A Warning for eBay Sellers: Have a Second Account

SB NOTICE: eBay Registration Suspension

If you see that dreaded header in an email, you are in for some trouble. If your eBay account was suddenly suspended, what would you do? Try to call eBay and work it out? Forget that. Could you afford to wait out the suspension and get started again? eBay rightfully suspends accounts every day for one reason or another, but they make mistakes too. Here's how you can prepare.

First, I'm not going to talk about whether a user deserved suspension or not. I don't want to hear that I'm telling the bad guys how to get around the system. They already know how. This is for the victim of the eBay "system" or an otherwise honest person that made a dumb mistake. Due to unmerciful decisions of robots, innocent people have lost their jobs. It's another case where eBay throws out the baby with the bathwater. I am in no way suggesting anyone break eBay's rules, I am suggesting you prepare yourself for the unexpected. Just because you follow the rules does not mean it won't happen to you.

Have (at least) Two eBay Accounts

eBay allows multiple accounts. If you only have one account, open another one right now, and use it. You'll need to use an email address that is different from your first account. If possible, you should also use a different credit card and checking account. Try to make sure your second account is in no way linked to your first account. The less linking the better.

Once the account is active, use it to buy and build up some feedback. If you can gradually get it up to 100 or more, the better you'll be. Use it for personal items if you wish. But use it. Grow your feedback and keep it 100% positive. If you only use it to buy, you can't get any negative feedback anyway.

One rule: Do not EVER bid on one of your own items between these accounts.

Back Up Your Inventory

If you ever have an account suspension, you will not be able to retrieve your listings. You will lose everything - unless you have a backup. If you're suspended, you won't have access to your My eBay page. You won't be able to send or receive messages from other members, you won't be able to see your sold items that still have to ship, and you won't be able to see any of your inventory. Why would you need those things?

Well, if your listings are wiped out you may want to relist them once you are back in good standing. (Or, if you want to make use of that second account, relist them right away.) I will say for the record, if you are suspended, eBay says you may not use eBay with ANY account. Of course if you have a backup account, in your spouse's name for example, he or she could begin selling on eBay right away if you have backed up your inventory.

As I was saying - you need to back up your inventory. There are a few ways to do this but I've found the best, and easiest for me, is Turbo Lister. Download Turbo Lister and set up a user account for both of your eBay accounts. Once that's done, in the navigation bar at the top of the page click "Tools" and "Synchronize Items". This will import all of your current items from eBay.

Make sure you're in the "Inventory" view (see the menu panel at the left of the page). Highlight all the items by clicking the top item, holding the Shift key, and clicking the bottom item. Then, in the top navigation bar click "File" and "Export Items". You'll be asked which type of file you want to create, select Turbo Lister and name the file and save it to your computer.

Now you have a complete backup of your inventory, including the information from every field of the Sell Your Item form. You should update this regularly so if you have to use it, you will have the most up to date version of your inventory.

Relisting Your eBay Inventory

Like I said before, you can use this backup file to restore your listings after your suspension is over. You can also use this file to move all of your listings to another eBay user ID. You do it right through the Turbo Lister program.

If you're simply restoring your listings after a suspension, skip the next step. If you would like to list your items on another user ID...

Click "File" again, then "Change User...". You should now log in to your second account and select "Inventory" in the left panel. Click "File" then "Import items... > From File". Select the file you saved earlier with your entire inventory and import ALL fields.

Voila! You now have restored your listings. Now you'll just have to upload them. This saves you a tremendous amount of work trying to recreate all the listings eBay ended and erased.

Download Turbo Lister for FREE!

Sometimes Even Backup Accounts Won't Work

There are some situations where even backup accounts won't work. If this is your second, or third suspension, you may really be hit hard. Any account linked to the suspended account may be suspended too. That's why you want to keep the accounts separated as much as possible.

If you are a fraud, or scammer, and you do your dirty business from your Mom's computer, there is a good chance that anyone with a matching IP address will be suspended as well - even though they have no knowledge of your shady deals.

Reason for a Second eBay Account - Part II

If you are an Education Specialist or a Trading Assistant, you must maintain an average feedback rating of 98%, keep your account in good standing, and sell four or five items per month. If the recent feedback changes disqualified you from these programs, or if you receive a suspension, etc., you can switch to a healthy "back up" account and re-qualify.

You wouldn't go on a trip without a spare tire right? Don't sell on eBay without a spare account.

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