I don't think "fairly reasonable" inlcudes the gouging by PayPal.

I would rather wait on a check or Money Order than taking PayPal I am gonna lose a chunk on, and whose customer service and resolution department frankly suck.

PayPal sucks ass, to be honest. An eBay moreso everyday, where Cougars are making a killing and honest collectors are getting shilled.

Shingen wrote:I don't think "fairly reasonable" inlcudes the gouging by PayPal.

This is one line of reasoning that I really don't agree with. PP's customer service sucks, yes, but their fees are really not unreasonable. I pay eBay almost twice as much as I pay PP, and PP is the one handling the money.

Blackmoor wrote:I know everybody will hate this but I include a portion of the Paypal fees in my shipping and handling. Paypal has never did a chargeback on me but all this talk about it is making me nervous.

I know I hate it, but not everyone here does.  Perhaps not coincidentally, I only buy on ebay, and have not yet started selling off my odds/ends/extras.

While it's pretty much de rigeur for big corporations to pass all of their costs onto the consumer, I just think it's pretty uncool in the person-to-person context, so long as those costs don't otherwise make it uneconomic for the seller to sell his stuff on ebay.

mbassoc2003 wrote:It is 'uneconomic' to sell stuff on eBay if the seller has to pay for the buyer to complete the transaction. The seller should pay for the display and of the goods and running of the auction (eBay's fees), but it is the responsibility of the buyer to provide the money if he bids on the auction. The seller should not have to pay so that a buyer can complete the contract.

That's disputable, Ian.  (This is Pointy Stick/Zack of DF, thanks again for the White Dwarf DVD!)  When the seller chooses to accept paypal, in theory he isn't assisting the buyer in doing his part-- he's providing a concession to attract the buyer in the first place, one who otherwise might not choose to buy the item.  For example, credit card companies charge stores that accept credit cards.  In theory, the seller eats this because he knows accepting credit cards will facilitate sales.  Likewise, a seller pays rent on a brick-and-mortar store so as to facilitate the buyer coming to him to buy his goods.  Should the buyer pay the rent instead?



The reason I'm not flat-out disagreeing with you is that in most sophisticated markets, in one way or another ALL of the seller's costs of business get passed on to the buyer.  So presumably the cost of rent and credit card fees are reflected in the seller's prices, even if the buyer doesn't get charged a direct tariff at the cash register for rent, credit card fees, etc.



So on that level I shouldn't mind paying your paypal charges.  It's just that when they aren't hidden in the item price, but are baldly demanded (or poorly hidden in "handling fees"  :roll: ), the buyer is reminded that, wait a second, he's not only paying for the item, but the seller's cost of doing business.  And then he starts to feel put upon, even though every time he buys groceries or clothes or movie tickets he's doing the exact same thing.



So I don't see this as a matter of contract completion (Best Buy isn't holding my hand and helping me complete my contract when it takes my credit card) but of pricing structures and strategies.  We'd like to think of ebay as a yard sale, where the seller isn't charging us for the cost of his cardboard boxes and display tables, but ebay has gotten too sophisticated for that, alas, and should now be thought of as any other other commercial sales venue.



(I for one would call it uneconomic for the seller when the cost of selling the item exceeds the sales price of the item, btw.)

Shingen wrote:I don't think "fairly reasonable" inlcudes the gouging by PayPal.

I would rather wait on a check or Money Order than taking PayPal I am gonna lose a chunk on, and whose customer service and resolution department frankly suck.

PayPal sucks ass, to be honest. An eBay moreso everyday, where Cougars are making a killing and honest collectors are getting shilled.

Let me just start by saying I have never had a problem with either eBay or PayPal's customer service and resolution dept. I have also never had the need to use either since every single transaction that I've had problems with has been resolved between me and the other person.

If PP wasn't there, some other company would be offering to transfer your money via the internet for a fee. And if you don't like eBay, you can always go to Amazon, Yahoo or any of the other aution sites. (Yes, Amazon and Yahoo STILL do auctions.) The downfall to that choice would be a dip in your sales as not that many people frequent those avenues.

So the choice is simple: If you hate PP and eBay, don't use them. Eschew them for Yahoo, Amazon and Bidpay. See how far you go in comparisson to where you could on eBay.

Please don't get me wrong. I think that eBay's fees are raising at an alarming rate, but I'll only stop selling on there once a viable and prooven alternative comes along. Until that day, I'll suck it up so I can make some room in my house and a little extra spending cash for my collecting addictions.  

Thanx!

Achizar wrote:This is Pointy Stick/Zack of DF, thanks again for the White Dwarf DVD

For those who haven't looked, I posted a review on Dragonfoot's eviews forum, but I'd be interested in what others think of this archive. I also hear rumours that SPI are going to republish the Ares Magazine Archive.

Wraith, you have never had problems with eBay or Paypal because, as you said, you have never HAD a problem. The evidence is clear. Everyone here, myself included, who has ever had a problem with either one has been met with indifference and abysmal service.

bbarsh wrote:I am constantly trying to adjust my payment and shipping methods to improve my selling bottom line. It sucks, but you have to do it or those pesky fees will eat you alive.

Speaking of which, you haven't accepted my PP payment bbarsh

Achizar wrote:Which is really my point-- we wish ebay were like a yard sale, but it is more like a shopping mall, where you have to pay rent and often have to pay a percentage of your sales (over a certain breakpoint) to the landlord. In the mall, the seller factors the overhead into the product costs. When it's done on ebay, buyers like myself don't like it, but the more we discuss it, the more I can at least understand it.

Doesn't help that we're all working from a different shopping experience paradigm in the first place, either.

That RL mall example actually works better in a UK context where the seller picks up the tab for all invisible costs/off-takes and the buyer pays exactly what's on the price tag. Whereas in some other countries, when someone buys a $10 item, IRL, they actually expect to be charged $10.80, or whatever.