Not a Business? Can't Sell on Ebay

[matthewkmiller]

While I'm not a big-time seller on Ebay, in fact, the amount I've sold I'm sure is not noticeable to them. Still, I've sold somewhere less than a couple of thousand dollars worth of books and other items that I've owned for years and decided I no longer needed.  This is over a period of years. I've sold for as little as $5 and as much as a few hundred. I haven't sold anything for a while now and now I have one item I want to sell for a couple of hundred dollars. I see the exact same thing listed by others on Ebay for $400 and $1200. Crazy! Still, since I just want a bit of cash and want to get rid of my item, I'm willing to part with it quickly for $200. But Ebay won't let me. They say I have a limit on my account of $10. I can't sell anything for more than $10. The only reason they've given me is that it's been a while since I've sold. Their "customer service" tells me to use this limit and maybe they can increase it in the future. I don't have anything less than $10 to sell. The only way I would is if I had a whole bunch of $10 items I'd post all at once. It's not worth my time. I don't have an inventory of little things to sell. In fact, I only have this one item I want to sell at a bargain price of $200. All they'll tell me is to use this $10 limit and they'll look into increasing it in the future. This is after hours in their online chat and on the phone. From what I can tell, it sounds like they only want to sell things for businesses that sell on Ebay regularly. I'm just a guy looking to sell one item, so they don't want my business. It's just not worth the hassle I've had to deal with up to this point. I'm hoping someone can educate me on how to be able to sell one item on Ebay without having an inventory of things to sell.

[powell-memorabilia]

That's a crazy-low amount.  Doesn't seem right, unless there is something that has changed with eBay's new seller process or there is something that they aren't telling you.  When I started selling (small stuff one year ago), they had me on something like $300 - but it might have been as low as $200, as high as $500.  If you want to give up, understandable, but, if you do want to sell, just find some $5 items to sell.

Regarding eBay only wanting businesses - it just isn't so.  I don't have a business account, and they let me sell as much as I want - they have been increasing my selling limits for the past several months, to the point where there is no way I can even sniff the limits they have set for me.  

[collectfest]

I have sold 75 items in my closed auctions, 39 of them are auctions. Also, my highest sold price sold items were auctions.

In conclusion in my experience, some items are better for buy it now and some better for buy it now.

I agree some item categories are dead for certain items but by no means all catagories.

Best regards

[westside-appliance]

Just had exact same thing happen to me. Ebay profited thousands from me over 10 years of my 17 year relationship. Now this is how they treat us. I’m out, sell your stock!!! They done.

[chapeau-noir]

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@matthewkmiller wrote:

I did call CS. Spent over an hour on the phone with them in addition to the online chat. Their only answer is to use the current $10 for a while and see if they can increase the limit in a few months. Then I’m sure it would go go $25 or $50, not to what I want to sell. Besides, I don’t have anything to sell for less than $10. I’m not a store. I’m just a guy that occasionally wants to sell something.

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Next step then is to see if you can get any satisfaction from eBay on Facebook or Twitter - something is way off about the $10 limit and you might get better answers there.

[eburtonlab]

@westside-appliance 

If you have not listed in a while, it appears that eBay is now setting a very low listing limit ($10 or one item in some cases) to prevent dormant accounts from being hijacked and used to promote scam listings.

You will likely need to contact customer service for an account review and to have your limit raised to a reasonable level.

According to eBay:

[jagphoto]

Well, let's all remember both Ebay AND Paypal made thier money on the backs of the adulty industry for a long time. Paypal was processing CCs for adult websites when no one else would, and you could sell/buy old corsets, girdles, shoes, etc. It's just a mega mall anymore. I've had the same thing happen. I can see the history that shows a total of 19 items sold for a total of just over $2900, but now I can't list something for more than $10. Guess I'll find a piece of junk and list it for 9.99...lol

[jagphoto]

There are other ways of doing that other than screwing over people who have been members for almost two decades with no issues....

[jagphoto]

I've bought quite a few things recently, never had a negative review, been here almost twenty years, and can't sell anything for more than $10 right now. That's fine, it's a Chinese knock off mega mall anymore anyways...

[jagphoto]

Doesn't work. If you try doing a reserve OR buy it now, they stop you. You just have to find something you don't mind letting go of for $10.

[jagphoto]

Nope, you cannot select a shipping price.

[accountdeieted]

As a Once and a While seller on Ebay. I have sold over 400 items .
The way it has always  worked for me is that i would sell an item and then pay for shipping in Paypal out of the money from the payment on the item.
Having been away from selling anything for a year, i recently put an item up for sale and it sold for 650 . but ebay has removed the paypal option and is holding all the funds untill the item is received by the buyer, or until i update my account info with a full ss number and a checking account. And there is no way now to pay for shipping because the funds are on hold indefinitely.   Shipping is 49 dollars and i only have 10 in my checking account. And i NEVER ship an item untill the money is ether in my hand or in my Paypal account. Thats my rule. So i tried to both refund and cancel the order. But Ebay would not allow it. It seems ebay wanted to do the refund by pulling the money from my checking account instead of using the actual payment from the buyer that is on hold. Well, that's not going to happen .  So ebay is refusing to process a refund or cancel the sale.  Next the buyer and i tried to open a dispute case for a refund. Which i accepted immediately. but now Again ebay is refusing to return the money to the buyer because i have no checking account info uploaded to Ebay.
So yes.. Unless you are really serious about selling, like a business, and have the funds on hand to backup any and all returns you cant sell on ebay any more.
Ebay is trying to remove "Once in a While" sellers.

[downunder-61]

Can you please close this thread from Dec 2020

[chapeau-noir]

ZOMBIE THREAD

[1mrpeter]

Another issue, I'm a new seller although I was active as a buyer for a few years. They let me sell for up to $25000 total. Listed a couple of used computer parts I don't need over 24h ago. They are visible as "active", but you won't be able to find them. Then if I enter the item, from there - a seller (myself), it shows I'm not selling anything. Very weird, like they ghosted me.

[kh-jean]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.