Is it best to stagger creation of accounts - not create them all at once?

[won't submit]

Do eBay and PayPal for that matter track your movements through multiple accounts.

If selling the same stuff across accounts, is it better to leave some time between going into the accounts?

[Modee]

Yes of course. This is one of the rules promulgated in my Short List. There are sixty five PAGES of "rules" in my Short List, but this is one of them.

You should neither create nor use multiple accounts back to back. So, when creating them, don't do it all in one day (or hour). And if one goes down, don't start using another one immediately - especially if you plan on selling the same or similar goods.

[SevnSins]

My method for creating accounts varies, depending on how much free time, phone numbers, and bank accounts I have at that time.

Most times; I just create one at a time.

Other times; I have created as many as 5 per day (10 over weekend). I am VERY careful doing this, by creating new windows logins per account, and make sure I use a new IP for each. These rules; of course, are standard. The other thing I do is space the time of creation out. Don't go directly in, and create all of them back-to-back.

Up to this point, I haven't had any issues.

NOTE: If you live in a smaller city/market, you should limit your accounts per day. I live in a metro of ~1 million, and am probably pushing my luck.

Sevn

[won't submit]

understood about creating the accounts, but what about actually logging into the accounts once they are up and running.

eg. account 1 - log in at 10-00am/log out at 10-08am
account 2 - log in at 10-09am/log out at 10-19am

do they track this kind of activity? i am guessing they can/do?

[Modee]

If they find reasons to link the accounts, upon review the fact that they were never logged into at the same time, and were logged into one after the other right away might be the final linking factor, but....

at some point you also have to make a BUSINESS decision. If you need to run multiple accounts, then you can't spend your whole day trying to stagger log ins. You have to handle your business.

There are other things you can do though, such as log in remotely on one (via say, auctiva), and directly on the other.

There is also the issue of WHY have more than one account if each one sells the exact same thing. People who think that this has some sort of benefit have sometimes not thought the issue through properly.

[SevnSins]

Modee has a very valid point. I use Auctiva with all my accounts, so I don't worry about IP address after the account is created. I only login to accounts to pay bills, and handle disputes after creation. If you are logging into ebay directly for your account access, I would be a little more discreet then logging in back-to-back.

Maybe something like...
Account1 = do all business @ 6PM Mon, Wed, Fri
Account2 = do all business @ 7PM Tues, Thurs, Sat
Account3 = do all business @ 8PM Sun, Tues, Thurs

If you are "actively" running more than 3 accounts at a time, then you may have to be a little more savvy.

When I'm creating accounts, they are for "back up" accounts. For use when one of my "active" accounts dies.

As Modee said; if you are doing things that eBay doesn't like, they will try to find any possible to link you and eventually shut you down.

Good Luck

[magnificent.time]

So far so good conversation guys ! As far as I am in this game ebay/paypal I have found out that you have think like 10 different people for 10 different accounts for example - every little sign which is repeating in the time of your business can get you suspicious and soon can get you suspended not for the right reason ! Also I agree to the different logs , because it separate the Cookies and LSO's for every account , which is the good point , because it will slow down some ebay limitations in future , but it is really hard to handle it ! But get this point also that not everything depends only about the logs - very important part is creating the account as Modee have learned me , for what purpose you creating it , because that is how you are leading the ebay guys exactly to the hole - if you do all things the way they want and they stay happy with your work , you will be fine ! Keep in mind that different countries accounts have different rules in the time of working !

As up to me , this is what I do - Use ENTROPAY VCC for every account I create - they work just fine for me ! Not big fees for the transaction and they do not actually care what you sell and why you receive money from Paypal ! Use different Mozilla's for every account + I add External IP program to review my IP logs for security measure , delete cookies and LSO's at the end of every session ! And to spend less time on checking all emails I receive per each account , I use Popcorn + GMAIL which is not so hard to install it and I am reviewing all the emails with one click of the mouse ! Never working on more than 2 accounts at a time ! Have 2 Personal Computers all with 5 PCI slots on them , which means I can access 5 IP's per PC - which is just fine for now ! Don't intend to create more accounts but intend to work safely on every account I use in future - try to move traffic to your own website with some fine emails to your customers and put some paper in every item you ship with some kind words and telling them to check out your website ! And with the time selling in eBay you will found out how some day you won't care much about selling on eBay than selling big amounts on your own website ( where you got the Rules in your hands ) ! One thing I haven't still tried is working with Merchant Account because in my country I don't have much choice on it ! But I didn't give up on this term ! Well if I missed something - I will get back and complete it ! Hope this will help someone ! Cheers !

[kittykat kris]

in regards to not seeing the reason for multiple accounts when one particular item is being sold...wouldn't it be beneficial to do that to stay under ebays radar so to speak? not to generate large sums of income/money into one account and have it spread across several?

just in the process of learning, I thought i had a pretty good handle on how to start doing multiple accounts but now after reading bits and pieces from all over the forum I am learning that I havent thought of a lot of things! lol

[Modee]

Well, as we've stated elsewhere
Making some ebay accounts on same names - multiple accounts that are linked? - Free EBAY, PayPal, Business and Law Forums - Ebay Suspension, PayPal Limited
if the accounts are linked, there no advantage whatsoever to having them. Better to have just one account than ten that are linked.

Now if they are not linked...that is another story. Then, yes, there is benefit of course because it is as you are entirely different entities as far as EBAY is concerned.

[JEM]

Modee has a very valid point. I use Auctiva with all my accounts, so I don't worry about IP address after the account is created. I only login to accounts to pay bills, and handle disputes after creation. If you are logging into ebay directly for your account access, I would be a little more discreet then logging in back-to-back.

Maybe something like...
Account1 = do all business @ 6PM Mon, Wed, Fri
Account2 = do all business @ 7PM Tues, Thurs, Sat
Account3 = do all business @ 8PM Sun, Tues, Thurs

If you are "actively" running more than 3 accounts at a time, then you may have to be a little more savvy.

When I'm creating accounts, they are for "back up" accounts. For use when one of my "active" accounts dies.

As Modee said; if you are doing things that eBay doesn't like, they will try to find any possible to link you and eventually shut you down.

Good Luck

So, are you sayin that if once your account is open, you then log in via Auctiva to do your work, you do not have to worry abut the Ip problem ( given you are using a different PC user account of course)

[Mousi]

still problem I think

I think if there is a problem on one account and you are linked via IP's they shut them all down as soon as you try and sell (or maybe sold already) sometimes it takes them a while. so 3 accounts with the same IP does not make any sence. If you want to have several accounts you need several IPs, several names and several telephone numbers. (thanks goodness no soc. sec. number needed here)

[Modee]

Well true, if your accounts are doing nothing wrong and are all linked they might just think you're all family members or roommates. But then when one goes down usually so do all linked accounts go.