Selling limits and Paypal withholding payments question/help?

[berrmamdarre]

Hi all

Obviously I'm new, but did used to buy & sell on ebay ages ago...in other words before it became the mess it is now. It's been a while but I have still been floating about and know about all the fun new stuff sellers now deal with - restrictions, Paypal holding funds and of course the lovely gesture of them charging FVF on postage simply due to the few idiots that sold $1 items with like $200 post *sigh*.

So nope, no idea what on earth I am doing wading back into all of this but reality is I'm a wee bit of a shopper/hoarder and medical bills now need to take priority, so have jumped in the muck as a small volume seller who will mostly be culling 4 kids worth of clothing, vintage stuff and as you can see the various new items I've kinda bought (I'm a sucker for sales & buying in bulk) that I'm finally going to cull.

So just listed item number 4 (I forgot how long it takes and how **bleep**py my pics always are, so spend ages describing stuff accurately) and up pops the "You can list two more items this month" message and about applying to increase my selling limit. I assume the two item where I have 3 each are counted individually which is a bummer. 

So despite buying a few things I am yet to have more than 1 feedback, and haven't sold anything yet so of course have no selling FB - do I have ANY chance of getting my limits increased?

I really want to do 2-3 listings which will have multiple items (not heaps, maybe 10 or so to start with) as my dad has given me 6 huge boxes of vintage Patons knitting needles that I wanted to do a few bulk listings for. So not expensive stuff or the usual stuff the old dodgy sellers would list tons of like phones, tv's etc

So is it worth applying to increase them or have I got no hope until I have a selling history?

Secondly I wanted to make sure I remember the process for this, as TBH things are a wee bit tight and post will be a killer if I DO sell anything when I obviously won't be able to access any funds via Paypal for 21 days.

I know there was thread explaining how to have them lift it (and cheers ebay for hiding the boards, I just happened to know they did exist so could find them, genuinely new ebayers would be lost totally) as apparently it actually contravenes some law or something? I just remember reading that technically they were not allowed to wthhold funds at all and there is a process you can use to call them out on it, and they have to release any funds and can't withhold further payments.

That was when they first did it and Paypal was owned by ebay - is it still the case and if so, then when I do actually sell something how do I go about fighting it and ensuring funds are not withheld?

Apologies for the length, I meant to find the thread but totally forgot the 10 items per month thing until it came up today so figured I'd ask all in one go 🙂

TIA for any help 🙂

[5kazam]

If your'e getting a message about applying for an increase - just do it,.  Ask the question.  It shouldn't be hard to get an increase from what - 10 listings per month!?  Then you can join the rest of us on our wonderful allocation of 40 free listings per month.

Best of luck to you.  I hope you sell enough to take care of those medical bills.

[pennyforum14]

Just a few points:

The 10 items per month is exactly that, 10 items total, can be ten single qty listings or 1 listing with a total of 10 available but it still counts as 10 either way.

It is also 10 per month, not ten at a time, so if you sell all 10 you have to wait till the next month to list more.

If you click the Request a Higher limit link in the limits area on MyeBay, and follow the prompts, you may be able to get an automatic limit increase of you meet certain criteria. 

Continue to ring once a month (they won't usually look at an increase more often than that) and ask for a further increase, you may even find they increase your limits without you needing to ask.

As for the 21 day hold, if you ave a track record as a seller using the same Paypal account, ring them and point out that you are not a newbie and ask them to check your account history to verify this.  I recommend this as your first option, but if it doesn't work you can let them know you are prepared to ring the Financial Obudsman if they do not come to the party, this often works.

In the meantime, once each sale is made, shipped, received and feedback left, ring them and ask them to release the funds for that sale, their own rules say they will do so  3 days after receipt.

[collect247]

It will be hard to get an increase as ebay expects you to have a selling history b4 they increase the selling limits.

If you had another seller account that has been selling for a while then they would take that in2 consideration and gladly give the increase.

Ebay has made it so hard for new sellers now with too many hurdles to jump just to get the same platform us long term sellers.

Been where you're at now OP and all you can do is either hang in there or give up.

[phorum_junkie*]

Do you have a credit card linked to your ebay account? If not linking one will sometimes get you an increase. Other than that I would not ask for an increase until a month has gone by then you may have a better chance. It would probably have been better to list 10 individual items to begin with, second hand items most likely to sell would have been the best option, so you had more chances of getting some feedback under your belt.

As for the 21 day Paypal hold it is actually written into the Paypal policies so I doubt if it will turn out to be illegal however it is not cost effective for Paypal to take the fight to the ACCC to prove it can do it so usually responds to a request for the release of funds with a mention of reporting to the financial authorities if they are not seems to work in most reported cases.

[heihachi_73]

If it was only that easy just to click a few links or buttons and instantly add more listings to your account. But no, eBay decides that you can only increase selling limits via the phone, and in their infinite wisdom, their phone service operates between 9AM and 5PM Monday to Friday only, of course, just to make it next to impossible to actually call them.

Right now, I'm in another kind of rut - I'm out of free listings! ($1.50 is a blatant rip-off per listing when you are mostly selling things for between $1 and $5, but this is feeBay after all). I actually did get the 100 free listing bonus over the weekend, however, I had absolutely jack to list last week because everything was either already listed or being automatically relisted for free (when that elusive tickbox decides to show up, but that's another story) - of course, when all of last months' 3 free relists have ended and I am going to be stuck with a bunch of unsold and seemingly unwanted games until next month. As for listing restrictions, I have well over 200 to go; it's just that I refuse to pay $1.50 per listing and don't have that many things to shift to warrant an eBay Store.

[phorum_junkie*]

If 40 free listings are not enough why not open another ebay id and sell another 40 on that one? I actually sell on 3 ids, a basic store to list 200 new items, a 7 day auction id to list second hand items and another to list harder to sell things and non clothing items for 10 days BIN with Best Offer.

As for the free relists disappearing they often mysteriously reappear if you click on revise.

[berrmamdarre]

Thanks for the info all 🙂

The only history I have is actually stated in my description - I had the user ID I started with in 2003 dazandcaz for about 4 or so years maybe? It's annoying as we changed ISPs when moving and I did a hotmail account instead. I still have that but can't access it as the email was hacked years ago. I started to follow it up at the time to get back in but gave up.

I know I wasn't able to access anything at all, no idea what address and ph number it'd be under as we moved twice, but I'm not sure what one was last on there. So would have been a NARU no doubt as I used Paypal funded to pay fees, and back then you paid them when you got an invoice and the last set of fees would have been after I was hacked. It'sd be obvious on the ID as I'm pretty sure I got a couple of negs after I couldn't access anything as I couldn't get the buyers address so was negged almost immediately, yet hubby worked at our bank and was able to track what accounts the payments had come from and refunded them in full as they were paid via bank deposit.

But I couldn't do a thing about any of it let alone ask the negs be revised as they were refunded as that what whole reason they WERE refunded - I couldn't get on my acct or my email to get the the buyers details!

When I do the "Request Higher selling limits" it takes me straight through to saying I have to supply an ID with higher limits, and the email address for that ID so they can send a code I can use.

But the only ID is the above one...which I can't access!! Bugger. It's in my name too - this is in hubbys name as we DO have a credit card linked to our paypal but it is in his name, so did the whole ID under his details.

So we do have a CC linked to Paypal.

I know back then if there had even been selling limits it would be easy to talk with a rep and get the old ID paid and active again, but I'm thinking that's going to be impossible now? I started that ID in 2003 - that's how old it is.  If it was NARU would it even still exist if it's been inactive for years? 

But yep, Paypal is linked to the CC. I can confirm my account by them depositing and removing a $1 and me giving the transaction number can't I?

And I'm thinking it will be impossible to get higher limits - so how long does it take for them to go up?

If I removed one of the items that has 3 available and replaced with something else I have with 5 available (I have 2 items left) that would likely sell (the bulk packs of vintage Patons needles) would that be better? At least I can create a selling history then as the current stuff is specific - I've done lower prices than other sellers but they are still rarely sold items, they sell when someone who has been looking for that item finds it rather than impusle buying.

Thanks all, it's always a fount of wisdom here on the boards - at least I knew as an old seller they were here!

[berrmamdarre]

phorum_junkie* I have seen you around the boards for years 🙂 You always have great advice.

You are right - I should have gone with the lower second hand items first to get that history. I'm debating what to leave up and take down - if I turn off automatic relist for all the BIN's except one and keep them in unsold, will they still count towards my limit or can I list different items in their place?

I have some good kids bulk lots I was going to list cheap as 4 kids = a ton of stuff. The Patons needles is a big one - though very specific. They DO sell if you do them in bulk, I have done 5 packs with 10 different styles of needles I was going to give a shot selling for say $30? Or should I do less? Two sizes are the ones most sellers have that sell for $3 a pair, I have the full sets with the rare ones so they would still work out at $3 pair, even for the rare ones. 

The other very collecatble but also unfortunately buyer specific items I was considering send to auction. They are NWT intage 1991-93 sunnies, mostly the Polaroid Glarefoil - highly collectable but only to certain buyers.

Those and the needles have come from my dad - his best friend passed away a few years ago and his wife is getting rid of the old stock he kept in the roof - I nearly died when my dad said she threw most of it out!

He owned and ran a pharmacy in Launceston in the 80's & 90's, then retired and created a place called Pindari Herb Farm and used his background to create organic products - it did really well.

He bought tons of boxes from Coats Patons when they shut down and sold them via his pharmacy in the "alternative" section he created - all natural therapies, crystals etc. I have about 1/4 of what he originally bought - so far I've counted over 700 pairs!

The sunnies are fabulous - all are tagged with their original tags showing summer stock of 1991/92, and half are the Polaroid Glarefoil, the other half are a mix with typical 90's styles like John Lennon round frames. I even have a pair of licensed T2 (Terminator 2) ones - all NOS of course.

My dad told his friends wife to hold on to vintage stuff (I love vintage) and she what was left to me to help pay medical costs as she had been throwing it out (if there is tip shop in L'ton I'd advise vintage lovers to go there in case any was salvaged, she threw out tons!).

So I will bow to your expertise - kids bulk lots or send the sunnies to auction? 

[clarry100]

Linking a Credit Card to your ebay account (not your paypal account) should get you an automatic instant increase to 100. That did the trick for us when we first started out.

Other than that you will just have to resort to phoning them each month and begging for a limit increase. They usually grant it.

For us, after about 1-year of phoning them each month they must have gotten sick of us calling then out of the blue they increased our selling limit to 500,000 per month which for us is essentlally unlimited. So no more monthly calls now. We would love to get big enuff to break the limit now. LOL.