eBay drops PayPal as first choice for payments

Huh. I havent purchased off ebay in a few years, but use paypal quite frequently. Will be curious to see how this plays out.
 
Okay, I seem to be missing some important information, or else I'm reading subtext into eBay's statement that isn't there. Is there something wrong with Paypal? Did they make some kind of mistake or bad policy or unlikeable position statement on something recently? Because

EBay said it wanted to complete the move as quickly as possible within the terms of its deal with PayPal.

The e-commerce company said that the operating agreement with PayPal "has not been extended and it will not be extended."
Click to expand...

...sounds like eBay is reacting to something PayPal did.
 
Uh, Ebay owns PayPal so that's an interesting move on their part. I wonder what the real reason is?
 
Oops. I didn't catch that split, obviously. I think I'll do a bit more research before commenting further.
 
Basically the eBay/Paypal split was forced by hedge fund manager and eBay shareholder Carl Icahn, who prompted swapped as his eBay shared for Paypal shares when the split took place. He has now bailed out of Paypal. eBay profited from sellign off Paypal, as did Icahn, so now eBay can simply marginalise Paypal in favour of eBay handling credit/debit card payments, pocketing a share of the fees themselves. This seems like a spectacularly cycnical move - the long-term building up of a brand, selling it off, and then pulling the rug from under that brand.

eBay is claiming that it will mean lower transaction sees for sellers, but I believe them about as far as I could comfortably spit out a rat. Over the years they have progressively screwed small sellers over and over again, to a point where selling a lot of stuff is simply not worth teh bother any more.
 
Checkmite said:
Okay, I seem to be missing some important information, or else I'm reading subtext into eBay's statement that isn't there. Is there something wrong with Paypal? Did they make some kind of mistake or bad policy or unlikeable position statement on something recently? Because



...sounds like eBay is reacting to something PayPal did.
Click to expand...

No, sounds like to me PayPal wanted too much money. The usual business deal as far as I can see. The likes of PayPal and eBay are "profile" names to put into an article so they tend to report their dealings.

Interesting to see if there will be a hit in the value of Paypal - ebay is presumably a big customer to lose.
 
Perhaps Paypal wasn't willing to participate in Ebay's increasingly extortionate, exploitative and downright fraudulent business model. Although maybe not, as they indulge in much the same thing themselves.
 
I wont be changing from Paypal anytime soon.

I see no reason why I need to give my CC details to more than one organisation, thereby at least doubling my exposure to fraud.

Pretty much, if the selling site doesn't have Paypal, I don't buy, and I look for another seller that does.
 
Information Analyst said:
....
eBay is claiming that it will mean lower transaction sees for sellers, but I believe them about as far as I could comfortably spit out a rat. Over the years they have progressively screwed small sellers over and over again, to a point where selling a lot of stuff is simply not worth teh bother any more.
Click to expand...

How are sellers getting screwed over? I'm asking, not debating. I buy things on eBay occasionally, but have never sold anything. How much of the sales price goes to eBay fees? If I buy a second-hand widget for, say, $50, what is eBay's cut? What is the impact on the seller if he offers free shipping vs. charging separately for shipping if the net is the same? Etc.
 
Bob001 said:
How are sellers getting screwed over? I'm asking, not debating. I buy things on eBay occasionally, but have never sold anything. How much of the sales price goes to eBay fees? If I buy a second-hand widget for, say, $50, what is eBay's cut? What is the impact on the seller if he offers free shipping vs. charging separately for shipping if the net is the same? Etc.
Click to expand...

Once in a while I sell on eBay, and I haven't noticed any difference over the years. But then again, I'm not trying to make a living, either. I'm trying to make a few bucks off of stuff I don't want anymore, like overpriced Magic: The Gathering cards.

I must admit I don't like the site very much anymore. When it first started out, it was a cool place. Auctions were fun. Of course, as it grew, businesses started getting involved, and became the norm. Fraud was rampant (although I bought a lot of things and never encountered fraud.) "Buy it now" replaced auctions as the normal way of selling.

But, speaking as a small seller, indeed a very small seller, I don't feel "screwed" by eBay. They still provide a valuable service, and I don't think anyone does it better.

This move to dump Paypal worries me a bit, just because right now, it is just so darned easy to collect money and make transfers through PayPal. Will it be just as easy with someone else?
 
So what does eBay's "prefferred" system mean? It's the sellers who have to accept the payment plan. Except for eBay's fees.
 
casebro said:
So what does eBay's "prefferred" system mean? It's the sellers who have to accept the payment plan. Except for eBay's fees.
Click to expand...

They usually dress it up as you will get extra special protections if you use their prefered options
 
I too have bought and sold on eBay, not to any great extent - probably sold a dozen or so things over the last few years. Never felt screwed over by them or had any real problems with them. Same when I buy, which I do far more often. Very rarely had a transaction that wasn't straightforward and successful.
 
Frankly, Ebay screws over their actual bread and butter — the sellers. I've had Ebay customer service flat out say they will side with the buyer even if the buyer breaks Ebay's own rules regarding returns, for example. But it's the seller who provides all the money through fees that are applied to the seller only and not the buyer.

I can't figure it out, but I have a special (though tiny) hatred for Ebay because of it.
 
smartcooky said:
I wont be changing from Paypal anytime soon.

I see no reason why I need to give my CC details to more than one organisation, thereby at least doubling my exposure to fraud.

Pretty much, if the selling site doesn't have Paypal, I don't buy, and I look for another seller that does.
Click to expand...

There should be a system where you give an organisation a number. That number can only be used once for a specific transaction. Then fraud cannot easily happen.

Of course if the merchant has your card then the current system still works.
 
I haven't used paypal since they fraudulently took $1,000. from my bank account. My bank got it back within days. However, it involved a rare lithograph I sold to a man. It was a certified original print. The buyer informed paypal that he didn't believe the certification was authentic, therefore he was keeping the print and his money.

That was about 6 years ago. I would be happy to see ebay have other options, because I had enjoyed selling.
 
I've bought and sold on Ebay and Gunbroker since 2001.

There are steps you can take on both platforms to protect yourself as a seller but there is no way to protect yourself 100%.

I have one negative feedback on Ebay. It came from a buyer who immediately accused me of "ripping him off" and refused to submit payment for the Randall Made knife he won the auction for and posted the negative feedback. I forwarded his refusal to pay message to Ebay. They did not charge me the winning auction fee but the negative feedback wasn't removed.

On Gunbroker, I had an auction for a particularly rare semi-auto rifle, listed in the fed Curio and Relic list. The winning bid was close to five figures. That's when the fun started. Buyer submitted FFL license that wasn't current. Buyer sent payment via certified check that was never received. By the time it shook out that the buyer couldn't complete the transaction and I notified GB of the non-paying bidder it was "too late" for GB to refund their charge on the winning bid amount, and they did nothing that I'm aware of to sanction the NPB...I took that as a lesson and from then on any auction I list on GB requires the winning bidder to either do a wire transfer or payment in full via paper within 96 hours of the auction closing.
 
wasapi said:
I haven't used paypal since they fraudulently took $1,000. from my bank account. My bank got it back within days. However, it involved a rare lithograph I sold to a man. It was a certified original print. The buyer informed paypal that he didn't believe the certification was authentic, therefore he was keeping the print and his money.

That was about 6 years ago. I would be happy to see ebay have other options, because I had enjoyed selling.
Click to expand...

Was that a sale through Ebay? I have returned items I bought on Ebay, but the refund wasn't credited until the item was received by the seller. How could the buyer keep the money AND the print? If that's the policy, it seems like it would encourage rampant fraud.
 
I've pretty much given up on ebay, much prefer alibarba except for local buys, alibarba accepts paypal in most cases. The only issue is many sellers have high minimum order numbers, but a quick search through similar items usually finds a seller that has low MON
As long as alibarba has paypal, I doubt paypal will disappear
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom