The phrase stealth in relation to Amazon and eBay has been coined several years ago by members on the eBay Suspension, PayPal and Amazon forums. What is so unusual about this feature of Amazon? If you already have an account with Amazon, does that mean that you are suddenly exempt from eBay’s listing requirements? Is Amazon any different than eBay when it comes to having to adhere to listing requirements? Is Amazon going to open up its doors and allow users who have an Amazon account to be able to sell on their site? It appears as though Amazon is looking more like a traditional brick and mortar store and not the virtual bookstore it once was.
So why are people being told to get banned when they attempt to sell on Amazon? According to a recent post on the eBay Suspension forums, Amazon has changed their policy and is no longer allowing sellers to create Amazon stealth accounts to post listings. It used to be that you could use Amazon’s “My Account” feature to create Amazon stealth accounts and post listings there. This worked for many people but recently, Amazon has implemented a new policy that requires all listings to require a business account. So what exactly is happening?
One theory is that some sellers created multiple Amazon stealth accounts to try to leverage one eBay sale into multiple accounts. Amazon is cracking down hard on the number of accounts they will allow a seller to create. Also, in order to be able to sell on Amazon you now have to have a business account. Is it now too late to attempt to use multiple accounts to leverage sales?
According to the eBay blog post, the new policy is in place “to stop unscrupulous sellers from opening a number of Amazon account to start profiting from their eBay buyers, in many cases illegally”. Basically, if an unauthorized user uses your listing to buy something that was originally posted on eBay then you may be liable for fraud. The eBay blog post does not go into detail into what happens when an eBay buyer uses a listing that you originally posted with Amazon, however. As of this writing, only Amazon is announcing any actions they are taking.
On a lighter side, perhaps you are a seller who finds it difficult to decide between two identical listings. If you post a similar product on two completely different sites, how do you decide which one to list? You could take your list with you to both sites, but is this in the best interests of your customers or your pocket book? To keep your customers happy and coming back for more, make sure you post the same listing on each site. By using Amazon’s stealth account method, you can easily put up a similar product on each site and still make money hand over fist.
What about sellers with Amazon accounts that are actually Amazon accounts that have been hacked into? Obviously, if you had the option to use a completely separate Amazon ID, you would do that. Instead of using the Amazon name, use your own unique name as your seller account. Once you have your ID and password, set up your Amazon stealth account and upload the same listing using the Amazon “shopping cart”. This way, anyone viewing your listings cannot tell which site is where, thus resulting in no confusion and your account being safely and easily blocked by Amazon.
