In my view, applying holds to sellers who only sell sporadically, intermittently or occasionally is a cheap โsolutionโ in lieu (to some extent) of effective and timely action by eBay regarding reports of fraudulent sellers.
Itโs almost certainly not the only reason for this โfunds on holdโ policyโฆ but it is in my opinion a large part of it. eBay uses it as a way of being seen to be doing something about the problem of fraudulent sellers and also as a way of actual risk management. Whether it genuinely lowers fraud is another matter. Looking at it from the outside in, I donโt think itโs a highly effective method - but itโs certainly cheaper for eBay than, say, something like the old Trust and Safety Team acting on reports.
eBay will still have to front the bill themselves to refund buyers who have been defrauded, in instances where eBay canโt extract the funds from the sellerโฆ but I doubt that this is anywhere near the cost of preventing such frauds in the first place. Online fraud is accelerating dramatically with the advent of everyday AI; criminals are probably the leading element to take up AI for malicious purposes.
Think about this: When do eBay have to shell out refunds that they canโt recoup? Between buyers who are out of time with the MBG, and seller accounts subjected to holds, at the moment I suspect the balance favours eBay. But if more and more buyers act within the MBG period and if criminals hijacking accounts find ways to obtain their funds more quickly so that eBay cannot access those funds for refunding buyers, the balance may shift. If eBayโs outgoings in this respect become greater than the money saved by ineffective bot-driven inaction to reports (or if a court action set a precedent with a buyerโs loss demonstrably resulting from such inaction re reported fraud), eBay would rethink things.
But in the meantime, none of that matters - by which I donโt mean in moral terms or individual instances or overall to intermittent sellers. I mean rather that itโs eBay policy, itโs eBayโs playpen, and eBayโs rules. Arguing oneโs case to eBay CS will get one precisely nowhere. Genuine occasional or intermittent sellers who are subject to these holds must somehow manage their selling within the confines of the policy, hence my suggestion of trying to sell something (however small) just regularly enough not to trigger the โnew sellerโ determination.
If youโre doing a huge clean-up of items around the house, it would make sense to build up oneโs selling pattern before listing anything thatโs more expensive.
Selling some items for local pickup only, with cash on pickup preferred, may work.
But if you canโt make it work for your specific circumstances, and the inevitable hold on funds is not sustainable, then the eBay of today isnโt the right selling venue for you. That is the sad reality.
What about garage sales? Local auctions or swap meets? And as mentioned, selling on Facebook? Local seller groups on Facebook could work for you.
(Sorry - a bit of a scroller.)
