Explain Your Request For Receipts After 27 Years of Reselling
Summary: geo_689979 has been selling on eBay for 27 years and expressed frustration over eBay's recent request for receipts for all items listed and sold during the last 60 days. They explained that their inventory comes primarily from estate auctions where detailed receipts are not typically available. Multiple participants, including fabrics24 and jonathanbrightlight, engaged in the discussion, suggesting that eBay's request might be due to a trigger in their risk analysis process. Some participants noted that eBay's request is not necessarily an accusation of theft but a standard practice. geo_689979 is upset with the situation and plans to take legal action against eBay. Other participants advised that as a seller, geo_689979 must comply with eBay's rules or consider other selling platforms.
Explain your request for receipts for all items listed and sold during last 60 days.
Been on eBay for 27 years without a single chargeback in all that time.
As 99% of items come from estate auctions, often with multiple consigners, such receipt are not going to tell you anything.
A auctioneer's small clerk ticket with my bidder number a description of "books" and a price of $5.00 could mean one box of books, multiple boxes of books, piles of books in boxes, or in one case an entire hay flat (wagon) full of books sold as one lot.
A clerk ticket with a description of "contents of table" or "rest of table" means the bidder bought the entire contents of a six foot banquet table, possible with additional boxes and items below the table.
A ticket with "west wall of building" means the bidder bought every single item on the west interior wall of a out building on a farm sale.
Your receipts from a typical auction will consist of your clerk tickets and your bidding number. The bidding number will typically auctioneer's name and sometimes additional contact information depending on how much they want to spend on such consumables. My name is not going to be listed on these materials.
Even auctioneer with computerized clerking is only going to prove a generic list of lots.
There are no itemized lists of individual items. No break down of prices per piece and other complete and utter nonsense you are requesting.
Many items get put in storage for years and sold later due to the volume of items purchased.
Receipts from stores like the Salvation Army or Goodwill do not list specific items. At most they might list a department code or generic description such as "housewares", but that is meaningless as items are mixed together throughout the store. The Goodwill receipt for a toy I sold for $135 shows "$3.00" on the credit card receipt without any description at all.
How much I pay, from whom I buy, where I buy and when I buy are 100% none of your business and are my trade secrets.
Where do you get off calling me a thief?!
animal-house-8
·1 month agoI don't think ebay is calling you a thief I think it is just ebays new Artificial Ignorance because it is really really bad.
pickapaper
·1 month agoYou came on here venting because you have been asked for receipts by eBay. You have received some good replies considering we know nothing about what you sell or your selling habits or what actually transpired to trigger this request from eBay, but you have dismissed those replies.
I understand that you are frustrated but I don't know what kind of responses you expected from your post. The only question you asked was "Where do you get off calling me a thief?" for which it was explained that eBay is not calling you a thief.
Do you have other questions? What, exactly, do you want us to say?
inhawaii
·1 month agoEbay is not calling you a thief.
You did something that set off a "red flag".
What tha is I have no idea, only you would know.
Sell a large quantity of something?
Sell something expensive?
Sell a high end brand?
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 month agoWhen Ebay asks for receipts or invoices, there is something about what you have listed which triggers the request.
It may be heightened concerns over counterfeit product, which may be triggered by the product or by something you wrote in your listing.
It is not an accusation of wrong doing, even if it feels like one.
Your random auction you bought from, may be impossible to prove authenticity for the items you purchased. If so, you may need to find another way to sell some or all of those items.
Ebay has a right to care about whether the source of your purchases demonstrates the product is not a counterfeit, and many of us know not to buy or offer certain products because they are more likely to lead to a request for receipts.
Since we have no clue what you have selling or what you have recently sold, we cannot point to a potential trigger for Ebay's actions. A by-product of posting from a posting account.
You can keep your trade secrets a secret, but the cost is being unable to sell the items in question on Ebay.
Ebay is less likely to request receipts than other larger marketplaces, and unlike some of those marketplaces does not require them before you can offer some brands and categories of item.
Many of us have some secrets, and have to make tradeoffs in deciding whether it is worth keeping them secret.
albertabrightalberta
·1 month ago@geo_689979
Usually when sellers come here to complain about ebay wanting to see receipts and sources of their items, they post with their selling IDs so we can look at the types of listings said seller is selling.
By using a brand new ID for posting, any advice you get is simply speculation and based on what we've seen in past sellers who've been asked for the same.
"How much I pay, from whom I buy, where I buy and when I buy are 100% none of your business and are my trade secrets."
I can guarantee that ebay couldn't care less about how much you pay and from whom you purchase.
What they want to know is that sellers' brand new items weren't sourced from a smash and grab and were procured as part of legitimate purchases.
geo_689979
OP1 month ago · Edited99% of items are antiques and collectibles.
They are accusing me of selling stolen goods after being on the platform for 27 years without a single customer chargeback.
They are going to pay for me having to cancel sales due to the payments being suspended until receipts are provided - not just for one or two items, but for 500 items, including some slow sellers I relisted for several years.
See in you in court eBay - a criminal organization masquerading as a business.
janet9988
·1 month agoWe have no control over what you or eBay does. No use telling us what your plans are.
We do not relay messages back to eBay.
grann-4629
·1 month agoDon't mention your Pit Bull when you are in front of Judge Judy pleading your case or you will lose for sure. Good luck... I think Perry Mason might be looking for work ...
glorybells
·1 month agoAsking for receipts is not accusing you of selling stolen goods, it’s a CYA move for them.
Have your lawyer read the user agreement, he will laugh you out of his office.
toomuchstuffagain35
·1 month agoYou said they want receipts ffor the goods sold during the last 60 days. Are you saying you sold 500 items in 2 months? Maybe it's the volume that raised a red flag or some kind.
krazzykats
·1 month agoI’m not sure who exactly is calling you a thief. Are you being accused of stealing books?
I highly doubt eBay would be the one making that accusation.
🐈⬛
dhbookds
·1 month agoAs you post it, no one is calling you a thief......ebay is simply asking for receipts. Seems to be somewhat of a common practice......especially if you list alot of new/expensive items suddenly.......or vary from your normal practices. Just respond politely with the fact that items come from auctions/g sales for which you do not have receipts. That has been accepted in other cases..........
geo_689979
OP1 month agoThere is nothing new about my listing practices at all.
I have listed a wide variety of items for 27 years.
I have receipts for everything.
I digitized all receipts in order to not have to store boxes of receipts.
They are calling me a thief and they are going to pay for it.
tenoem
·1 month agoI've sold over $1,000,000 lifetime on ebay and have never been asked for receipts, so I know for a fact something you listed triggered this, or if you sell too much of a certain kind of item too fast, like iphones, you can trigger this. Posting with a forum account and not your main account means nobody will be able to help you. People have to see what you were selling.
geo_689979
OP1 month ago · EditedWhat nonsense!
I do not sell phones!
99% of items are antique and collectibles.
There is nothing new to trigger anything.
I will see them in court.
tenoem
·1 month agook, whatever you say.
You'll see them in court huh? Read the arbitration clause you agreed to when signing up, and tell me about how you're going to take ebay to court.
glorybells
·1 month ago1). No one said you sell phones. It was an example of behavior that can trigger certain responses
2). It doesn’t matter what the item is
3). Read the community guidelines, you can’t use profanity here (it used to be automatically blocked on the Khoros board)
4). Good luck with that. You signed a user agreement that stated you wouldn’t sue them.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 month agoBe sure to bring Bagels so at least you'll walk away with a full stomach.
Not much else but at least you won't be hungry.
fabrics24
·1 month agoWho is asking you for this? A buyer?
geo_689979
OP1 month agoObviously a seller.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 month agoNothing about your question is obvious, actually, and since none of us work for eBay or have access to your account, I suspect your question is misdirected, and it is certainly not clear.
If eBay is asking you, as a seller, to provide receipts, you need to find a way or possibly write a letter you can upload in place of that to explain, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Since you didn't post this with your selling account (if I'm understanding correctly), we don't even have any way to look at your listings or sold items to guess why eBay might be requiring that.
geo_689979
OP1 month ago · EditedWhy would I have to write a letter?
I have digitized receipts for everything purchased.
Those receipts are not going to provide a itemized list of goods, a break down of the cost per unit, supplier's name, and the other nonsense.
Obviously eBay hasn't clue how live auctions actually work whereas I've attended hundreds over the years.
deltilogical
·1 month agoEbay thinks it has more lawyers than you. Its a sociopath playground because they won't tell you upfront. I'm sure Ebay told you to go ahead and ship the item. THEN they held your money. I'm sure in their ever changing terms and conditions this is permitted. THIS IS NOT A BUSINESS PLATFORM. A business platform would not put ads on my workspace.
glorybells
·1 month agoeBay is simple: if you want to play in their sandbox, you play by their rules. Otherwise, find a different sandbox.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 month agoNo one knows what you sell because you're using a posting account, but something about your pattern of listings triggered eBay's risk analysis.
Selling on eBay is a privilege granted to you, not a right. You follow the rules or you can go elsewhere. No one cares about your threats, except that they may result in you not being allowed on eBay at all anymore.