Selling limits, and eBay deceitful subscriptions offers

[bonecrusher86]

I have been a small-time eBay seller for over 23 years. I don't sell all the time, sometimes not for months or even a few years. I strategically assemble auctions and sales and promote them widely, mostly selling records.

eBay gave me an offer of a monthly store subscription of 250 auction items and 1000 fixed-price items. I accepted that offer. It's straightforward. 

I then spent four months pulling together a 20K inventory of records, multiple photos of every item, fulltime days to assemble the text listings, and then . . .

eBay limited me at 130 items and only $1.2K inventory.

They don't believe a full-time store operator can handle more than 4 orders a day--and that's assuming a fallacy that all four items will sell in that day. (Statistics indicates maybe 1 will sell, for a profit of $2 per day. EBay believes they know my business better than I do, and that I can pay my rent with this $2-a-day profit.)

The profits on any sales will not even cover the storage fees for this inventory. eBay had never done this in the past. Now they are telling me they know my business better than I myself do. So this is going to bankrupt my business right when I decide to make a real commitment tk it; and they've already invoiced me fees for a product I never used while I prepared, and thet they will not even honour.

eBay does not care about small stores. That is now obvious. They want to be Amazon, that is transparent. eBay is a dead and dying platform. So dead they now resort to lies and deception for business. I do not say this lightly, not after 23 years of valuable service. eBay has effectively ruined my business with their bait & switch fraud. New users need to know from an old hand around here, eBay is now for all intents and purposes a total control-freak Chinese-style Capitalist scam. 

[reallynicestamps]

The policy applies to any new, returning, or occasional seller.

Until you've been selling for 90 days and sold 25 items your payments will be held until tracking shows delivered, or in 21 days if there's no tracking. They can hold the payment for the full 21 days if you're selling in a high risk category. 

There is some indication that the 21 days only applies to US registered sellers and that we foreigners have to wait 30 days.

When I opened a new iD, a couple of years back, I called customer service after a month, and showed my other three active selling accounts. At that time, eBay and Paypal were more lax about bona fides and my numbers were immediately raised to 40,000.

I've never had more than 100 listings on that account.

I'm a little surprised that you did all that work and were not uploading your stock as it was ready to sell. Mostly because slow but steady would show you current patterns in buying and might show you how to process uploading better than your original thought.

If your profit is only $2 an item, for example , you would be able to cross reference your time at minimum wage against your potential profit per iterm.

Here in BC the minimum wage is 28c a minute.  If you put 10 minutes into preparing  and uploading an item, you are earning less than minimum wage, no matter how many items you sell in a day. Add in the time you spend packing and shipping and the picture gets worse.

And that is just one more reason why eBay restricts the number of listings are returning seller can make.

[mrdutch1001]

" I don't sell all the time, sometimes not for months or even a few years."

and therein is the problem... the issue at hand has nothing to do with the conspiracies that you banter about, but rather has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that you have been an inconsistent, infrequent, non-regular seller in recent times and these days eBay requires sellers to be trustworthy with a regular selling habit that provides a better buying experience for potential customers. After you have proven to eBay that you are indeed a seller in good standing, those selling limits will be lifted and you will be able to list the maximum amount with no further restriction; assuming that everything goes well with any and all transactions. eBay has set down these restrictions for the benefit of the site, for the benefit of buyers and indirectly for your benefit so that you do not get yourself into difficulties. It matters not how many years you have been selling on this site, what matters is a proven,reliable and recent trustworthy track record.

been there, done that...(an absence of 6+months set me back with listing limits,payouts with held,etc)

This is just the way eBay is these days and consistency as a seller is very important >>> listing/selling infrequently is your enemy...(BTW this is not unique to eBay...other selling sites have similar listing limits, payout holds & the like for infrequent/occasional sellers same as for new sellers)

Good luck going forward.