eBay and the dreaded PayPal requirement . . .

[JamLazyAss]

When selling an item on eBay, is there a way to accept money order's instead of PayPal?
I don't like using PayPal, and never did. But that's not the point here.
Must I accept it when selling, or is there a way around it?

[Paniolo]

I put in my listings, "Contact the seller for other payment options". Then when you get an interested buyer who contacts you, you can tell them Personal Check, Money Orders, Cashiers Check, Cash, or whatever. I also put in "Paypal users must contact the seller first". Then when they do, I tell them that I am adding 2% (or whatever the fee is) on top of the price to make up for what Paypal takes out. This may incline them to use another form of payment.


Good Luck.

[HV]

I use E Bay a lot... and using Pay Pal is the easiest way to get Paid..it works well and 90% of buyers have it .. Its like Complaining about the MOCO .. you don't like them ... but it works ..the cost of using it is off set by the convenience to your buyers ..

[JamLazyAss]

HV,

How do I even know if I got paid?
Do I keep checking my account balance?
Probably not, but obviously I don't know the process.
Can you help to explain it?
I did list an item and I'm not at all familiar with this.
Thanks.

[fulldress79]

I quit my eBay account after 4 yrs because of this.I wanted to pay by money order.I'm sure others wished to keep it that way.I wonder how many sales this has discouraged.I wonder if the fees from Paypal have offset the revenue from the commisions on sales that have dropped off, especially in a tough economy.I think its a case of bad timing.

[4DWUDS]

What gets me is E-Bay owns Pay Pal, They get paid coming and going. What a racket.

[HV]

HV,

How do I even know if I got paid?
Do I keep checking my account balance?
Probably not, but obviously I don't know the process.
Can you help to explain it?
I did list an item and I'm not at all familiar with this.
Thanks.

E Bay will send you and E Mail  ( To the addy you used to set up the PP Account )something to the effect " You have a payment From XXXXX@XXX.Com  including any comments the Buyer sent with his payment ..and it will show up in your Pay Pal Account summery ..you can then transfer it to your own Bank Account or pay for any number of things on line that use Pay Pal ... on lets say a $25.00 payment Pay Pal may take $1 or less depending on the type of account you have Using it one or two times may be a PITA .. but any more then that and its very usefull

[gryphon]

when selling big ticket items I hate taking paypal because of the fees. However it is fast and I don't spend 10 days waiting for the check to arrive only to have a buyer flake out on me. Once I sold a tranny and the buyer assured me that the payment would be in the mail in a couple of days. After 2 weeks of going back and forth he suddenly dropped out of site leaving me to re-list and still needing the money.

[eglideic]

 You can set up your auction for Money Orders Only or both PayPal and Money Orders, but many, many, many people only want to use PayPal.
And the part about charging extra for PayPal payments is Strictly Verboten and could land you in big trouble.
You can get a Debit Card for free from PayPal.
So I use the debit card for my around town purchases and get cash back to draw down my PayPal balance.

[HIPPO]

IMO it is the only way to fly.

Yes, their fees are very high, but the convenience is priceless, both for the buyer and seller. Makes shipping very easy and sort of keeps track of itself.

Some people say they have problems with it, but I never had even the slightest hitch in many years.
If one is worried about it one can set it up in such a way that any exposure would be minimal.

[Dennis The Menace]

I havent read the eBay agreement lately (havent sold in quite some time either) but is a seller allowed to add a "PayPal fee" to the total sale?  Or, do you have to bury that in the shipping/handling  charges?

Menace

[tomboyjr]

Yes the fees are kinda high. However on 2 occasions I either didnt receive the item or I didnt receive the item I bought-it was damaged or just not the right item. Both times paypal refunded my money. So to me its a wash.

[HIPPO]

I don't know anything about EBay, never use it, too much jacking around. I just use PayPal. There typically is no fee to the buyer, all the transaction cost goes to the seller.

[madskillsjc]

Yes you have the choice to accept any formm of payment you choose, you can accept money orders, checks, paypal and if you have an account credit cards. No you can not add fees to cover the paypal fees, this is against ebay rules.

It is personally the fastest and easiest way to be paid, the money is directly deposited into your account and can show up very quickly versus waiting for the mail and then going to the bank, in most cases it's worth the cpl bucks that it saves me in time and aggravation

[JamLazyAss]

HIPPO,

Your Hippo picture resembles my LazyAss Picture 
Good choice !
Maybe someday you can be a HippoLazyAss...

[HIPPO]

My ex wife is way ahead of you. Like by 15 years or so.

[Lew]

I've been buying and selling on ebay for just over ten years now.  I've seen it all, and have learned to hate ebay for their tactics and manipulation to insure higher profits for themselves.  They are trying to lock all who use them into their rules and regs while all the time touting that it's for the making of a better, safer ebay experience....bull.  It's for the betterment of their profits....period.  They will allow you to state in your item description the various payment methods accepted by you.  In January they will disallow this and will pull any auction or sale that states any other payment method other than *their paypal.  Trying to work with paypal is a joke when trying to rectify a mistake or auction issue.  Ebay has become all about greed and has walked all over the very people who got them where they are today.
Lew       

[egstandard]

I had a few items I was listing the other day. I didn't know that you must now accept paypal from buyers. I didn't list them and am now officially done with ebay. Screw em.

[gtmalone]

paypal works great - get your money right away if selling, if buying can pay via your cr card or bank account.  The fee definitely offsets any hassles of waiting on money orders or checks (how do you know they are good until you get them?).   I wouldn't do it any other way.  I've steered clear of sellers that won't accept paypal.  Never had one problem with paypal.  I'm not a big ebay'er, done about 30 transactions buying and selling stuff from a few bucks up to about a thousand.

[Mark222]

I find paypal the way to go, buying or selling.  I will even look past sellers items that don't take PP.  Getting a M.O. is too much hassle for me when I can pay now online with PP.  But that's just me.

Mark

[HarleyguyFLHRCI]

Between my personal ebay account and he one I run at work, I done well over 700 transactions. I don't need to take off my shoes to count the non-paypal transactions I've done. If you consider the up-to-3% fees charged by the credit card handlers, paypal isn't all that bad. Personally, as a buyer, I don't buy anything on ebay with anything other than paypal. I bought a cell phone from a guy in Texas last Thursday just before noon and received it Monday just after noon. If I'd sent a check or MO, he would have received payment today and I'd be waiting another week. I have put limits as a seller on big ticket items ( vehicles ), accepting paypal for down payment only. Sound like next year I may not be able to do that anymore.
HG

[FLH]

Well, if they make you take paypal for say a big ticket item like a vehicle, then that's just effin bullshoot. 2% of a five figure transaction is large and unjustified. I hope they fade to oblivion if that's the case. I find that Craigslist is a good place to find stuff these days, and you don't have to deal with idiots bidding the price up in a stupid auction. I see why they call it evilbay.

[Ken R]

PayPal fees are about the same as credit card merchant fees.  Every time you use your credit card, the merchant has to give about 3% to the credit card company.  It's how they stay in business, write off bad debts, and provide airline miles.

If you don't want to pay PayPal fees, don't get a "commercial" account.  But there ARE drawbacks.  You can only accept PayPal payments that are funded by cash in the purchaser's bank account or cash in their PayPal account.   You will not be able to accept a credit card-funded payment.  This makes perfect sense since PayPal has to pay the credit card fee when it is used. 

The only other thing is that PayPal has a limit on how much money can be received by a non-commercial member.  I think it's $400 per month.  This precludes selling anything that costs over the limit or any combination of things for which the sum is over the monthly limit. 

You can have up to 2 email accounts with PayPal.  You can have one that is a commercial account (with a 3% fee for every transaction) and a second for personal use with which has the limits and drawbacks noted above.

Ken

[ModelABob]

I like "greed"-Bay.  I have bought a lot of neat stuff through it and fortunately I've only been screwed once for a small item. I'm not positive, but I think the 'Bay has relented on the PayPal only concept by allowing checks and
money orders.  BUT, you have to have a PayPal account to sell and can only advertise that you accept PayPal.  If you
email the seller and ask if they will accept either a check or m/o and they do then you can pay that way.  EBay tried
the PayPal only crap in Australia and got stopped cold by the govt. there. I'm not positive on what I have relayed about checks & money orders to ya', but it is what I've picked up reading what sellers say in the info. with
what they are auctioning.

AMF/Ride Safe

[76shuvlinoff]

I recently purchased a nice benchmade folding knife on ebay, paid immediately and the seller disappeared.  I waited the appropriate time, keep sending notes to the seller so I had things documented then filed a claim.  Paypal quickly refunded all my money. For speed, convienience and protection I prefer Paypal over other methods.

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