Expert: Marvinator - 7/16/2005

Question
I still do not understand multiple screen IDs.  Is this a recent policy?  Why do people need more than one ID?  Is it recommended that folks on ebay use one for selling and one for buying, and why would this be?  Can you use the same PayPal account for all IDs? If an individual's ID gets NARU does that mean that all their screen names will be NARU'ed?  By the way, how many different ebay screen names/accounts can you have?

Thank you for any help.
Mel

Answer
You ask several very good quesitons.  Let me see if I can address these.  

Ebay has always had a requirement about 'only one screen ID to a person' so no, it is not recent.  Many people like being able to do shopping online without their significant other knowing what they are up to. I know some people that do have one ID for buying and another for selling, but there is no set 'rule' by which you can judge this custom.  The reasons can be myriad, but the most common is that they wish to have thier purchases kept quiet.  I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to purchase an item on Ebay for my wife only to realize she can check every auction I've bid on using a common search page available to everyone.  Haveing a secret ID would alleviate this.  

This said, let me also say that there are those out there that USE the ability to have Multiple Ebay ID's so that they can hide illegal activity.  They start an ID, purchase a few hundred penny auctions over a few days to create a feedback rating which looks good on the surface, but is actually inflated.  Then they go about scamming a few folks. When they get discovered, they quickly toss out the old ID and start all over again.  All they need is a new email address.  

I also know a few others who have one ID for selling and one ID for chatting in the Ebay Discussion groups, chat boards and forums.  Sellers have found that there can be problems in using the same ID for both and they use multiple ID's to protect themselves.  

You can actually have innumerable Ebay ID's. EBay identifies each ID by a unique email address.  With such free email companies as Yahoo and Gmail, a person can seeminly have as many a they want, though keeping track of them can be a nightmare.  The problem only arises when Ebay catches you with more than one. Now, this gets into a grey area because ebay also allows you to put more than one ID on a single credit card.  This is because they have set up the system so that family members will want to have thier Ebay Accounts paid for by the same card.  But again, if Ebay feels that you have too many 'PER PERSON' They will NARU all the ID's. When Ebay NARU's an account because of illegal activity or breaking the rules, it is only for that one ID.  Ebay will only NARU ALL a person's ID's when they feel that such duplicate ID's were for fraudulent means.  

Paypal also allows you to tie several Ebay ID's to one account.  My lady and I share a Paypal account because we share a bank account.  (At one time, Paypal would only allow one Paypal Account to each bank account, though I am not sure if this is the case anymore.)

As for your last quesiton, in case I hadn't answered this above, Ebay requests that One ID Per Person (though, as I explained you can have several "per household".)

I know it's convoluted, but if you think like Ebay, that there can be several people in a house, all sharing the same credit line, and bank account, you can see how it all is 'supposed' to work.  It's only when someone figures out how to scam the system that you get the problems.  

Please feel free to reutn and ask more quesitons as you need.