Ebaying on behalf of someone

broclo

I'm sure one of you will be able to advise, but do not want to go on ebay community boards as may get lynched!

I used to sell on my ebay account, but now just sell all my DS's clothes, unwanted gifts etc. So have huge feedback and very good too.

I stopped working as I have a young bubba and am currently on benefits(IS, CTC, LHA, CTB) until he stops feeding, which will hopefully be soon! So I am aware that I can sell on any of my personal items as technically a loss is made on them and that I am only allowed a £10 income on top of any benefits.

My brother has found some great stock which he thinks eould fly on ebay and looking at it, it seems he is correct. The items would only require 6 listings BIN, and simply slipped in a jiffy. Nice and Easy. Looks like could sell silly amounts of the 6 items he has found too.

Problem is my brother is ditsy, when he ebayed before he used to forget to reply to emails, post things etc, he is so rubbish! Infact he has had 6 accounts stopped!

So he asked me if I could sell them for him on MY ebay account, list them, post them etc as I have loads of spare time. IO would not take any money from him as he is always coming over and doing things for me as I do not have a partner and it really is no effort on my behalf, infact I enjoy ebaying!

So he wants to use MY Ebay account, MY paypal account and then for me to transfer the profit made after ebay/paypal fees into an account he will set up in his name, which he will order more stock from.

Is this possible or am I going to get in trouble? Would it solve it by adding a different paypal address? I'd love to do this for him as he is always helping me out, but am worried about anything that could happen even if I make not one penny from it!

scbk

Whatabout opening a new ebay and paypal account in his name linked to his bank accounts etc?
You do the day to day running and he takes all the money?


....or you could tell him to naff off and learn to use ebay himself if he wants to profit from it

broclo

scbk wrote: »

Whatabout opening a new ebay and paypal account in his name linked to his bank accounts etc?
You do the day to day running and he takes all the money?


....or you could tell him to naff off and learn to use ebay himself if he wants to profit from it

The first point was that he got booted off ebay, for being a wally and I have a great account with great feedback etc

The second point was that family help each other out without expecting a return, like when he picks me up shopping on the way to coming over to mine and mowing my lawn/fixing whatever DS has broken etc

The third point was that I enjoy doing it and will enjoy helping him out in anyway I can. It is what family do.

scbk

Yeh but I think he'd be able to regsister again on ebay using your address

Feedback is easy enough to get, if the items are well priced people will buy

Just make sure he registers as self employed (or opens a ltd company)


If you sell under your name then I can see yourself getting into a lot of trouble with HMRC if they find out


Each to their own, I always help out family/friends but if they're regulary making money from my work that's something else, and I wouldn't expect anyone to work unpaid for me either

frivolous_fay

There's nothing wrong with selling on behalf of someone - just make sure you cover yourself, ie. have the stock ready to send promptly, and know exactly what you're selling.

You can hire someone to do it for you actually - called Trading Assistants. They charge you a cut, obviously!

broclo

frivolous_fay wrote: »

You can hire someone to do it for you actually - called Trading Assistants. They charge you a cut, obviously!

lol essentially that is what I want to do for my brother...except my payment is lawn mowing/'uncle' duties/taking me to airports and collecting me in the middle of the night/odd job man etc! He does a hell of alot for me(bless as only 24! lol)!

Just to add I was going to open a second ebay account so that I could still sell my personal unwanted bits, therefore keeping money seperate. Could this be achieve and keep me out of trouble by having a new paypal address for the new ebay account and then adding this paypal address to my existing paypal account?

broclo

frivolous_fay wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with selling on behalf of someone - just make sure you cover yourself, ie. have the stock ready to send promptly, and know exactly what you're selling.

Oh forgot about your suggestion here...
Because he can be a bit of a numpty he would just order and pay for (from set up account funded by paypal transfers)stock. Then tell me what BIN price he wanted for it. That would be it. He then would want to get it delivered in his name to my address and then it is down to me to price postage, list, post etc as this is where he goes wrong!

greeneye

You used to be able to change ebay accounts from one name to another. May still be able to - I know one of my main ebay accounts actually started in my sisters name, I switched it over years ago.

From the point of view of benefits agencies I definitely would not be letting him use your paypal/bank account.
I believe you can attatch any paypal account to an ebay account - simply by entering payment email address on the listing page.

broclo

Hmmm...so I may be able, s he is setting up bank account in his name, change my ebay to his name and solve any issues?

Only thing is i'm not sure I want to change my ebay account out of my name as he was dead naughty on his(sold copies about 8 yrs ago tut tut) and not sure i want to have any possible association!

Argh lol

broclo

greeneye wrote: »

believe you can attatch any paypal account to an ebay account - simply by entering payment email address on the listing page.

Or lol...sorry i'm being annoying here!...

keep ebay in my name

Set up another paypal address, but linked to my original one so all goes into same existing paypal account

on my personal listings use original payal addy

on his listing use new paypal addy

filter off the payments on his addy to his bank account

hmmmm

soolin

I can see a problem here with however you do this. If you keep it all in your name and someone reports you to HMRC you may have a difficult time explaining that the stuff is not yours. They may even stop benefits and such like until you prove you get no income..it would be the easeist scam in the world to claim you are merely selling for someone else so I think they would 'shoot first and ask questions later'.

Obviously if you could prove you received no benefit by producing tax records showing that a full declaration has been made in your brothers name for all the income, then that would work, but if your brother is a bit ditsy will he do that or will he forget to register?

The other problem, and potentially just as serious is the not using ebay while suspended rule. If you change your ebay account to a busines sone and it is still in your name you will have to put up all the contact details on your 'about me' page so even casual browsers will have your details for complaints and such like. If you put your brothers details and anyone links him to his suspended account then your account will be lost as well. In fact if you use any of your brothers details that he previously registered under then your account will be suspended for good as well.