Sorta OT: EBay Newbie asks if Pay Pal worth it?

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 3:51 pm

I also have used PayPal a few times without problems. I think it's a good service for the occasional seller, but expensive if you sell in large volume.

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 3:58 pm

glauber wrote:I think it's a good service for the occasional seller, but expensive if you sell in large volume.

It's a numbers question. Since a majority of eBay buyers seem to prefer PayPal, your pool of bidders is significantly larger if you offer it. The bottom line question is, how much higher does the bidding go if the PayPal preferring eBayers participate compared to if they don't participate? My seatofpants take is, PayPal pays for itself.

Best wishes,
Jerry

adamm · Post by **adamm** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 4:27 pm

Jerry makes a very good point. Speaking from experience, I find it very easy, when I am shopping on eBay for something I really want, to be a bit more cavalier with my PayPal money than I would be if I knew that I'd have to go get a money order cut with funds taken out of my bank account.

But maybe I'm a special case, because I have a rule that I will only spend money that I receive through PayPal sales of my software. In essence, I never see the money - it's just digits in my PayPal account. So in my personal reality, I can sort of pretend that I'm getting all this stuff for free, like gifts

A note about Jerry - when I bought a tweaked Shaw from him, and asked if I could use PayPal to pay for it, he said yes, and gave me the same price as if I had sent him a check or money order.

As a PayPal seller myself, I know that they always take a considerable percentage of the sale from the seller as a service fee. I offerred to pay the difference for the convenience of using PayPal. It was only a few dollars, but I think this is a courtesy we buyers should always offer to honest, small business-types, who are selling inexpensive items with such low profit margins already. I think it is perfectly fair if Jerry wants to charge slightly more for his services and products for PayPal buyers.

Others might disagree - in fact, even Jerry sounds like he believes the seller is the one who benefits from the convenience. Maybe that's true bidding on with eBay, but with direct, personal transactions, I think the seller should pay at least some the PayPal fee, because it's a convenience for all involved.

- Adam

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:18 pm

Well, I'm still stewin' over this. I just did a search of the book I want to sell and discovered that it's sorta rare. You can get one of two used copies for $48! And here I thought I would be lucky to see $20.

I also was scopin' out how people word their conditions. About shipping rates, bla, bla bla. I gather that you have to specify who pays the shipping.

So Ebay, after I make the sale, just takes a percentage off of the credit card I had to register with them? How do they know that I have received the money?

Anyway, it now may be worth the commission just to run up the price...sigh...I am terrible at Greed 101....I can see that somebody who is just dyin' to have it wants it yesterday, and PayPal must facilitate that because its instantaneous. Sort of like the way I hound Mike Burke for my new whistles when I buy 'em.

I also have a bunch of ol' Underground Comix I want to sell but they don't seem as valuable as I would have thought. One guy on Ebay seems to have a lot of titles and there are 0 bids on em. I guess people swoop in late or something....

Other random thought: will probably sell better closer to Xmas, nestce pas??

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 7:15 pm

I see that you have had your questions answered, but I'll also put in that I use both Pay Pal and ebay. I have not had any problems with either service. Ebay, by the way, automatically debits the card that you sign up with once your transaction is complete... they don't take it off of the payment, they just do it as a secondary transaction. PayPal takes their fees out of the amount the was paid to you on any given transaction.

Did I actually answer your last question?
Erik

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 8:22 pm

I've used Paypal now for about three years and it works fine.
Now, there are issues with using the Paypal shopping cart on your own website.
It's not Paypals fault but here's the deal: Spammers are now harvesting the email address of Paypal users when the SPAMBOTS go over websites.

I use to be able to hide my email from Spambots by having feedback forms but now they're getting it from the shopping cart code. Paypal has been contacted by numerous individuals about changing this to not use the email as an ID. The sooner they change it the better.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 8:40 pm

The Weekenders wrote:So Ebay, after I make the sale, just takes a percentage off of the credit card I had to register with them? How do they know that I have received the money?

They assume you got the money, as per the highest bid. If you don't, you're supposed to tell them (and start the process to put the screws on the non-paying bidder).

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 9:31 pm

Thanks for yet more answers all.

Daniel, that's the whole thing that makes me shrink from this; knowing about spambots and ID theft. I gotta tell ya, setting up my seller's account this morning, where they insist on yer credit card and checking account number gave me the CREEPS. I kept thinking, just because it says Ebay, I still could have been directed elsewhere and not even know it. It was only later that I came across the idea of checking source against display URL and it was too late. I still wonder if I didn't get stolen, but I did receive the confirming email that I was now registered...

Brave new world, indeed.

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 10:15 pm

Lance,

You will get very respectable looking emails from something that looks like eBay asking you to confirm your account information for some reason or other. The thing to do is forward such emails to spoof@ebay.com and eBay will investigate. I get a feeling of satisfaction when those come in and I see them for the scams they are and forward them on to be dealt with.

Best wishes,
Jerry

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 5:43 am

I use PayPal if someone really insists on it. They do charge a fee for their service which I would rather keep in my own pocket, but if a customer really wants to use a credit card, it's better than nothing. For international sales, Busman Whistles International likes it, and finds it often easier than other international options with large bank transfer charges, etc.
99.9% of my sales are for whistles ( occasional other eBay sales of personal property), and I trust the whistle community a lot. I don't ask for payment until a whistle is nearly finished, and usually just send it out when it is ready even if a check has not yet arrived. My mentor, Glenn Schultz tells me that in all the years he has been doing business this way, he has been burned only once or twice. I am a LOT happier being trustful of my customers as I hope they are of me. I think it was Lincoln who said something to the effect " I'd rather be an optomist and be proved wrong once in a while than be a pessimist and be proved right"

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 7:12 am

I went through online credit card payment setup (non Paypal) twice for my day job, and it's a serious hassle. Paypal, on the other hand, is painless to set up and use. I guess if you're going to sell mega volume, then it may be worth it setting up a "real" credit card backend, but who wants the trouble?

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 11:58 am

The fees on paypal are a pain, but as has been mentioned, it sometimes is the difference between a sale or non-sale.

I have thought about using Amazon for some sales of items. They are a slug when it comes to deals gone sour though. Recently had a purchase where the item received did not include the game that was also in the description. Amazon begged out of the difference and said it was between me and the seller. Fortunately the seller finally agreed to a partial refund even after claiming Amazon was at fault for the description fault.

So far not issues with Ebay that I can recall.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Mon Nov 03, 2003 12:32 pm

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 3563776180

Okay, so I was sitting on the fence and decided to try and not do PayPal. I know you will anyway, but tell me what I did wrong. I found the shipping stuff confusing and I still wonder what happens if you send it to Antigua and they say they never got it.... I chose not to sell to MiddleEast or Africa etc figuring possibly poor chances at it arriving without some big hassle.

Just clicked on link. Tell me that the reserve price is NOT listed on your view, please!?!?! it's because I'm the seller, right?

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon Nov 03, 2003 12:41 pm

Right. Presumably, if you log out of your ebay account and then visit your auction, you'll see the auction as anyone else would.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Mon Nov 03, 2003 1:20 pm

The Weekenders wrote:Just clicked on link. Tell me that the reserve price is NOT listed on your view, please!?!?! it's because I'm the seller, right?

It's not showing me the reserve. How much should it be showing?

(Don't answer that.)

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Sorta OT: EBay Newbie asks if Pay Pal worth it?

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