eBay & Paypal Fees

[toledo_mudhen]

I did a quick calc on a recent sale on eBay and it comes out that eBay charges a full 10% on the sale and Paypal charges another 4.3% for me to receive payment.

So a couple of things come to mind :

How does this compare to whatever alternative auction services

and

If I were an eBay "power Seller" - how much would the percentage decrease

14.3% just feels like a bit much for me...........

[m.wright58926]

PayPal actually charges $0.30 per transaction plus 2.9% of the value...so the total % is impacted by the amount of the sale. When you calculate the % on lower dollar items, it's discouragingly high. At $5, the total PP fee is 8.9%, on top of the ebay 10%...

[GregMitch34]

I thought that on a, say $100 or $300 item or so, the total charge was 10% ebay and about $3 pay pal so equals about 13%, right?

[m.wright58926]

Yep, as the sale amount gets higher, the impact of the fixed fee is reduced. The total PP fee on $100 is 3%, just slightly above their value fee of 2.9%. The eBay fee is a constant at 10%.

[prestigecollectibles]

I have an Ebay store which gives me a final fee of 9% on most items and I am a top rated seller which gives me a 20% on final fees.

[thecatspajamas]

If you have sufficient sales volume with Paypal ($10k+ per month) you can also get your PP fees down to $0.30 + 2.2% per payment received.

So at best, with an eBay Store, Top Rated Seller status, and $10k+ per month Paypal transaction volume, you can get your fees down to $0.30 + 9.4% per transaction.

You really have to keep on top of it to maintain that 20% discount though. Your average, low-volume seller is going to pay $0.30 + 12.9% per transaction. And in both cases, the percentage applies to any shipping fee you charge as well.

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by prestigecollectibles

I have an Ebay store which gives me a final fee of 9% on most items and I am a top rated seller which gives me a 20% on final fees.

Me too...Which I think is pretty fair considering the number of people get to see my items.

Jeff

[Acollector]

Originally Posted by toledo_mudhen

I did a quick calc on a recent sale on eBay and it comes out that eBay charges a full 10% on the sale and Paypal charges another 4.3% for me to receive payment.

So a couple of things come to mind :

How does this compare to whatever alternative auction services

and

If I were an eBay "power Seller" - how much would the percentage decrease

14.3% just feels like a bit much for me...........

I sell on Amazon, not ebay because I mostly hate ebay and wish there was a true competitor. Unfortunately Amazon actually charges more, but besides that I like selling on Amazon better. To see the fees, check an email I received from them after a sale last week below. It's not cheap. It's a waste of time selling $1.00 to $5.00 items on any of these websites unless you really don't want to throw away the item. It's a shame you can't sell on craigslist like the way you can on Amazon and ebay with that national exposure. When someone buys something from me, I offer making future sales off the site for less and accept checks and money orders. I still don;t get how ebay has not been sued for banning cash, money orders, and checks. They got sued in Australia and have to allow it.

Dear Thegoodoldboys,

Congratulations! You just sold an item on Amazon!

Please note you agreed to ship this order no later than 11/19/2013. Keep in mind you are responsible for the item until it reaches the buyer at the address provided in your seller account. We recommend purchasing insurance for high value shipments.

After you ship the order, return to your seller account to confirm shipment. If you do not confirm shipment of the order within 30 days, Amazon will cancel the order, and you will not receive payment for it.

Please see the remainder of this e-mail below for more information about shipping and confirming your order.

Order ID: 105-0864878-6268233

Please ship this order using Standard shipping.

Ship by: 11/19/2013
Item: 1993 NHL Hockey Kenner Starting Lineup Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh Penguins
Condition: Collectible - Like New
Condition note: Check scan for condition. If there is more than one available, buyer gets best available.

Listing ID: 0722MQD2GGP
SKU: 9U-O3E0-Y2L4
Quantity: 1
Order date: 11/15/2013
Price: $99.99
Amazon fees: -$20.45
Shipping: $4.49
Your earnings: $84.03

[glchen]

Originally Posted by Acollector

... I still don;t get how ebay has not been sued for banning cash, money orders, and checks. ...

You can accept cash, money orders, or checks on ebay, and in fact, I've received payment via all of these methods from ebay sales. (Yep, I've had people send me cash in envelopes before.) You just need to setup your listings to not require paypal accounts from the buyers, and you're good to go. There is less protection for buyers this way however, because there's no way for ebay to confirm that the buyer really did send the funds. I still prefer paypal payment and the 3% fees because I prefer to receive the payments much faster rather than have to wait to see if I get the payment through the mail. One time a money order payment got lost in the mail, so it was a pain to try to keep checking to see if I got it, but it never came.

[Acollector]

Originally Posted by glchen

You can accept cash, money orders, or checks on ebay, and in fact, I've received payment via all of these methods from ebay sales. (Yep, I've had people send me cash in envelopes before.) You just need to setup your listings to not require paypal accounts from the buyers, and you're good to go. There is less protection for buyers this way however, because there's no way for ebay to confirm that the buyer really did send the funds. I still prefer paypal payment and the 3% fees because I prefer to receive the payments much faster rather than have to wait to see if I get the payment through the mail. One time a money order payment got lost in the mail, so it was a pain to try to keep checking to see if I got it, but it never came.

How many buyers are willing to pay by cash, check, or money orders? Also if you post in your description you accept those forms, ebay will cancel the listings, so yes it is possible to accept them, but ebay doesn't allow it. The non Paypal requirement is if you have a merchant credit card account, so yes you can accept those payments, but ebay makes it online payments only. Ebay has brained washed their sheep to think the cash, checks, and money orders contain cooties and they will get robbed for sure if they send them. I prefer the other 3 classics for a couple of reasons. I think it as a major conflict of interest that ebay has paypal. If they are going to require Paypal, then it should be no Paypal fees for an ebay sale since there are seller fees. If Paypal payments are made elsewhere, I can understand the fees.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by Acollector

How many buyers are willing to pay by cash, check, or money orders? Also if you post in your description you accept those forms, ebay will cancel the listings, so yes it is possible to accept them, but ebay doesn't allow it. The non Paypal requirement is if you have a merchant credit card account, so yes you can accept those payments, but ebay makes it online payments only. Ebay has brained washed their sheep to think the cash, checks, and money orders contain cooties and they will get robbed for sure if they send them. I prefer the other 3 classics for a couple of reasons. I think it as a major conflict of interest that ebay has paypal. If they are going to require Paypal, then it should be no Paypal fees for an ebay sale since there are seller fees. If Paypal payments are made elsewhere, I can understand the fees.

Ebay DOES allow you to accept checks and money orders, they just don't allow you to SOLICIT payment by those forms. Any text in your description that looks like you're soliciting those forms of payment will get your listing cancelled (or denied upload in the first place). If the buyer requests to pay with one of those forms though, it's okay, and eBay even has an option in the drop-down menu when you go to mark an item as "paid" where you can specify that payment was with a check or money order.

There are still a few old-school buyers who pay for everything with money orders, and even fewer who will pay with a check and don't mind waiting for it to clear. My experience has their number at around 1-2% of buyers paying with something other than Paypal though, and for some reason those also tend to be the cheaper items (perhaps even old-school buyers want that "Buyer Protection" on the more expensive items?)

As for the legality of requiring a method of payment (Paypal) that their company also controls, they get around that by allowing sellers to also specify other similar payment methods (ProPay, Skrill). Of course, nobody actually uses those options, but they are still options so from a legal standpoint, it's not a monopoly. You can also specify in-person payment/pickup, which will also kill your sale potential, but again that's beside the point legally speaking. That's all from a lay perspective, and there may be some argument for a de facto monopoly that could be made, but I would imagine eBay's legal team have things sewn up so that they are protected from any unfair business practice lawsuits, whether their practices seem fair to the average user or not.

[tschock]

Removed after reviewing ebay's accepted payment policy.

[tschock]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Ebay DOES allow you to accept checks and money orders, they just don't allow you to SOLICIT payment by those forms. Any text in your description that looks like you're soliciting those forms of payment will get your listing cancelled (or denied upload in the first place). If the buyer requests to pay with one of those forms though, it's okay, and eBay even has an option in the drop-down menu when you go to mark an item as "paid" where you can specify that payment was with a check or money order.

Lance,

I thought the same thing too until I went back and re-read the policy.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/methods.html - Other payment methods

Checks, money orders, and bank wire transfers aren't allowed for most eBay purchases.

But sellers can offer these payment methods for certain items in some categories, including Motors, Capital and Business Equipment, Real Estate, and Adult Only.

There full list of what categories is allowed is would not cover cards. I was going to point out selling a car for cash (on pickup) in my previous post, but cash on pickup/deliver is explicitly allowed.

[Acollector]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Ebay DOES allow you to accept checks and money orders, they just don't allow you to SOLICIT payment by those forms. Any text in your description that looks like you're soliciting those forms of payment will get your listing cancelled (or denied upload in the first place). If the buyer requests to pay with one of those forms though, it's okay, and eBay even has an option in the drop-down menu when you go to mark an item as "paid" where you can specify that payment was with a check or money order.

No they do not allow cash checks or money orders on MOST items sold on ebay. They want most items to be Paypal or online payments because they are trying to be like Amazon. If they want to be like Aazon, I'm surprised they have not eliminated auctions.

I never said Paypal was a monopoly, I said Paypal is a conflict of interests since ebay owns them and you are already paying a final value fee to them. If you pay to list and get paid via paypal, you end up paying 3 fees to ebay. Ebay has made it close to impossible for a seller to accept any type of payment he or she wants if it is not electronic (with the obvious exception of having a merchant credit card account to accept credit and debit cards), but no one has taken ebay to court here over it. How many buyers really pay with any other form besides Paypal? Ebay bullied sellers into accepting Paypal and it's really at the point of no return. You can't force a business to accept cash, but if I sell something to you, you and I are doing business through ebay, but you are not doing business with ebay, I am, so it should be up to the seller what form of payments he or she will accept. You aren't paying anything to ebay to buy anything from me. I am paying ebay to sell to you.