Listing first item - supplier invoice total required for ebay to approve us to sell

[davicventu-0]

Hi, we just registered on eBay and are aware ebay asks new sellers to submit invoices or receipts from their suppliers for the products we sell in order to determine from the quantity on the invoice if we are drop shippers or not (we are not drop shippers). 

What quantity of products on an invoice is enough for ebay to approve a seller? Is a quantity of 25 of the same product enough? 

Is there an amount threshold as well that the total amount of purchase from the supplier should be?

[lady.stark]

I've never heard of that... in more than 20 years on eBay... Of course, I do not have a supplier, I sell my own stuff. What is the category you are listing in?

[davicventu-0]

Video games. well it goes like this - you list a video game for nintendo then you get one of those MC010 notices asking you to upload ids and receipts. basically, if your invoice/ receipt only shows a quantity of 5 from your supplier then the seller support agent reviewing will bar you from listing as it means you are a drop shipper. So I was thinking I should have an invoice from a supplier for a quanity of 25 for one product to show im not a drop shipper?

[pjcdn2005]

Although I have heard of ebay asking new sellers for invoices, why do you think that they want these invoices to show whether or not you are a drop shipper?  Did someone tell you that or...?  Considering that a lot of sellers only have one quantity of a product to sell, I don't see how invoices for one, two or 5 items would  tell them anything bout dropshipping.  Plus, dropshipping is allowed as long as you have an arrangement from a wholesales to do that. It is not allowed though to list something, sell it and then in turn have another retailer send it to your buyer.

There probably are a couple of reasons why they want to see invoices and for something like video games, it might be more about looking at your supplier rather than the quantity. For example, if your supplier for Nintendo games is in China, chances are that they are not authentic games.  I'm not saying that is the situation in your case, just giving an example of why they might be asking.

[davicventu-0]

Thanks for the response. Quite helpful. We are also quite careful about account suspensions which could happen when about 3 customer orders are cancelled in a row - any insight into how many customer orders are called in a row (Order Defect Rate) before an account is suspended? Any general tips from experience to ensure our new account does not get suspended?

[reallynicestamps]

which could happen when about 3 customer orders are cancelled in a row -

Well that sets off alarms.

The biggest problem with dropshipping, which is allowed and even encouraged on eBay, is that when the supplier cannot ship ,usually because he has no more product, the reseller does not know until the transaction is cancelled.

With classic dropshipping, you the reseller have a contract with the supplier, who also supplies pictures, descriptions, packaging, and shipping to the customer you find.

But YOU are responsible for pictures, descriptions, packaging, and shipping to the customer . If the supplier messes up any of those, YOU are responsible.

Any you can't do a dang thing about it.

any insight into how many customer orders are called ...before an account is suspended?

Nope.

And eBay will never tell you.

Best advice is never sell anything you don't have in your hand.

The number may vary depending on phase of the moon and whether the rep who is deciding has a hangover.

What eBay does not allow is a form of "retail arbitrage" that is sometimes called dropshipping.

The seller sees something on another site, makes a listing, then when he finds a customer, has the original seller ship to the customer.

Since there is a fair chance the shipment will arrive in a box branded WalMart or Amazon or The Bay, this annoys the buyer, who blames eBay and tells all her friends.

The notice you got was based on that disallowed form of dropshipping. 

And counterfeiting.

You might want to read the information about the VeRO program at the bottom of this page.

[pjcdn2005]

If you have more than 3 out of stock cancellations and they are more than .5% of your total transactions you could either be suspended or become a 'below standard seller' in which case you would pay 5% more in fees. More than likely your listing visibility would also suffer.

There is information about seller standards at the following link.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/selling/seller-levels-performance-standards?id=4080&st=12&pos=1&que...