Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about whether eBay is cracking down on new sellers.
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Is eBay Cracking Down On New Sellers?
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about is eBay cracking down on new sellers?
Alright guys, on today's episode, we are tackling the question, is eBay cracking down on new sellers? Maybe this affects you right now 'cause you're thinking about getting in and starting an eBay account.
Let's dive in and see what they're doing right now.
Melissa: Yeah, we've had a couple instances where we know a couple people who've had their accounts restricted and so we kind of wanted to dive into how to prevent that from happening. And kind of what, what could happen and how to prevent that. And talk a little bit about, is eBay doing this to new resellers and why is this happening?
Kind of just, yeah, break it, break it down and break it apart. So.
Rob: Yeah. Absolutely. And I feel like new people coming in, setting up accounts will be more affected. They'll be under more scrutiny with eBay just because eBay's trying to limit the amount of fraud, limit the amount of scammers or people who are getting stolen items and then selling them on eBay as the marketplace. eBay doesn't want to be responsible for facilitating that sale, and that's why they are cracking down on some of the new sellers that are coming in. Totally understandable. In the day and age that we live in right now, it's understandable that they're trying to cover their back.
So that is the biggest thing with what's going on.
Melissa: And they are also under more pressure now with the new informed consent Act from the FTC. So they have to inspect their sellers a little more carefully. And so that's one of the reasons is why, but also before we dive into like ways to prevent, you know, your account being restricted. We do also wanna say that we've noticed that in think conflicts with buyers and sellers in our community that eBay has been citing more with the seller more recently 'cause it, it always, it's a pendulum swing. It goes back and forth where they're like, okay, they almost automatically aside with the buyer, they almost automatic. But we've had several instances where they've now, like they're, it seems like they're swinging in their, they're not, I don't wanna say favoring the seller more, but it's been a lot better than it used like probably last year.
It's a lot better than it was. Yeah. So.
I don't know if you noticed that.
Rob: Well, yeah, absolutely. And I think of an instance right now, two of our one-on-one coaching students are in the middle of a, not, I don't know if you call it a battle, but they're in the middle of where they shipped something out with a freight carrier and it did not get delivered because the freight carrier went out of business.
It got stuck at the warehouse, not their warehouse by them, where they've shipped it from, but it got stuck at a warehouse closer to the buyer, and it's just there. The freight company's out of business. It's there. They're saying we're not gonna deliver it. We went bankrupt, that kind of thing.
And I'm helping our one-on-one students navigate this and we're seeing that eBay is actually going to refund the buyer and still refund the seller for it. So eBay's going out the money, which is huge of that company to be able to do that. Yeah. And these aren't just little $20, $50 items. Both of these are over a thousand dollars. And that's one of the things that.
Melissa: They have been having the sellers' back a lot more, which is it's nice to see again.
Rob: So yes, absolutely. Right now where we're at, I know two instances where eBay has told us they will totally cover the buyer and the seller and they're taking the brunt of the deal 'cause they're going out, the money for the sale.
When something goes south in the transaction, which in this case it's unforeseen circumstances of a freight company going bankrupt and going out of business is what happened. That actually wasn't the seller's fault or the buyer's fault. No, and that's, you can understand it, but eBay is standing up and they're actually doing the right, well, I don't even know if it's really considered the right thing, but they are being a big company where they're taking the brunt of this, which makes you, me, as a seller be like, wow, they're really taking care of us.
So I'm happy about that. That for two of these people that, and this is, I'm talking within the last 30 days, this stuff has happened, and eBay's standing up and they're really being big to take care of this. So really, really cool in that aspect. Like Melissa said, they are. They have done a pendulum where they swing sometimes to the buyer for the last 20 some years.
You see it and swing sometimes to the seller and they'll favor the seller or favor the buyer. And right now I feel like they're pretty good where they're favoring both and the sellers are getting stuff taken care of that normally they wouldn't get taken care of with eBay. So that's cool.
Melissa: Yeah. So back to, okay, so what's going on with some newer seller accounts?
So basically they are monitoring them a little bit more like I feel like. If you throw any red flags in your account, then they might check what's going on. So if there's, so for our business model, we love high profit, higher dollar value items, low volume. Yeah, but higher, like worth a thousand, $2,000.
It's typically what we like to sell, because then it's less time in your business, you know, you're selling more for a little bit. Less amount of work, but you can't really start there. So you have to be careful when you're, especially if you're just starting out, you do have limits on eBay, so you have to make sure that you don't exceed those limits in the beginning and you can always get those increased.
eBay just wants to make sure you're legit, you're gonna fulfill what you sold. You're not like, you know, coming here to scam people and you know, you have to get, understand that as at first as a seller. So.
Rob: Yeah. So how do you do that as you're starting out a new account? How do you do this? Make sure that you're not gonna be affected.
eBay's when you open an account, eBay has limits on your account that you can list $500 worth of items or 10 items. Stay in that, whatever's the whatever comes first. Yeah. So stay in that threshold. The cool thing about this is, and this is what we teach our students as well, is listen. You want to be selling $10, $20, $30, $40 items.
If you have something that goes south at $10 or $20, it's not gonna break the bank. It's not gonna be one of those things. You're learning lessons. You're learning how to navigate the whole process. You want that to be a $10 or a $20 item versus a $2,000, a $3,000 item that you're gonna run into a snag with it.
So you wanna build the foundations on those lower priced items. So when you do get up to what our business model is, lower volume, higher profit, when you get to that point, you already have the track record, you've built the relationship with eBay through the last couple months. You're learning how to navigate everything.
You're doing everything on time. You're doing it how you're supposed to be. eBay will go to bat for you. They'll see that you're doing the right thing and slowly you're increasing what your business model is and then they will go to bat for you for that. So that's, that's what really comes first to protect yourself is learning the process.
Don't just jump into eBay, open an account and then try to list something. And it might sneak by eBay. It might happen to where you can list something for $2,000. But that throws a red flag. And they're gonna try to do more investigations and figure out what is the deal with this transaction? Was this a stolen item?
Is this a fraudulent seller? What's going on? And that's when they're gonna dig deeper. So if you wanna save yourself time and effort and really do it the right way, start listing the lower priced items first and get the sales, get your account. Yeah. Get your account built up. Yeah, exactly. You need to do that first before you jump into the high profit.
Melissa: I mean, we've had to do that with our own account too, because we still, I think now, like our limit of over $7,500 we've had holds on our stuff. But there was one time even in PayPal when it, we used to use PayPal. It wasn't, didn't go through eBay. We had $25,000 held and it was 'cause it was a larger transaction than our headcount had previously had.
Like before that we, I think maybe we sold $5,000, maybe $10,000. Yeah. But $25,000 was a huge transaction. So they like, wait a minute, what's going on here? And they, they're trying to make sure it's legit. So they tried to hold our money for six months, but we didn't let that happen. So I think we did a podcast about that not that long ago.
So, yeah. But. Yeah, so.
Rob: One of those things that, yeah, like we said, this is the best route into starting your business is doing the lower priced items. And all eBay is, and we're not faulting eBay in this. All they're trying to do is cover their bases. They're under scrutiny from other government agencies and stuff like that to where they're trying to do the right thing, and that's why they put laws into order. That they're, they're trying to process, cover process, thank you. Sorry, processes that they're trying to cover their bases to protect them.
But it is frustrating.
Melissa: It is, but, and that's why we wanna also help. One of the, another thing you can do, like build up your accounts slow not, and when we say slowly, like, you know, you get to work and sell those items and, and get your account moving 'cause the faster you can get stuff moving through it, then those limits can get up and up and you can request, you can ask, you've done that over the years. Absolutely. Hey, my limit is whatever. Is there any way you can increase it? They'll go and check out your seller history, see what your account status is at, and you've never had a problem getting your, your limits increased.
Rob: Right?
It's a one phone call to them and do it. Yeah. We started out, I think, $75,000 was the lowest that I remember. We got a raise to like a $100,000, $150,000 and then got it raised up to $250,000. And this is for the inventory limits that they have us on. Yeah, we never hit the amount of items that we're at 'cause we're a low volume, high profit, hit the limits, but we always hit the limits of what they've given us.
They say, okay, you can't list this much. And it's a phone call to them. They look back at our track record, see how long we've had accounts with them, and that's when they raise the limits and they're like, all right, will this help you? We'll get you half a million dollars is what you can have inventory up to half a million listed on eBay.
And that's what I, I think that's where we're at right now. Either half a million or three quarters of a million. I don't know. But that's where they have us at. And it wasn't that hard to do it because they can see what our track record is. They can see the stuff that we sell and the feedback that we're getting from our buyers and they're happy with the item.
So, that's the biggest thing, is really, really building that track record with eBay early on on the lower profit items, the lower dollar items, so you can get to the point where you do wanna go to that next level.
Melissa: Yeah. And then the next thing to do to help prevent, well, this, well, this won't, yeah, this would be a preventative, but also this helps you if you get into a bind and get into trouble because, what eBay is asking for, and a lot of times if they're trying to make sure that you're a legit seller, they wanna know, see your receipts of what you bought.
And we're in this industry of reselling. We're buying used items, we're not buying new items. We, we don't buy new items. We buy used items. We don't get receipts necessarily from the flea market, yard sales, thrift stores. You get a receipt, but the other places you don't. There are people out there selling their stuff and you don't get a receipt.
So how can you provide a receipt if you don't get a receipt? So, one way is you can keep records of your own receipts. So get a receipt book. You can get them anywhere, Staples, Office Max, whatever. Just write a receipt when you buy an item, if you buy it off marketplace, write the receipt out and you can have the person sign it if they will. If you don't feel comfortable or you don't wanna do that, just keep good records of it and have a receipt for yourself.
Rob: Yeah, and it doesn't have to be awkward either. Like I know the vendors that I deal with the majority of the time at the flea market. If I'm buying something from them and I have a little receipt book in my back pocket and I write out, hey, I just bought this lawnmower on this date.
I paid this much for it. Hey, by the way, could you sign this? And I can give you a copy of it as well. Just showing that I bought it from you, if that's what eBay is, wanting more of that for the higher profit items, the higher valued items they're wanting that they've never asked us for specifically for receipts.
But we do know some people that have. They've reached out and said hey, we need some receipts of these items more, more, recent recent. And it's also with people who have newer accounts. Yeah. So I don't know if they'll ever do that for us, but this is not a bad practice to get into. No. Is to get receipts and have that record of everything that you're buying.
Go through a receipt. You have a receipt for it. If they do ask for it. You can show them the printed receipt that you have. And even if you feel weird by asking somebody to sign for a receipt, just make it out. Say what it is, the date that you bought it, and have it on a receipt book and then submit that to eBay if you get to the point where they need to know that.
Melissa: Yeah. And keep and, and do that ongoing, like every time you go buy it, because we're not trying to go back and like write all these receipts once they've asked you for receipts. But if you keep. Track and you're actually doing it. When you go buy an item, then you'll have receipts to show them.
Yeah. And another good practice that you do all the time, we kinda do it for social, but it's a good practice if they did ask for receipts, is screenshot your conversation if you buy something off of Marketplace or OfferUp. So you always do that pretty much. And then, then that, I mean, you've negotiated the price.
Here's the price. This is where I got it. Here's. Yep. Here's the screenshot. So it's older. If you have those, you can just put 'em in a little file on your computer or on your, wherever you store. Yeah. Pictures. But that would just be good business practices to help you in case you do find yourself in a bind where they're wanting you to you to have receipts.
So.
Rob: One thing we will say though, if you do sell something and you end up in this situation. eBay can't keep your money. They can't keep the transaction money for the item once you've shipped it out. Once it's delivered, it's delivered, and the buyer doesn't, even if they don't leave you positive feedback, they don't say anything.
eBay cannot keep that money forever. That's theft. I mean, you, you provided the service, the item that you did, unless they do an investigation into it and find out that it was a stolen, stolen item. You, you know, you're doing something wrong. And that's not, that's not the people that we're, we're speaking to.
But when you're doing something, you have something, you sold it, you legitly bought it, you got it, whether you got it from a store, you got it from a flea market, whatever you did, and you're, I sold your own items too, your own items, however, you got that item, and then you sell it on eBay and you deliver it to the buyer.
eBay can't keep those funds, so just know that they, you, you can't, this whole transaction can't go out in eBay's favor of, okay. They can hold it for a while. They can, and you can argue with them, and you can show them, try to give them the, the documentation that they need, but at the same time, just know they're not gonna say, okay, $2,000, we're gonna keep this money because we think it's a fraudulent charge, or something like that.
That doesn't happen that way, especially when you're not doing anything wrong. They can't keep the money they keep, that's not the option that they have in this situation. So just know that moving forward, yeah, you're safe and there's. Other precautions, even like what we had to do outside of eBay for, that $25,000, transaction, which eBay didn't have any issues with this.
This was prior to, it was PayPal prior to eBay's managed payments. Managed payments, yeah, so this was through PayPal, but we had to go outside of eBay, outside of PayPal, and we had to get this rectified through another. Yeah, another resource, that we did and it got, it got solved quick, very quickly for us.
So, just know that that's not an option, that eBay cannot just take your money for a transaction like that.
Melissa: So, yeah, so just know like we, we didn't wanna like do this episode to scare people, but just to be informed. Absolutely. To know if you are starting a new account, get that account. Like seasoned get stuff sold start, and we, we do that anyway.
Like we, or we want you to do that anyway because you will make mistakes. And we've talked about this previously, like if you make a mistake and it's a $20 mistake, that's a lot easier to handle than a big $2,000 mistake. So we wanna get you to that for sure. Get to those $500, $1,000, $2,000 sales for sure.
But make sure we get your account seasoned and that you're getting stuff sold and build, like you said, build that relationship with eBay so that they can have your back if something were to happen. Absolutely. So, absolutely. Yeah. Well thank you guys so much for listening. If you have any questions you want us to answer on the podcast, just we would love to hear them.
So if you wanna go to fleamarketflipper.com/question and we can get your question answered on the podcast.
Rob: You guys rock. Have an amazing day and we'll see you on the next episode.