Pros and Cons of Creating a Second Seller Account

[godwulf]

I've sold on eBay off and on for nearly twenty years, but have really ramped it up since retiring last August. I've been disposing of all the miscellaneous things I've collected over the years and usually have 150+ items listed at any given time.  What I haven't started selling yet is my rather huge collection of game-used baseball bats, jerseys and all the other baseball-related paraphernalia, along with the hundreds of books about baseball, baseball souvenirs, etc.

My concern is that if I start listing all these items under my current Seller account, the potential Buyers of baseball items will have to scroll through any number of pages of books, action figures, medals, etc. - and, conversely, Buyers not interested in the baseball stuff will get frustrated scrolling through page after page of the baseball stuff. 

The logical solution seems to me to be to create a second Seller account for just the baseball stuff, but if I do that I'm going to start out with a Feedback score of '0', whereas I have a 100% Positive, 3000+ score on my main account. A '0' Feedback score makes me look like a rank amateur or maybe even a scam artist - no? How confident are you when it comes to dealing with a Seller with an extremely low Feedback score? Should I go ahead and do it and start each item description with a Notice explaining who I am and what I've done? Thoughts?

[buyselljack2016]

Most will find the item that they are looking for by searching for that item.   If I search for a baseball jersey I will not be shown your action figures.

Some may search by going to your account to look at everything, but I rarely do that unless I am looking at "solds" that are in the category that I sell in to get ideas.

[caldreamer]

I would put everything in one store and create different categories (that way customer can click on category to find items they are interested in).   Always better to have lots of feedback (if you start from zero and get one bad review that will tank your feedback rating).

[chapeau-noir]

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@caldreamer wrote:

I would put everything in one store and create different categories (that way customer can click on category to find items they are interested in).   Always better to have lots of feedback (if you start from zero and get one bad review that will tank your feedback rating).

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This ^^^  I used to sell everything under the sun and had everything in one store with very clear categories.  I'd have people buy books and a bike part, someone else would get a replacement goblet and two pair of pants, etc.  Once someone cleaned me out of all the hats and books I had (that was an Adventure in Packing).  I don't see the point in splitting everything up unless they are antithetical (i.e., baby clothes and pr0n or something).

[luckythewinner]

Here are my two cents:

Do not buy and sell on the same account. If you ever have a dispute with a seller, that seller can retaliate against you by buying one of your item. 

Start a new account immediately, and use it for buying only. 

Once your new buying account has 25-50 feedback (from the look of your buying activity, that will only take a month or two). At that point, then you can decide whether you want to have two selling accounts or not.

If you do start a second selling account, I would start transitioning your lower-end and random stuff over to the new account, and use your 3000+ account only for the quality stuff. 

I have 6 selling accounts, BTW. 

[pnw_family_crafts]

Our very small home based business isn't a Store due to costs, and we don't seem to have a way to create categories, so I'll have to list everything in one or have a separate account. I was hoping to have both accounts on one login for ease of use. Doh. 

[bridallure]

Hello!  If all of your listings are for one business, I would keep only one account to keep it simple.  If your buyers are searching for baseball cards, then they can type that in your search.

I will be opening a 2nd eBay store after 25 years of just one business account for my boutique.  Proceeds from the sale of the boutique items go directly into my business checking.  The reason I need a 2nd account, is that I will soon be offering family & personal estate items, and I want the proceeds to be deposited into a personal account so as not to appear to have added income in my boutique.  The only drawback that I can see is having to set up a 2nd email address for the 2nd account, but that's manageable.

Is there anyone else who has a similar situation and do you find that separate accounts work best for you?

[bridallure]

Someone must have a really bad retaliatory attitude to spend/waste their time/funds just to give a bad feedback.......but then I'm sure there certainly are some out there.  Thankfully most of my items cost enough that I don't think someone would be that vindictive!  Hopefully!

[soh.maryl]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but, if you have several accounts, do you not use only ONE SS # and would not all of your income, no matter how many accounts, be credited to that one SS# for Federal income tax purposes?  

[my_boston_baked_beans]

If there is a problem with a seller, and you are both a seller and a buyer make sure to block the seller you had a bad experience with.

I would keep one account due to the achieved feedback and use categories as suggested.

[slippinjimmy]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Maybe this is a stupid question, but, if you have several accounts, do you not use only ONE SS # and would not all of your income, no matter how many accounts, be credited to that one SS# for Federal income tax purposes?  

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Probably but there would be a separate 1099 for each account plus one would/could use separate bank accounts. The main goal would be to easily separate to make the accounting easy, diff 1099's, different eBay reports, different bank accounts.

It would eliminate the complexity of having to manually track and separate.

Back in the PayPal days I had one PP account for business and one PP account for personal, the latter was mostly for purchasing but I also used it when selling personal goods.

[stuff4divas]

@godwulf 

I went thru this same dilemma a few years back and decided to open a 2nd account to sell low cost misc items and eventually my collectibles. I put in the description that I am a well established seller for many years to avoid anyone thinking they could 'get one over on me'.

I've had no problems with bad buyers. I list using the free listings eBay gives every month, but I list way under that 250 so far.

My current account, this one, is well established with a particular category of buyer and I did not want to mix the two. This account has almost 8K as a seller and under 900 as a buyer. I opened a separate account for buying only about 12 years ago.

You may have 3k+ feedback, but as a seller, u have under 800.

as @luckythewinner  suggested, u should separate your buying and selling accounts. if for no other reason that it makes it super easy for accounting purposes.

Good Luck whatever your decision!

[kh-taylarie]

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