Here's where things stood/stand from my perspective. A few years back I created a new ID. I'd planned on using that ID to buy on and then sell on my main account. After a couple of months I decided to use it as a second selling account. Around 4 months later, the 21 day hold thing came in and that new account was hit with it.
After some huffing and puffing from me, and heels dug in from PayPal (my accounts were linked), I lodged a dispute with the FOS. Less than a week later, the hold had been lifted and would no longer apply to any accounts created linked to my main account. A year or so later, I created a new account, linked it to get a higher listing limit and got messages saying I'd be subjected to the 21 day hold. However, when the payments arrived, they were immediately cleared.
Both those accounts had a listing limit of 10 and when I linked them to my long standing account, the limit was increased to 30. I could have called eBay and got the limit increased to 100+, but I really wasn't that worried. They are both non store accounts that only got 40 free listings a month. As I sold more, my limits were periodically increased. The 2nd account now has 100 limit and the last account has a 180 limit (it had 3 increases in a week for some reason).
Now, a few months back (less than 6), Mr Tippy decided he wanted to list a few things on his account. He had some feedback as a buyer, but still had a yellow star. I showed him how to list, where to see any promos and where his listing limit was. I had gone through the ins and outs of what only having a limit of 10 meant. Then my eyes nearly popped out of my head. His account was NOT linked to any of mine, but he was given a start up limit of 100!
So, what I'd be doing is, creating a new account. Buy a few things from China or wherever to get some feedback, then set up a selling account and see what happens. If you are like Mr Tippy and get a limit of 100, then go ahead and open another store and off you go. Link it to your existing account and it should increase the limit more. As you already have an established account, a quick call to ebay should get another limit increase. I do believe you can call once a month to get a limit increase, but don't quote me on that.
That said, as already mentioned, try listing some items as a non store first, and see if the new line looks like a winner, before outlaying for another store.
