Changing Your eBay User ID

I have changed my [tag]eBay user ID[/tag] to genuineseller to better reflect what I'm doing here on this site, my [tag]Education Specialist[/tag] classes, etc. A lot of people are scared to change their ID, or they cannot get the one they want. That was the case with this ID, but I patiently worked around that problem and I'll tell you how.

Choosing an eBay ID

I always tell my students to be careful about choosing their ID. It can have a real effect on how a person is perceived on eBay. Any wonder these (real) eBay user IDs don't have a lot of feedback? Here's a few samples:

• ihateyou
• istink
• youstink
• villageidiot

In fact it's a good idea to tell your students to create a user ID people can remember and one that says something about them. (Like the ones above?) So that is why I like genuineseller, I can sell just about anything without people asking why. For example, I usually sell car posters, but last year I sold a toilet seat for large people. It didn't fit the user ID motorprints, and people thought it was weird. Well, they may have thought that anyhow about the toilet seat, but that's my business.

I wanted to switch to genuineseller and it was taken. It was about seven years old and the person who had it had never used it. There are a lot of IDs out there that people have created and then for some reason walked away and never used them. Some people forgot how to login so they just created another ID. In any case I wanted to get that ID.

The first step is to get in touch with customer service - I know, it's a pain but if you start with Live Help from the home page you can get to a real human. It helps to know [tag]eBay's phone number[/tag] (which I do) and while I'm not giving it out here, you can Google it and find the 1-800 number.

If an eBay user ID hasn't been touched in two years, they can release it. I mean, why keep a good ID down? Especially if it has no feedback and no reputation. What they do is change the ID to some random ID like: user982374, then release the previous ID. eBay emails the user and they have 30 days to reclaim it. At the end of exactly 30 days, the ID becomes available again to the general public. You have to mark it on your calendar and start trying to grab it as soon as it becomes available and voila! you can get the ID you really want.

A good thing to keep in mind is that your ID should reflect your business and should be positive in tone. So even though the ID "idiot" is "No longer a registered user." I don't expect any of you to go after that one. (Unless you are the author of the "Complete Idiot's Guide" to anything.)
As you may know you can change your ID by going to your My eBay page, looking down the left column and under My Account, click Personal Information. It's easy.

Other Questions
A lot of students will ask if your [tag]feedback [/tag]goes with you, which you may know - it does.
Another ID question I get a lot is: can you merge two IDs? The answer is yes, you can. There are considerations and requirements which you can find here.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/merge-accounts.html
[tags]choosing ebay username[/tags]

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