I think that a lot of the problem is because ebay is no necessary to collector's and seller's (despite whatever grumblings people may have).

Ebay and Paypal rules and fees are up front. Their policies are there for anyone to see (if you bother looking for them, that is). Everything is real straightforward and there is no excuse for griping about "hidden" fees.

But it's just too addictive . . . the massive growth of eBay proves that. Collector's from all fields are able to economically and easily (relatively speaking) complete (or begin) their collections. Sellers (and more importantly those who simply have stuff and have no way to get rid of it) finally have a viable outlet.

Remember! Think how much more money everyone would have spent trying to get these items if it weren't for eBay.

Remember! Think how much less you would have gotten if you tried to unload your items at a hobby shop . . . or used book store . . . or (shudder) a yard sale . . .

If you are reselling . . . then you have no excuse to complain. You wouldn't even be in business otherwise. Try opening a game store and see what your overhead is. Wait till you see what the credit card processing fees amount to! Just setting up those dinky little receipt printers and the ability to process credit transactions costs well over $1,000 (I believe it is SIGNIFICANTLY more - I know someone who used to sell these as a job . . . but it was a long time ago and I forget the exact amount).

Of course there are things that could be better. . . but the reason no one walks away is because it is still a better deal than they could get otherwise.

Unlink the account from ebay and just tell buyers that they will be contacted for payment arrangements after the auction closes.

Use of PayPal on eBay


Notice Date: July 14, 2005
Effective Date: August 19, 2005
Beginning August 19, 2005, if you sell on eBay and offer PayPal, your PayPal account must accept all forms of payment including payments made via credit card, regardless of whether you display the PayPal logo with credit card icons. You must have a Premier or Business PayPal Account or be willing to upgrade from a Personal PayPal Account to a Premier or Business Account if you receive a credit card payment. You may not communicate to eBay buyers (e.g. via your eBay item description) that you only accept, or will not accept, specific forms of PayPal payment.

Paypal has a rewards program?

GraysonAC wrote:

jagd wrote:And as a buyer I love it because I pay everything with my Paypal linked Credit card so I get 1% back on everything .

Not for long - the Rewards Points program is being cancelled.

Yes, Paypal has a rewards program. The more you use them, the harder you get porked. You can even qualify for their reach-around program.

mbassoc2003 wrote:If you customer wants to shop on eBay but can't be arsed openning a PayPal account they can buy from someone other than me. I need to know that there is at least a reasonable chance that an International Buyer is legit'.

If they don't have a PayPal account the odds are high that they're gonna either screw me over or be so beligerant that the sale will fall through. My experience of the 'I don't have a PayPal account' bregade is that they are newbies with extremely low intelligence and an attitude problem to go with it.

If you're a seller, withholding feedback until the buyer places feedback is the only mild for of deterant you have against someone screwing you. I buy far more stuff than I sell and I'm happy for sellers not to give me feedback until I've left mine.

Personally, I'm very leary of using Paypal whenever I can help it. The only time I pay with Paypal is if it's for something I REALLY want desperately, and Paypal is the only payment option available to me. Otherwise, I'll go for the money order method of payment (for both paying for, and accepting payment from buyers). I don't have to worry about charge backs or account fraud or hidden fees with Paypal. I don't have to wait for a personal check to clear (or have it bounce). With a money order, it's as good as cash, and there is a low service fee for their processing (about $.75). Good times.

My feedback, and feedback I've left for others shows that this system works for me and those I deal with. And I haven't screwwed anyone over in any deals. One person was a non-payer but that was about it (I didn't get screwwed since I didn't ship the auction out, I was just out the listing fee)

Admittedly, I'm one of those that will not post feedback until the other person does first, to insure that I don't get screwwed. I process transactions as quickly as possible and try to help people. If someone tries to leave neg feedback for that without working with me, I'm gonna be ready for some retaliation if nothing else. Fortunately, this hasn't happened to date, but I'm not gonna take chances either.

bbarsh wrote:Somehow, ebay automatic billing sent out my invoices (53 auctions worth). That part is fine. Problem is more than half the buyers made payment and my old email address (deleted almost 9 months ago) came up as the paypal addressee. So those payments are going unclaimed and have to be resent after the buyer cancels.
...
Some buyers worked fine, but the majority are screwed up.

Not just screwed up but screwed, too, if any of them are international since they will only receive PayPal's reverse exchange rate per my recent note halfway down alternative to ebay?  screw these assholes • Collecting General •  The Acaeum when I sent money to Frank's old account.

Despite the fact it's no fault of your buyers' that their money is in the wrong account and PayPal doesn't provide a facility to shift it to the "correct" one...

Do hope you don't have many international bidders in that batch...

*whistles a happy tune*

GraysonAC wrote:That would explain why my payment is unclaimed then

Which email should I resend it to? (Toss me a PM if you don't want to post the email for a scraper to nab)

Let us know if you get all your money back when you cancel... Shouldn't expect so after my ~$30 loss.

harami2000 wrote:Let us know if you get all your money back when you cancel... Shouldn't expect so after my ~$30 loss.

Yup, got back 100%. I was paying from PP Balance though, which is likely why.

There are much better rewards/rebate cards than crappy Ebay points. Don't they have rebate cards in Canada?

Unfortunately, the Teamster's Union is too powerful up here - the dogsled teams that do our mail delivery complained about the extra burden of all the rebate documentation, so all rebate programs were cancelled.

My PP balance is in $US. PayPal can't, for legal reasons, have my money stored in $CDN. That's why they have to convert it before giving it to us Canuck customers.

You folks over the pond have your balance stored in something other than $USD?