OT: eBay and PayPal

marmot · Post by **marmot** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:18 am

<rant>

I listed items on eBay for over six years before I closed my account last year after a couple of deals went south. I opened a new account this year, and just tried to list an item. To my surprise, eBay requires all account holders who registered after 1/1/2007 to offer PayPal as a payment type. If one does not have a PayPal account (not to mention if one does not want to incur PayPal fees), one cannot list items on eBay! Now, on top of this idiotic move by eBay, PayPal will not allow one to add a bank account or credit card to any PayPal account more than three times. As I opened and closed a PayPal account several times, I can no longer register my bank account with this service; hence, I am unable to list on eBay unless I want to pay even more money on top of their transaction fees to have PayPal cut a check! The idiot at PayPal had to the nerve to tell me that I needed to open another bank account. I told him that I needed to find another Internet payment service, and promptly closed my account.

eBay states that they are forcing new sellers to also hold a PayPal account in order to reduce fraud. My response to this statement is, “BS!” The reason why I closed my eBay account was because I was burned by two sellers who I paid using PayPal. Neither eBay nor PayPal rectified this problem. PayPal was only willing to pay me what they could recover from the sellers’ accounts (eBay said it was a PayPal problem even though they own PayPal). Luckily, I used a credit card to make the payments; thus, I forced charge backs. IMHO, the only reason why eBay is forcing new account holders to offer PayPal is to boost revenue (not to mention that old sellers would leave if forced to offer PayPal as a payment option).

</rant>

kycooner · Post by **kycooner** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:26 am

i understand your frusration,but i will seldom buy off anyone that doesn't take paypal,just more convenient than traveling for m.o

marmot · Post by **marmot** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:48 am

I won't sell anything on eBay using PayPal because they now force sellers to eat the fees. One used to be able to state that one accepted PayPal if the buyer was willing to pay the fees. This move has forced sellers to perform all kinds of gymnastics to recover the fees such as padding shipping costs.

It costs over nine dollars in PayPal fees to sell a three hundred dollar item when a United States Postal Service (USPS) Money Order (MO) for the same amount of money costs one dollar and five cents. Now, here's the kicker that eBay and PayPal do not want the average person to know; namely, USPS MOs are protected by the mail fraud statute. Any crime that involves a USPS MO is an automatic federal-level felony.

DrDan · Post by **DrDan** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:58 am

That's corporate amerika for yah. Keep ripping every dime they can get until the people blow. Then they will wonder why.

ecoaster · Post by **ecoaster** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:29 pm

It was only a matter of time. Get everyone hooked and then hold their feet to the fire. For a $9 fee, I would say screw them, and put an ad in the paper or some other on line classified. Sucks, but what can you do?

marmot · Post by **marmot** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:22 pm

The nine-dollar fee is just for the PayPal portion of the sale. eBay takes two other bites in the form of listing and final sale fees. The market is ripe for a real alternative to eBay.

BigTiny · Post by **BigTiny** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:02 pm

The fees aren't the only problem. They just started to prohibit payment for anything they deem an "assault rifle or assault rifle accessory." You can guess how broad their definition is for assault rifle. So, I'm shopping around for a different service to use. If anyone knows of another good pay service out there, I'd love to hear about it.

huntin1 · Post by **huntin1** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 7:27 pm

I use paypal only when I have no other choice. For any firearm related purchase I use these guys:

GearPay

While I don't like the way that ebay and paypal do certain things, I am often forced to use them. Either that or do without some of the things I want and can't get here in ND.

huntin1

BigBird-VA · Post by **BigBird-VA** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:41 pm

The real Ebay is long gone. Today it's mostly super sellers with a Ebay Store selling the item below retail but overpriced shipping making it just about the same. The used item by an individual being the norm is gone. Throw in a fee for everything and no real support if it goes sour while you're at it. It's now better to buy on line at anywhere but Ebay. My Ebay numbers have trickled down to nothing per year recently. Shame that greed has ruined another good thing.

dw · Post by dw » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:49 am

ever run an ad in a local paper. some run upwards of $20.00 per week. how many people do they reach, not near as many as ebay. i just check the seller or buyer's feedback. i have bought and sold over 120 items on ebay and have not been burned yet.
"dw"

Pydpiper · Post by **Pydpiper** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:01 am

I have had pretty god luck with EBAY/Paypal as well. You can sometimes find decent stuff on there that is reasonably priced. I just bought some stuff to make an electronic animal caller (works great too!) and managed to get it done for a lot less than a hundred dollars. I also buy a good percentage of my arrow and bow supplies there. You have to look hard, but the deals are still there among the junk.

marmot · Post by **marmot** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:33 am

eBay was most definitely a better place to buy and sell in 2000 than it is in 2007. IMHO, it is yet another victim of success.

LV2HNT · Post by **LV2HNT** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:26 am

I bought my muzzle loader a couple years ago from a site called gunbroker.com. It is a lot like e-bay in that the items are auctioned off unless you chose to pay the buy it now price. The process was very easy, quick, and painless. I was a little sceptical about the whole thing but the seller helped put me at ease and was very informative. I would definately recomend them as an alternative to e-bay. I just checked it and it turns out that they have an archery section filled with excals and accesories. Hope you guys find it usefull.