eBay & Paypal Fees

[thecatspajamas]

Also, based on Taylor's actually reading of the TOS, it looks like my own observations (based on personal experience over 16 years of buying/selling on eBay) is technically incorrect. The options from the drop-down on the "Mark Item As Paid" menu are likely intended for those categories where requiring cash/check/MO payment is allowed.

I would suggest though that eBay does not go out of its way to police the payment method used on the back end. I frequently get messages to the effect of "do you accept checks/money orders?" which could have been blocked by eBay in the same way that they block messages containing e-mail addresses or block listings mentioning those as payment options. There also isn't any problem with marking an item as paid with one of those methods that was listed in a category that shouldn't have qualified for them.

I guess at that point, they would be hampering the buyer rather than the seller if the buyer insists on using those payment methods, and eBay has never been one to turn away any sell made within their system as long as the buyer is happy and eBay is collecting their fees.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Also, based on Taylor's actually reading of the TOS, it looks like my own observations (based on personal experience over 16 years of buying/selling on eBay) is technically incorrect. The options from the drop-down on the "Mark Item As Paid" menu are likely intended for those categories where requiring cash/check/MO payment is allowed.

I would suggest though that eBay does not go out of its way to police the payment method used on the back end. I frequently get messages to the effect of "do you accept checks/money orders?" which could have been blocked by eBay in the same way that they block messages containing e-mail addresses or block listings mentioning those as payment options. There also isn't any problem with marking an item as paid with one of those methods that was listed in a category that shouldn't have qualified for them.

I guess at that point, they would be hampering the buyer rather than the seller if the buyer insists on using those payment methods, and eBay has never been one to turn away any sell made within their system as long as the buyer is happy and eBay is collecting their fees.

Ebay doesn't make it easy though, with that drop down menu. I've clicked on check or M.O. several times and then have gone on to try a print a mailing label through Ebay, only to get a message "Can't print mailing label until customer had paid for the item".

Dammit, I just told you they paid for the item........you don't believe me Ebay?

I think at this point this is mostly for International customers though. Believe it or not I still have some European customers who like to send cash through the mail. Makes label making, and payment confirmation a pain.

[GoldenAge50s]

You can make labels in PayPal no matter how you get paid, even from Net54 BST---Just use the multi-order shipping option & create any label to anybody for any kind of pymt. No explaination needed.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s

You can make labels in PayPal no matter how you get paid, even from Net54 BST---Just use the multi-order shipping option & create any label to anybody for any kind of pymt. No explaination needed.

Yes, but it creates a lot of extra steps you wouldn't need if Ebay just recognized the payment to begin with. It also negates any commercial shipping discount you receive through the Ebay system, which can sometimes be a decent chunk on International shipments.

I used to use the Multi-Order shipping tool all the time but have moved over to a combination of Ebay shipping and Stamps.com. The Paypal system was glitching up all the time and never kept up the USPS rate changes in a timely manner.

[thecatspajamas]

Dave,
Did you know that if you're already using stamps.com, you can use the Batch shipping option to pull your eBay order information (including addresses), print the labels, and have it automatically report back the tracking info to eBay and mark the items as shipped?

I've been using stamps.com for years to print my postage (since before Paypal/eBay added the option) because not all of my sales are through eBay, and I like having the standard interface regardless of where I'm shipping to. I also like that it stores the shipping information for much longer than eBay, and keeps all of your shipping info in one place regardless of what platform you sold the item you're shipping on. Recently discovering the ability to import eBay orders was just icing on the cake for me, and saves me a lot of copy/pasting.

Stamps.com may not be for everybody (doesn't really make sense for low-volume sellers), but thought I'd throw that out there since you're already using it.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Dave,
Did you know that if you're already using stamps.com, you can use the Batch shipping option to pull your eBay order information (including addresses), print the labels, and have it automatically report back the tracking info to eBay and mark the items as shipped?

I've been using stamps.com for years to print my postage (since before Paypal/eBay added the option) because not all of my sales are through eBay, and I like having the standard interface regardless of where I'm shipping to. I also like that it stores the shipping information for much longer than eBay, and keeps all of your shipping info in one place regardless of what platform you sold the item you're shipping on. Recently discovering the ability to import eBay orders was just icing on the cake for me, and saves me a lot of copy/pasting.

Stamps.com may not be for everybody (doesn't really make sense for low-volume sellers), but thought I'd throw that out there since you're already using it.

Lance,

Yes, I use the batch on Stamps.com. Very convenient. I still use Ebay shipping for larger boxes though. Better commercial discounts and the sizing and Insurance tools on Stamps leaves something to be desired. Can't beat Stamps for smaller 1st Class packages though.

[thecatspajamas]

Good to know on the bigger packages. Thanks for that tip. I'm typically shipping more smalls and flats, but will definitely keep that in mind for the odd big box. Wish I had discovered the import option a long time ago, as it has definitely sped up the shipping process over the last couple of months.

[tschock]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

I would suggest though that eBay does not go out of its way to police the payment method used on the back end. I frequently get messages to the effect of "do you accept checks/money orders?" which could have been blocked by eBay in the same way that they block messages containing e-mail addresses or block listings mentioning those as payment options. There also isn't any problem with marking an item as paid with one of those methods that was listed in a category that shouldn't have qualified for them.

Totally agree with this. Like you indicated, ebay could catch more of this easily, if they wanted to. They already have checks in place on messages to try and catch email addresses. They could do it for other keywords too.

I just received this yesterday: "i do not have pay pal but i have 628 pos, feedbacks and 0 neg feedbacks i pay with post office money orders can i bid thanks". So if this guy is telling the truth, ya think ebay would have found something suspicious about someone with this many feedbacks (ie buys) that doesn't use paypal, regardless of monitoring message content?

I think ebay's intent is to minimize this as much as possible. And I don't think that 1-2% of the people who still use cash/check/MO are taking a big chunk out of the ebay/paypal pie. So they let it slide. Even for my "nickel-and-dime" sales, ebay still makes a bigger chunk on keeping me rather than shutting me down for a rare, "minor" infraction. If someone was doing this on a regular basis though, might be a different story.