please help this ebay newb fix his mastakes and/or move on

so i apparently screwed up as i stated in another thread. please can some veterans give me advice as to what to do with the current account and where to go from here. i made a lot of money very fast and dont want to stop doing it altogether. obviously some tweaking is needed


so here is a brief recap. i had a several years old account that had 100% feedback, but just 34 ratings. mostly as a seller. i found a couple things i wanted to sell and started about 3 weeks ago. the first week it was about 5 things a day. all were perfectly acceptable. then i found something else to sell that i got from china. it wasnt a purse or anything, but it was a knockoff, and i think that is where my problem stemmed from.

i also ramped up sales, selling about 15 total things a day. all sold between 40-60 dollars. well today i woke up to find my account suspended, but them saying it was no big deal, i just needed to supply them with "additional information" about what i was selling including invoices to prove i actually bought the items i was selling.

of course my paypal quickly followed and was limited as well. they also wanted more info about my bank, ss#, and invoices etc. so here are the questions i have

1. is it really no big deal? or are they trying to get proof that a few of my items were not legit?

2. couldnt i just fake an invoice and send it to them?

3. i think the problem with proving i had the item is the long delivery time. i had ordered the items, but a few took awhile resulting in 10-14 day delivery. but i did state this in the listing. is this why they want proof they are bought?

4. if they see a china shipper am i screwed regardless?

5. the items i still need to ship, should i just keep them and refund the money? or should i send them out? my thinking is since i cant take out money right now, maybe i at least will still have a product if i dont send them out and will just give them back the money. because if paypal will never reinstate my account, i am out this money anyway.



6. do i just need to start with a new account i have an old account under another name i could use. the problem is it was started on this computer w/ the same id. but if i use a new computer, will they still know the old one?

7. do they know ALL the ip's ever used for other accounts? in other words, if i open a brand new one on another computer, will they recognize it if the banned account had ever used it before?

8. also, after the account was suspended i got a notice saying some of the items had violated copyright, etc. it said "company x" notified them blah blah, no duplicates, fakes, etc could be sold. well, i had not sold this item yet to anybody. so how could anyone claim it was a fake? furthermore, there are hundreds of the same exact product still listed on ebay!

9. what is the recommended amount to list and remain safe? if i just list my perfectly safe items, is it ok to go crazy? or do i need to limit it to 4-5 a day or something?

10. if i have a previously banned paypal account from a few years ago, can i safely open a new one in the same name if it is a different bank? those were my dark days and i did bad stuff then, so i am worried about this.


i am sure i will think of more, but that is a start. i know it is long, but i really need help. any would be appreciated

please? anybody?

there request is automated purely by the sales activity on your account, no one is actually sitting there looking at your account

fake an invoice , send them the other details they requested and it should be fine

"also, after the account was suspended i got a notice saying some of the items had violated copyright, etc. it said "company x" notified them blah blah, no duplicates, fakes, etc could be sold. well, i had not sold this item yet to anybody. so how could anyone claim it was a fake? furthermore, there are hundreds of the same exact product still listed on ebay"

Click to expand...

Doesn't matter if other people are selling the same fake merchandise. You posted the item on eBay and marketed it. It also doesn't matter if you didn't make a sale - you solicited the item and that's enough.

Company reps go on eBay to see if counterfeit items are being sold and bring them to the attention of eBay. They want to protect their brand. All they have to do is file a complaint. You need to stick to following eBay's seller rules or get your account closed (see their seller rules section)

Sell legit merchandise. Not some fake stuff. If the manufacturer is caught manufacturing fake stuff by authorities, and you are found distributing and/or selling it, you can be punishable by international law as well. It doesn't matter what country the merchandise came from. What matters is that it is fake and potentially the company that owns the brand has a beef about it.

Start over with a new account, get legal merchandise that has no copyright/patent issues and apply what you just learned.

I went through this about 4 years ago. They locked up 25k when i was dropshipping. It is kinda like a stress test. It is automated but there is someone that will get the documents and verify the document. They asked me for invoices where i was getting the stuff. They wanted s# banking info. But i took us about three days to get our pp account back online. You really should not sell fake stuff on ebay. All they need is one complaint and the system automatically locks your account. Then the verification process starts which is what you are going through now. They are verifying that the goods are real you are buying them from a real distributor and not from someone in china. Then they verify you to see if you are a real person through s# and banking info. If you send them a bunch of fake docs they will ban you permanently. Keep the cash and refund everyone complaint or not. Then get what ever money you owe them back. either by debt collectors or the courts. Once we gave them all the docks on our account the released the funds in 3 days. But we were sell real gear from real US distributors. One of my account reps called me and told me they called to verify i had a account with them. They released mine but i know many that they just kept. They should have sent you a list of transactions in question of about 5-10 transactions. You should just give them all there cash back. but if you are selling knock offs i would call them and act like you never had a clue and kiss pp a** that is the only way i know of. Cause your ip is now flagged any new account coming from that ip will get booted.

dude gaypal and egay both easily get stupid , I have done it myself 2-3 times. Just put some Photoshop skills and you are done. It's too easy to do that if you outside from USA .

Enjoy and cash

1. It's an automated process. It's not like a human being at eBay was like "Omg, user golfpro19738 is looking kinda fishy, lets limit him!" They aren't so much trying to prove anything, they are just collecting information on you for the purpose of creating additional accounts in case you are suspended or something you can't just hop back onto eBay.

2. Yeah, and a lot do. I do it even though I have legit suppliers because I can't be hassled and they don't read anything anyways. I've literally wrote:

"eBay is like a box of chocolate, you never know when you are going to get diabetes, have a leg removed, and die slowly after - $9999.99, USA"

and was told my document was accepted within 5 days after I sent it.

3. Nope, although eBay doesn't like dropshippers as much as people who hold inventory, it's just an automated process.

4. Nope, they like it when people work with Chinese distributors. It's means you are more likely to have a higher profit margin, which is available to them to take in fee's. Unfortunately, this is not me being sarcastic.

5. Tough call. You could try explaining the situation to people, and those who will understand will accept a refund and not leave negative feedback. Some will not understand, be very upset, and will leave negative feedback... and then eBay's system "The Brain" see's a spike in a couple negative feedback and thinks "Something is wrong here. Flag this user and restrict access to further selling" - which makes things a little bit more complicated if you are already restricted and trying to get your account unlimited.

IMPORTANT: Do NOT use the "Refund" button on PayPal or eBay, this increases your "Refund Rate" within the system. A high refund rate makes you more of a risk to the system. So, if you have a refund rate of 3%, and you get a spike in sales from $120 a day to $400 for 2 days... there's a good chance PayPal will limit your account and freeze your funds.

6. It's very wise to have and operate 2 or 3 accounts at once. If you have 1 main account, then have 2 accounts just selling 10 items a month, even basic items like stamps and Bic Pens and stuff. There's tons of guides out there to help you manage several accounts. I do this legitimately by operating under different business names.

7. eBay/PayPal is an IP collecting machine. If you open up an eBay e-mail, it collects your IP. This is the main way they track people, because simple people do not understand much about operating and managing different IP's.

8. This is probably why your account was limited. What happened was you sold something a couple times in a category that has a lot of known bootlegs, such as DVDs, or Anime items. Or, you were reported by competition.

9. Very very tough question. It depends on what you are selling. It's about fluctuations and pricing, not so much volume... but that does exist when you go from selling 10 items a month to 200 within 1 month. But yeah, it's mostly pricing. If you go from a daily gross sales volume of $120 a day to $400 a day suddenly... you are seen as a risk. If you go from $120 a day for a week to $140 a week, to $180 a week, to $220 a week, you get my point... then you can go through the system pretty easily. At some point, you will hit your first limit. This is your real limit, and eBay may say you are cool to make $10,000 a month but in reality, it may be just $1000 a month. Then there is a bit of inspection on your account, someone goes through your messages to make sure you aren't pulling sales off of eBay, they go through your listings to make sure you don't cuss or advertise to other sites, and they look at the items you are selling to make sure you are not brand protected.

10. They might have already tracked you down based on your geographical location and name and stuff. eBay knows there aren't several "Harold Finklestiens" in a town of 5,000 people. Luckily I was "blessed" with a name similar to "John Smith." - however, you can always choose a DBA for a Sole Proprietorship and you can get a little creative. Say you have a brick work business, you can be "Bob Mason" which looks like a formal first and last name, when in fact your business is actually "Bob's Masonry."


In conclusion, I wouldn't worry too much. Just go through the motions, never provide a social or ID number, and you will be alright. If you get knocked down, get up again.

thanks for the advice ebaymafia, i had to abandon the account now, though. having to go stealth