Learn to buy and sell antiques and collectibles

Why Have Multiple eBay Accounts?

Jim Armstrong writes:

I do have one question. You said you do not use the same eBay accounts as buyer and seller, but didn't say why. I'm curious.

Why do I need 2 eBay accounts?

~!~

There are a number of reasons for having multiple eBay accounts. Here's a list of 5 reasons.

I originally split the buying and selling activity because I had problems as a buyer and received retaliatory negatives from the crooks who ripped me off. As an eBay seller you have control over the situation. You can please most buyers and get positive feedback.
As an eBay buyer however, you don't have control over the exchange. Sooner or later no matter what you do, you will get some crook misrepresenting an item or taking your money and laughing. You need to be able to leave negative feedbacks when it is warranted without having the seller reciprocate. Note - in May 2008 eBay will no longer allow sellers to leave anything but positive feedback for buyers.

Another reason is one day my dad and I both bid on the same item. He was the high bidder, I was the second bidder and the third bidder was 75 dollars lower than me. We had talked about what to bid and both snipe bid the same amount in the last few seconds of the auction.
So I set up an account we can both bid with so this would never happen again.

Another factor is I bought something on eBay a few months ago, and had people asking me why I paid $800 for the beat up thing. The only way they would know I bought it is if they were tracking my buying account. I do not want any Tom, Dick, or Harry to know what I spend on my toys.

If you practice eBay Arbitrage, you do not want a seller to see you selling the same item you just bought from them a few weeks earlier. You also do not want other bidders to know what is going on.
When people see you buy something only to resell it later with a better picture they will start badmouthing you. Keep them in the dark and they have nothing to gossip about.

A last reason for having 2 or more eBay accounts is so you can specialize in different items with different accounts. I sell trains under one account, use another eBay account to sell general items like dishes and kitchen ware, and have a third account just for my IWantCollectibles items. This way I can increase the chances of getting bidders to bid on multiple items because they are all related, and tailor my eBay me pages for each market. Having two eBay accounts is just smart.

Note: Since I wrote this article, I have gotten quite a few emails from readers who had problems creating multiple eBay accounts. In order to help them, I have written. . .

Instructions for setting up a second eBay account.

PS Don Hoppe wrote a report explaining how he does eBay arbitrage. Here's a link to my review of Don's "Ebay Arbitrage -- The Complete Guide to Flipping"

Secret eBay Product Sources
Click on this link to learn how to find interesting items you can quickly resell on eBay for BIG profits.

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Terry Gibbs has taught over 7,000 people how to make a good living on eBay. Terry's most recent eBay instruction manual is The Auction Revolution . The Auction Revolution is your guide to eBay and beyond. Here on Iwantcollectibles.com, you will learn about buying and selling antiques and collectibles, and about eBay.