An unfortunate reality of eBay is that eBay reserves the right to shut you down at any time, and for just about any reason that they deem represents a violation or potential violation of policy. You might be doing something perfectly innocent that violates an eBay policy. Bam! You’re shut down without notice, loosing all of the feedback you have built up over the life of your business. Even if you aren’t shut down permanently they can temporarily impose a blackout if you violated certain policies. What’s even worse is that in certain circumstances they will go after ‘ALL’ eBay accounts that they can link to the offending account. They will use your credit card ID, your last name, street address, IP address used, etc. Anything and everything that could possibly link one eBay account to another will be used to shut down or blackout all accounts belonging to your business.
While there are ways to uniquely setup accounts (partnerships with completely different contact information), you should make every effort to operate within the rules and regulations of eBay policy. Certainly if you think anything you are about to do is questionable, then don’t do it. It’s better to fail on the side of ‘safe’ than to risk loosing a successful business you have built up.
If you can setup a partnership for each and every product, and then setup separate eBay accounts using your business partners, you will lessen the likelihood of all your businesses being shut down for a violation (unknown, accidental or otherwise) in a single area.
eBay is not this vicious ogre that is hovering over every account, just waiting for the account owner to make a mistake so that they can strike and kill. They ‘do’ want to ensure that the auction marketplace that they operate in is a safe place for the buyer, as well as the seller. To ensure this auction environment, as well as ensure that they do not invite legal review of their business practices, they also will lean towards the side of ‘safe’ rather than risk their reputation in the business environment.
So what can you do?
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