After talking to an eBay rep I HIGHLY recommend doing THIS to avoid getting BANNED as a reseller

After talking to an eBay rep I HIGHLY recommend doing THIS to avoid getting BANNED as a reseller
I had another item taken down for counterfeit policy claim. I contacted eBay and spoke with a very nice rep who explained a lot of what is going on with these claims, and gave some thoughts on what to do in the future to help avoid getting these items taken down. I feel this was very helpful information so I wanted to share so other resellers can possibly take action ahead of time and avoid these same issues.
‪@CommonwealthPicker‬#ebay #reseller #reselling #counterfeit #ebaypolicy

[@sdarken]

Thanks for the video. I'm a big hat seller. I have over 5000 hats listed and in the last couple of weeks I've had about 6 items taken down for counterfeit claims. I believe that these hats are being identified by the new "AI" tool that ebay recently acquired. In all cases the items taken down were major brands :- Ford, Honda, Bud, John Deere, Nissan etc. One thing that I've noticed so far is that having a brand of "unbranded" for any of these hats is likely to get it flagged and taken down. Hats that have been listed for years, that I've ended and relisted recently, are getting taken down and "unbranded" is likely to be the culprit. So, if you've got an old vintage item, where the tag has been removed, put something in the brand. Don't leave "unbranded" on the listing. I wish I had a way to find all of my "unbranded" items.

[@fivefortyflips]

Yes - I may not have mentioned that part in the video but you are 100% correct - "unbranded" is a common theme in these items being removed as well and especially on my hats, I also need to review my listings as my template I set up with "unbranded" as the selected "brand" due to building out the template - also its funny you mentioned the end/sell similar being like a trigger for it - 2 times it's happened to me having an item removed, once was ending/sell similar - and another time I did a bulk edit to fix some items in my store that were in the incorrect store categories....both times I did those things shortly after saving items were flagged, so it's almost like that is a trigger for this!

[@sdarken]

@@fivefortyflips I had another one removed today immediately after I did a bulk price update on 25 hats. Today it was a Quiksilver hat. I haven't pulled it out of my inventory to take a look but I presume it was another "unbranded" hat. It had been listed continuously since 2020.

[@Seasidesalesfl123]

Good information to know. Never gave it a thought but certainly will be more attentive. Thanks for sharing.

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you, hope it helped!

[@isaacganstaman1379]

I have never sold anything on ebay but I watch videos every day to learn more before starting. Very helpful video thank you

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you and glad it was helpful - good luck on your sales once you decide to start as well!

[@afterthestorm221]

There are good eBay customer service people who go above and beyond and it's always nice when you hit the jackpot and get one of them to answer your call!

[@fivefortyflips]

Yes and this rep was very helpful and very open with explaining things and what has been going on

[@insuranceman100]

I hat a hat removed a week ago and I didn't know why..no reason...this video has a lot of good information and now I know why...thanks

[@fivefortyflips]

Glad it helped out a little! Thank you!

[@roycarpenter7838]

The chevy shirt was sold thru Walmart. I personally purchased one from walmart.

[@fivefortyflips]

Yeah its a legitimately made Chevy shirt unfortunately though I feel many of these items that get flagged are via the AI and it’s not recognizing anything but the “brand” of the shirt

[@niutak76]

eBay has so many issues already and now AI is just adding to our problems. Great information but it really sucks that many perfectly good items will no longer be able to be listed.

[@fivefortyflips]

Totally agree - hopefully maybe in the future they’ll have human reviews of items flagged by AI - that would be nice, but I guess it depends on the amount that gets flagged and if it makes sense for them

[@howgroovyisthis]

Really good information. I need to go over my inventory to make I don't have any of these items listed. Not worth losing my account.

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you, and yes that was the reason for sharing and just noting what the lady told me - it’s also why I removed some items - the little profit on the few items isn’t worth the chance at damaging or losing my account

[@isabellejaynes4072]

Wow. Thank you for the info.

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you for watching, hope it helped

[@liztsipouras]

Very informative, Thank you, I now have a lot better understanding .

[@fivefortyflips]

I’m glad it helped, thank you!

[@WatchingSomeYouTubeVideos]

I have a ton of Gildan shirts listed. I mostly sell sports clothing, and almost every NCAA team's logo is printed on Gildan shirts through licensed screen printing companies. I don't plan on making any changes to my items yet. As far as I can tell, so far it is only large companies like ford, budweiser, levis, harley-davidson, toyota, etc. Until I see this expand, I'm not making any changes to my listings. I'll just be careful around those handful of companies.

[@fivefortyflips]

Yeah not certain if they’re looking at sports stuff or not - haven’t heard much regarding them, but it could also be a thing they’re rolling out in waves not sure on that

[@PraiseHimOnly777]

I just had an item taken down. When I looked on eBay there were hundreds of the exact same item as mine still listed by other sellers on eBay. Doesn’t make sense to take mine down when so many of the same are still listed. eBay isn’t making any sense at all doing this

[@fivefortyflips]

Unfortunately this is one of the biggest issues with the policies - in 99.9999999% of cases the item you had listed that was removed you’ll see a bunch of them still available and mentally as a seller you begin to feel targeted which is why anytime it’s happened to me I’ve called them. The lack of information provided on why your item removed I also suggested to them needs improved to give us more information and education rather than making it feel like a random targeted act

[@49erjoshblacksuit58]

New Sub and want to say keep doin what your doin.. Honesty beams out of you and overtime that will grow your channel and bring the right people around to help support.. Peace and love and hope to see more soon

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you! Really appreciate that and glad it shows! Definitely will be more videos - thank you again!

[@roso4357]

I have over 10k items listed on eBay and I list the same type of items you list and I haven't had an issue besides Porsche taking down a shirt I had listed.

[@fivefortyflips]

Yeah it seems to be mostly bigger named manufacturers and especially automobile manufacturers are really common - the 2 eBay took down was Chevy and a hat with Miller Lite with Harley as a sponsor…I’m guessing these more popular companies are screened for most and also likely have more items on the “generic” type shirts/hats

[@homeofmyown]

Great content, I appreciate you sharing .

[@ZooyZoborne]

While I would start to take their counterfeit policy into account when sourcing or listing, but I absolutely would not proactively take down items. Just let ebay remove them. Not sure why you would waste your time and lose potential sales. I don't think there is any ding to your account for a handful of items that are removed. Ebay is going to go after the ppl exclusively selling counterfeit or who have items with quantities in the hundreds. Not the resellers who are selling a one off Tshirt.

[@fivefortyflips]

Was easier to just remove it myself and avoid the headaches - plus if they remove a listing you no longer can see the listing thus I wouldn’t have access to the custom SKU location and it’d then waste even more time trying to find the item

[@1960bluebug]

Fix that smoke alarm by stairs!

[@fivefortyflips]

😂 I was waiting for someone to notice

[@MIND9988T]

Thanks for sharing that. 🙏👍🏼

[@fivefortyflips]

Thanks for watching hope it helped

[@bennystratton7734]

Yep same thing happened to Kevin the commonwealth picker and Josh galt ebay is now taking the same stance Amazon did about a decade ago at firsrt Amazon was banning sellers for life like 1000's but when it comes down to it if your selling new items or popular hot items and you.dont have permission from the company to be an authorized reseller which costs like 5,6,7 figures they can and will sue to protect there brand name the platforms are doing what I call protective measures its more to protect the platforms from multi million dollar lawsuits by the brand so if they think you might be a liability thar will cost them money they will drop you like a hot potato no matter if you have 25 years under your belt of full time reselling (like myself) or 1 day of reselling there are no loyalty points given and no one should expect that from these platforms if you do your living in a fantasy world

[@fivefortyflips]

Yeah I hope they don’t become like Amazon but I get corporate America has to protect itself and vice versa as well

[@TheCatD]

Thanks for sharing this is helpful. Pretty soon we won't be able to sell anything bahaha. I know someone else had a harley item removed recently too for the same kinda reason as yours. This helps me to know what to pass on and whatI need to remove that I have listed already.

[@fivefortyflips]

LOL yep that is very true but hopefully that won't be the case - and Harley definitely is one of the main ones that triggers the system!

[@traceyklotz]

I was just gifted about 50 harley iron on patches brand new still in original packaging. they were going to be my very 1st listing. any advice would be greatly appreciated

[@tiktok11150]

If ebay takes things down with the licensing right on it then they should just not let anyone sell anything and just close which is what the big companies want.

[@fivefortyflips]

I don’t think it’ll go that far lol

[@ticktock2383]

Just put a star for one or more letters in the branded name. This is definitely an attack on reselling.

[@fivefortyflips]

Might work, but idk - especially since some of it is coming from the “brand” in item specifics

[@Floopenterprise]

This is why I stick to real clothing brands. all of these items are slow movers anyways that won’t sell for a big profit, better to just avoid them

[@fivefortyflips]

I mean these are real brands, and most are slow yes,but most graphic shirts like that I source I’m buying at approx 25 cents cost due to a couple locations I have to source from - so even cheap slow moving it’s good profit margin

[@fasttalkingflipper]

I appreciate the video. But I CANNOT DISAGREE MORE. Kevin was talking about this in his video and this is exactly why. A lot of the shirts you pulled are fully authorized shirts. Gildan is one the leading suppliers of shirts out there. BMW doesn't produce shirts..... they make cars. They're not in that business. Until recently shirts have rarely been single branded. The reason being is that companies are now using much cheaper product sourced from overseas that will come without tags or branding and then the entity commissioning the shirt to be made will then add their brand as if the shirt was made by them. The perfect example is the Jeep shirt you mention. That dealership has in their licensing agreement that they can use the Jeep logo and name in advertising for their business. They have the legal right to do this through their contract. They can call Mom & Pops T-shirts and have them make as many shirts as they want and Jeep is ok with it. Jeep isn't going to sue Mom & Pops. They're not going to sue you and me for wearing that shirt. The fact that eBay is taking this stuff down is the problem. I understand you had a great rep talk to you. But what was she great at? Lets be honest here...... she was great at BSing you into believing YOU are the problem and not them. She sweet talked you into taking down listings to comply with a policy that goes against what we're trying to do. And that's what Kevin was saying. They need to fix their policy and their product to not damage us as sellers. We need to press back about this instead of folding, tucking tail, and running the other direction.

[@fivefortyflips]

Good talking to you today Max, and congrats again on 1k subs

[@fasttalkingflipper]

@@fivefortyflips thanks man! Glad we got a chance to connect.

[@The_Lazy_Resellers_Farm]

I REALLY want to see the motley crue shirt. You and the other Resellers that have questionable items should come up with some kinda live (off ebay) so we can purchase your shirts. There were advisors a few of your shirts I want. How much for Motley Crue? Even though you didn't open it. Lol

[@fivefortyflips]

😂 ok I’ll try to get a photo posted on the community tab or maybe I’ll break it out in the next video 🙂

[@cryptopooper509]

Fake advertising ?? Free advertising ?? Who gets hurt by a Chevrolet t-shirt ??

[@fivefortyflips]

You would think corporate america would appreciate the support, but I think its about strong arming the little guy with selling products with their names on it....I doubt there's a lot of money in "fake" Chevy shirts lol

[@squirls1025]

The good news is with selling only officially licensed items the prices should go up. I can understand their concern because anyone can get something silkscreen onto a basic shirt and many small companies do this. So making sure it is all branded properly means the prices should increase hopefully

[@fivefortyflips]

Yeah the “officially licensed” thing is the gray area part - cause there are officially licensed items or used with permission items that are created using some of the generic shirts and hats - so it’s one of those things just recommend being safe than sorry since it seems to be a protective mode to remove anything even potentially questionable

[@Chicago48]

A lot of smash & grabs, retail thefts and the mfrs and retailers are cracking down on online sellers.

[@SillyJunkGirl]

T shirts is about the worst thing in the world to pick on. How many t-shirts do you buy on a weekly basis if you're a reseller? Hats as well. With all due respect, they need to Crack down on the company's producing them. What about craft items or patches applied to clothing? Good luck to you, my friend. Your video was informational.

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you, and yes I know not everyone does clothing but if you do, hats and t shirts are usually a go to item. I will admit over this past weekend this information made me pass on a few shirts that I normally would have bought - so it’s just made me rethink some of my buys

[@TheQuirkyPicker_Chad]

good video. thanks.

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you!

[@ljwhitmire200]

When it comes to apparel items the companies themselves don't know what all they've made over the years. I've worked at large companies where we had items made locally that weren't OKed by the corporation. This is especially true for promo items like that. This is such BS. It would be different if you had 1000 of them! :P

[@fivefortyflips]

I agree and the rep even agreed that it’s very gray area - obviously some things being removed may be indeed counterfeit, but many of them are legitimate items (which is why I called in the first place) - she also admitted they’re being “overly cautious” to try and avoid issues - which is why I shared the information, it’s all individual decision on whether someone chooses to list these items and take the chance or not, for me it was a matter of asking myself is an 8.00 potential sale worth the headache and account defects? There’s plenty of other stuff that I can source, list and sell, so I made the choice of trying to remove the headache

[@twozero9]

ebay does not have a room full of people in front of screens looking for infractions. someone reported your ad.

[@fivefortyflips]

It’s not “people” - it’s AI program that is scanning listings and flagging, you can see with other commenters this is a thing

[@brandondeakins564]

It's not really a gray area, it's completely legal and if any of these absurd companies actually showed up in court it would be tossed out. Sure the court costs for us etc obviously isn't worth it, and as the platform ebay can do anything they want, but the companies sending sellers subpoenas are just clowns

[@ethanrico6997]

I’m on my 90th day of restriction as of today. Can’t sell for more then 5 days before getting restricted.

[@fivefortyflips]

Damn that is crazy!

[@tanistramontin4261]

Great video. I just subscribed. Do you think you would encounter the same level of issues on poshmark with these items? I sell media only on ebay. I have some clothing I would like to sell but it would be a small side project. I won't list clothing on eBay because the potential risk of messing up my niche is to high.

[@fivefortyflips]

I can’t specifically speak on other platforms as I’ve only sold on eBay so I don’t want to give false information - I have considered branching to other platforms to try a few different things that I’ve heard sell better than on eBay but haven’t gotten to that yet - I would suspect if people are being served papers by these big corporations though like the rep said that it wouldn’t just be eBay they’re targeting but again I don’t know for sure - thanks for the sub appreciate it!

[@biggbig9118]

Pretty soon you not going to be able to sale anything on eBay if they keep this up I’m really thinking about going to what not soon

[@fivefortyflips]

I’ve been approved to sell on WhatNot for a couple years (signed up to sell sports cards) but honestly have never sold or bought anything on there - I applied early on when they started and at the time it was very confusing how to handle the listings and shipping - i think some things have improved since then but I’ve always enjoyed the eBay platform, I’ve thought of trying a few categories on a different platform but haven’t decided yet

[@vintagehuntressus]

Great info❤❤

[@fivefortyflips]

Thank you!

[@gracecawrse6826]

How about H&M store they do that kind of printing with their H&M Label tag?

[@fivefortyflips]

Since H&M is a store - I would expect those to be fine since they would need to have the rights to create the items or else their entire company would be in trouble

[@sodacityflips]

Great video, man. Very helpful info. Would you mind if I piggyback off of it for my own video? Of course I'll give you credit and link your channel.

[@fivefortyflips]

Thanks man - and go for it, the information needs shared I was glad the lady knew what was going on and the policies and actually shared information with me

[@sodacityflips]

​@@fivefortyflipsawesome. Thanks, bro.

[@HellaZealous]

Maybe Tuesdays so they can hold your funds! eBay is currently holding my available funds :(

[@fivefortyflips]

That’s no good! I guess that could potentially be the case but I’m not sure

[@SillyJunkGirl]

What are they doing for all the thrift stores that sell all the stuff.

[@fivefortyflips]

I would doubt they’re doing anything - that would be a monstrous challenge to undertake - it’s easier to just browse an online selling platform than it would be auditing all the thrift stores that exist

[@Angie-ElissDee]

I go to a lot of concerts and always buy a lot of merch. Almost all new concert teeshirts I bought are on Golden shirts. I have pictures of me with these bands getting them signed. Are you saying I cannot resell them?? I'm getting ready to open an EBay store to fund my non-profit for the homeless. Last show I went to was Sevendust and Static X. They gave me their blessings to sell them. Any other ideas?? I'm not doing this to get rich...just help some good people in a hard spot.

[@Angie-ElissDee]

Gildan shirts, sorry I was auto corrected

[@fivefortyflips]

I’m not saying you can’t sell them - the video was solely sharing information shared with my by an eBay rep regarding items being taken down and deemed counterfeit - mostly in the categories of t shirts and hats - the Gildan brand is the most common one being removed as it’s a “generic brand” used for many popular companies and other things, and really popular for promotional items - I was simply sharing the information and giving a recommendation to folks to avoid potential removal and negative account activity

[@Angie-ElissDee]

Thank you for the info!! To be honest with all that I've been seeing I am scared to even try ebay....I remember when it was the Go-To place. My husband and I have been buying off the site since the beginning

[@lewissparinlitz4192]

Wow, I think you should be able to do whatever you want to do. After all, you're a nonprofit to help the unfortunate

[@Paulsofsteel]

What should the tag say ?

[@rubyus7332]

If you guys donate those shirts to Goodwill they’ll be listed by others on eBay again 😮😢😮

[@fivefortyflips]

I won’t be donating them back to Goodwill, in fact I hardly even shop at Goodwill anymore - if I donated them there’s other ways so that they could be in the hands of someone that could use them 🙂

[@Ir-of4zn]

​@@fivefortyflipsThose are very nice shirts. Will you lot them up and sell locally like FB Marketplace, Craiglist? You took down quite a bit of inventory... What is your next step?

[@rhondasilva4902]

Can't you just list the name brand of the shirt

[@fivefortyflips]

The representative said that because the brand of shirt is gildan but the graphics are example Chevrolet then it is being flagged as counterfeit - she explained that Gildan is one of the main ones being flagged being it’s a generic shirt used widely for screen printing but in many cases by people making shirts themselves thus potentially using licensed graphics without permission

[@Laurencausey]

@@fivefortyflips I believe this. I've been looking for some band tees for my husband and daughter and noticed a lot of our bands nicer designs just magically appearing in mass available in 'multiple sizes' on multi quantity listings... but these tees haven't been made in years... so I think we have some screen printers making copies. :/

[@Art-ph3tu]

Didn't ebay get sued?

[@fivefortyflips]

I believe that is on a matter unrelated to anything regarding counterfeit or licensing - if I’m not mistaken it’s due to some automotive modification devices that were sold on the platform - nothing I’m aware of though regarding licensed/trademarked issues

[@kb6530]

Haha yeah ai is smart enough to make problems , but not smart enough to fix problems

[@dark_gravity_edc]

I'll have to take nearly every graphic tee I have on eBay down. I have maybe 5 modern t-shirts where the tag is of the company. I'm not gonna pull any of them. I'll deal with it if it comes.

[@fivefortyflips]

If you’re a vintage seller I’d expect you’ll be ok, from what I gathered during the phone call and other information I’ve seen shared around it’s mostly been larger corporate companies and the items with the generic gildan/port & co/delta tags that are being hit - not to say this doesn’t change but I still list FOTL or Hanes just cause those were common on vintage tees - hopefully they can make adjustments and realize Gildan is kinda like the FOTL/Hanes of today

[@dark_gravity_edc]

@fivefortyflips a lot of y2k era stuff is Gildan. I have both wrestling, TV/ movie promo, and band tees from that era. Heck, I bought a t-shirt at the tenacious d concert in September, and it's on a Gildan tag. They're all of the 90s tags under one company, it seems now. The biggest thing I heard to help is getting a clear pic of the copyright info. I've never really thought about it, but I've been doing that. Before I listened, I'd passed on a Y2k Mustang shirt an hour before. It was a Mexico USA material Gildan, but no date or other info. I guess it was God watching out for me.