frog

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

I thought services like Auctiva share your data with eBay, would that not get accounts linked?

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

eezo - look at the Huawei MiFi device.

I use that for my internet, it's a dongle, but it has an on and off button.

Log into one account, do your orders, turn off the MiFi, log out of account. Log into next account, turn on MiFi etc etc.. They are £50 approx, and £20 worth of data only SIM gets me 3 months of use. All available to buy on eBay.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

That is a bloody good idea, might just do that then.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Geegee83 - What network do you use that lets you use £20 over 3 months? I use Vodafone currently and the top up only lasts for 30 days.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

I buy the SIM card on eBay too, usually listed as

"3 Data Only SIM, 3 months"..

I'll try and find a link to use as an example..

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Three (3) 3G SIM Ready-to-go Mobile Broadband 3GB Preloaded Data Sim | eBay

WARNING EBAY LINK!!

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

3 Network I use, get an unlocked Huawei MiFi, most of them are unlocked, but better to get the best SIM deals later on if you need to.

Re: Best way to scale a 3 year old account?
 

Stealth backups is the way to be