eBay stealth accounts are nothing new. However, what worked a year ago doesn’t necessarily hold up today.
Advancing internet security technology and monitoring techniques make it hard to create new merchant accounts after bans and suspensions.
Do eBay stealth accounts still work in 2021, and will they continue to for years to come?
The answer is yes.
If you’re new to eBay stealth accounts, you’ve come to the right place. For merchants with some stealth experience, you may find some gems in here that you can implement as well.
Why do you need an eBay stealth account?
It’s the same reason nature endowed octopi with chromatophores and other creatures with stealthy properties – survival.
Which makes eBay sound a little bit predatorial. Which it is. eBay wants to remain at the top of the food chain inside its digital dominion.
You never know when your account will see its final day; breathe its last breath. eBay will literally ban accounts out-of-the-blue.
Merchants with 100% customer satisfaction, who never miss an order and follow the rules, are left in shock. Most get a tiny e-mail or notification of a ban or suspension for inappropriate activity. They rarely find out about any specifics.
Account bans aren’t always a surprise, though – true. Sometimes merchants do violate some terms of use. But a lot of the time, those terms seem to be open to interpretation.
It’s not uncommon for eBay vendors with highly successful businesses to receive undeserved bad reviews that lead to an account suspension or ban. These reviews may come from a troubled customer (we all know the type), or from a competitor trying to take out competition from the knees.
Needless to say, it’s not safe to have all your eggs in one basket. In other words, stealth accounts can lessen the impact of an account ban to your entire business.
Increase Selling Limits
Another excellent reason for stealth accounts is to get past eBay’s selling limits on new merchants and product categories.
Creating multiple stealth accounts is the go-to method for quickly scaling an eBay business.
All new sellers on eBay have a limit of $500 in sales or just ten items. The limit is primarily to protect customers from fraud.
You can request a limit increase after you prove yourself, but the sky is not the limit.
The way through this ceiling is to create more accounts. You should not be able to tie any alternate account to your main account.
You don’t need to change any product details or images, but everything else must be different.
That way, you can sell as much as you want to right from the start and rapidly scale your business. For example, you can create separate accounts for your most successful listings.
What are eBay Stealth accounts?
eBay stealth accounts are any eBay accounts other than your main eBay account. They all have completely different personal details.
- Name
- Email address
- Phone number
- PayPal
- IP address
- Login details
Are all unique.
The result of a well-constructed stealth account is that eBay cannot link it to any other account. It stands on its own with distinct details, even though it may sell the same products as your main account.
Connected Accounts
eBay has this thing they call linked accounts or connected accounts. It means that you can open up multiple accounts, but they are all connected by IP address. In this way, eBay can still impose any restrictions and penalize you across your entire account collection.
Are eBay Stealth accounts safe?
Yes.
There’s no as long as you create stealth accounts yourself and practice good digital hygiene. You can buy stealth accounts, but they are less reliable. You never know what you’re going to get. Some vendors offer what’s called an aged eBay stealth account. An aged account is one you use for a while before selling. It gives it some street credit. You can do this yourself by browsing product listings, making some purchases, leaving reviews, etc.
While these are better, it’s not as reliable as creating an aged eBay stealth account for yourself. You will also be able to customize it and make as many as you want in the future.
How much is an eBay Stealth account
The prices vary quite a lot. You could pay anywhere from $100-$2500 for some stealth account packages.
If you were to make it yourself, it would only cost the price of proxies. You’re going to need proxies one way or another anyways to manage your seller accounts long-term.
Is having multiple eBay accounts illegal
Even though eBay does not support the use of them, stealth accounts do not violate any laws. (Unless you use it to sell illegal firearms or something)
Can eBay track your IP address?
One of the reasons you cannot create a new account after an account ban is because eBay can track your IP address.
You may even be able to create a new account with the same IP, but you will get a ban somewhere down the road.
The only way to get around IP tracking is with proxies. You must create your account with a residential IP using residential proxies and manage each new account with a fresh proxy. That way, it’s easy to manage which IP you need to activate when you log in to each account.
How do I get around eBay suspension?
Sometimes you can wait for a while, and then eBay will release the suspension on your account. However, they will keep an eye on you and keep you on a short leash. It will be much easier to receive another suspension or worse the next time.
That’s why I recommend that you create stealth accounts if eBay suspends you. Not only will you protect your business from future catastrophe, but you can also start selling right away – even if your main account has a suspension.
Want to learn how to create stealth eBay accounts?
Continue to the eBay stealth guide.
