The other day I tried to sell an unwanted book on Amazon. I was told that my seller account had been terminated. I tried to create a new one and was told that I couldn't do that because I already had an account.

Eventually I was told that seller accounts are deleted if they are not used regularly. The process cannot be reversed because it's automated and there's no provision for human input. The solution, they said, was to create a new account with a different email address. So I got a web-mail account at Proton and tried to create the new Amazon account. After answering all the questions, negotiating a captcha, and getting an authentification via Proton, I thought all was well. Then they asked me for my mobile phone number. I don't have a mobile phone. There is no provision for such a shocking situation, so no seller account.

Ebay, here I come!

Interesting! I don't sell on Amazon, so i did not know that they require a mobile phone.

OLD: Papers, please
NEW: Gadget, please

Well, +1 for ebay.

Same with many sites where there is no one to help and a computer to complain to.

This was a topic on a recent episode of a podcast I listen to. If some algorithm makes a wrong decision, there is often no effective way to appeal it.

There's a much easier solution to all this - take the unwanted article to a charity shop.
Result? Good feelings all round.

I do take things to charity shops. But when items are changing hands at £100, I reckon that charity begins at home.

Nice one!

From one evil to another. If you find another place which allows you, the seller, to keep more of your money besides Amazon and eBay post it here. I have many books to sell but Amazon keeps 35-40% of each sale.

Agree. Around my area people are swiping what they can from charity shops, and reselling online. Hard to find good stuff unless you get lucky. That's with just about anything.