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forced to change the account from personal to professional
Summary: The discussion concerns a participant who was forced to change their account from private to professional. The dialogues between maxbrook64 and sika700 do not contain visible content, but it is presumed that they deal with issues related to this account change.
hi, I’m selling my collection of model railways (little trains) of about 300 pieces. I started last year without any major problems, but now eBay has written to me that, within a month, I must switch to a professional seller because my sales are above the normal limits. They think I’m a shopkeeper......but if a branded model can cost (always losing money compared to the original amount spent) somewhere between 100 and 300 euros or so, or even more if it’s brass, it’s clear that after 10 or 20 listings you go over the expected limit. What am I supposed to do, take them to a second-hand market to get 50% if I’m lucky? At this point, since I still have material to sell, at least until January 2026, I’m asking you if you could tell me what the legal obligations, taxes, tax declarations and various VAT hassles would be that I’d have to deal with if I switched my account to professional. Then, since I wouldn’t be able to go back to private, I’d close it and open another new one with zero feedback (I’ve been registered for 20 years with over 2000 positive feedbacks). Or else I leave this one to close and open a new one directly with sales muuuch slower and keep going for a few more years at 2 listings a month. In your opinion, what would be the best solution? So I don’t end up on other online sites that don’t give you visibility abroad. thanks
sika700
Mentore1 year agoHello,
let's say you've been lucky so far, with over 2100 items sold.
The law is clear: if you sell items, even used ones, for the purpose of making a profit on an ongoing basis, you are treated as a merchant, and therefore subject to all the obligations that come with that.
Talk to an accountant for more advice.
Remember that if you do not update your account you will be expelled from ebay and any other account opened in your name or linked to you will suffer the same fate.
Kind regards.
maxbrook64
OP11 months agoHi sika700, this is the reply email after asking eBay.
-Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service, I am Ilirjan, following up on your request for information regarding the switch to a business account. I’ll be happy to help you with this issue.
The email you received is an automatic email that all private sellers with fairly high sales receive; in the last 90 days you made a total of 4500 euros, which is why the system no longer considers you a private seller.
If you do not switch to a business account within 28 days, the system will block the sales side, but you can always buy.
If you want, you can open another private account and sell; if instead you want to continue on this account, you must switch to a business account even without VAT number by entering sole proprietor.- So, in the end, I wouldn’t be permanently kicked off eBay and unable to sign up again. You’re much more experienced than I am, but it seems to me that I could keep my account as it is, limited to purchases only. Then I could always open a new account to sell. Am I wrong? Thank you for your advice.
sika700
Mentore11 months agoYou can do whatever you want, but you have to deal not only with eBay but also with the Revenue Agency, to which eBay will report all your data and sales, pursuant to the DAC7 regulation.
So, if you can document the provenance of each individual item you sold, you won’t have any problems.
Have a good evening.
maxbrook64
OP11 months agoHi Sika700, I can see you're very knowledgeable, and I wanted to ask if it would be possible to do this:
1) open a new account in October as a private seller, but with the same bank details for any payments.
2) keep the current one open, the one with which I've gone over the sales limit and that eBay will restrict to purchases only.
And then could you tell me whether with this new account I'll have a €5,000 sales limit until the end of 2025 or until October 2026? I've seen that some listings say to also look at other accounts that are always the same private seller; I'm talking about model railways, maybe because each account gives you the possibility to sell up to €5,000? The more accounts you have, the more you can increase the €5,000 limit? Simple, easy and quick........but I don't think it's like that.
sika700
Mentore11 months agoMaybe you don’t understand, if you have an inactive account for sales you won’t be able to have any others... if you open another one to sell after a little while ebay will notify you of the link and block you again.
What you’re describing would be too easy... don’t you think?
Moral of the story, if you don’t switch to professional, selling on ebay is off-limits to you!
maxbrook64
OP11 months agowhere I come from, they say to be hard of understanding 😀....but, in your opinion, what do these phrases said by Ebay customer service, this Mr. Ilirjan, mean?
"If within 28 days you do not switch to professional, the system will block the selling side but you can always buy.
If you want, you can open another account as a private seller and sell; if instead you want to continue on this account, you have to make the switch to professional even without VAT number, entering sole proprietor."
You tell me that they block me if I open another account without going professional on the other one; this customer service guy seems to be saying something else, or maybe I didn't understand the meaning, I'm a bit confused. Help me understand, since you have over 18 thousand feedback and I only have 2079 in 20 years of ebay (between buying and selling).
sika700
Mentore11 months agoI’ll just tell you that many times the support guys... with very shaky Italian... don’t even know what they’re saying themselves.
I think experience is worth a bit more...
Have a nice evening.