Auction Results - Business vs Personal PayPal Account

moosesr

Does anyone have experience on whether you get higher auction bids when you accept credit cards on your PayPal account? I am approaching my limit on my personal PayPal account and wondered whether to make the change to a Business account or just quit taking PayPal for the rest of the 30 day time period (9 days). If PayPal business accounts were only charged a fee for credit card transactions and not for all transactions, I would change to the business account immediately. Any comments will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie

goose3

I think you might see alot of people migrating back to accepting money order/cashier's checks. I have the free account and will never upgrade it again.

Like you said, it wouldn't be so bad if they only did it on the credit card transactions but they choose to hose people on ALL transactions.

jbsteven

Paypal is providing a service. we can choose to use them or not. Personally I choose the convenience and it increases my sales and the speed at which I get to turn my inventory.

goose3

JB it probably does for someone that sells alot and often......but for someone like me that sells very occasionally it's not worth 3%.

baccaruda

Personally, I'll never bid on a non-Paypal auction again. I bid on a couple auctions and didn't see that they didn't take Paypal. I had to go get cash, find a place that sold money orders, wait in line, and then pay for the M.O. myself. It definitely wasn't worth the trouble.

BigD5

Charlie,
On bigger ticket items, I've seen a difference. On items under $500, it doesn't seem to come into play. Depending on the volume of material you are selling, Paypal almost becomes a necessary tool.

BAJJERFAN

The post office sells money orders; some folks won't take the grocery store kind because it could have been stolen. You can have two paypal accounts one personal and the other premier. If you sell on eBay I believe the transaction automatically defaults to the premier account. There is a flat $5 fee for echecks which is good for items over $200. On a $1500 item the eBay/PayPal fees will whack you $90 too high a price to pay for me.
Anyone know how easy it is to reverse or deny a PayPal transaction?

rlawsha

As a seller and a buyer I use PayPal quite often. Yes, it is not without cost but I think it is worth it. I think that any PayPal fee I have to pay as a buyer is more than made up for in sales volume. You may not like it but it works.

DennisH

Reversing or denying a PayPal transaction is very easy.

And the one time I made a PayPal payment and the seller didn't ship the coin or answer e-mails for a month, my complaint triggered an immediate freezing of the scum-bag's funds until he sent the coin and I sent the all-OK message.

baccaruda

I would think just the opposite is true concerning bigger ticket items. If I were about to shell out $1,000+ on a coin I'd have no problem getting a MO. But on this $30 item I bought over the weekend I've gotta run all over town getting a MO so the seller can save $2 - never again.

MatthewBabcock

Total Amount: $625.00 USD (Paid me within 30 minutes of the sale)
Fee Amount: -$18.43 USD
Net Amount: $606.57 USD (Instantly available)

Total Amount: $1,031.09 USD (Paid me within 5 minutes of the sale)
Fee Amount: -$30.20 USD
Net Amount: $1,000.89 USD (Instantly available)

These are the two sales that I had this week. I consider the speed and ease of conducting the transactions when keeping my account.

I didn't have to wait for days/weeks for payment to get to me... I didn't have to wait until I could make it to the bank to make the deposit... I didn't have to wait until the MO or check were to clear or post....

I consider my time more valuable than the fees I paid for these transactions. Its a cost of doing business...

This has been spoken by someone who is a buyer 90% of the time and a seller 10% of the time.

Matt

291fifth

I expect to see a movement back to cashier's checks/money orders only in the coin catagory. The margins for many coins are not sufficient to justify the eBay and PayPal fees. Collectors are used to dealing without using credit cards so I expect that this will not hurt realizations enough to make a difference. Some forum members claim that they will not bid unless they can use PayPal. They will increasingly be shutting themselves out of the best auctions.

jbsteven

<< <i>They will increasingly be shutting themselves out of the best auctions. >>



I have to disagree with you on this. I do not bid on auctions that do not take Paypal. I hardly ever run into a coin that I do not bid that I want because they don't take Paypal.

BAJJERFAN

<<"I would think just the opposite is true concerning bigger ticket items. If I were about to shell out $1,000+ on a coin I'd have no problem getting a MO. But on this $30 item I bought over the weekend I've gotta run all over town getting a MO so the seller can save $2 - never again.">>

Agreed, but at what point do you draw the line. I am at best an infrequent seller so I base my decision on what it is I'm selling.

291fifth

<< <i>I would think just the opposite is true concerning bigger ticket items. If I were about to shell out $1,000+ on a coin I'd have no problem getting a MO. But on this $30 item I bought over the weekend I've gotta run all over town getting a MO so the seller can save $2 - never again. >>



"Run all over town"? What kind of town do you live in? I can get a USPS, Western Union or Traveler's Express Money Order within a few blocks of my house. The USPS money orders can be bought any day but Sunday and the others can be bought 7 days a week. When I hold auctions I try tpo keep shipping to an absolute minimum. I find that his more than makes up for the inconvenience of having to get a money order. The auctions I won't bid on are those that have shipping fees that obviously have the eBay and PayPal charges built in. Unfortunately, these are becoming more common all the time.

baccaruda

I didn't have $30 cash on me, so I had to go to the bank, then to KMart - and I had to wait until Saturday to do it since I work during the day. I hate KMart. It cost me and extra $1 for the MO, 37¢ for the stamp, several days of extra time waiting.

Now if it was a $500 item I wouldn't have any problem getting a MO so the seller could save some bucks.


What I do is offer Paypal on my auctions to keep up the bidding and then e-mail the winner that if he pays with MO or cashier's check he can deduct (1/2 of my Paypal cost) from the purchase price. This is what I did when selling those 1999 Silver sets - and several people took me up on the offer. This effectively cut the Paypal fees in half while keeping the final bid price up because of the Paypal option.

291fifth

On cheap items I accept personal checks if the buyer seems on the up-and-up. I have gotten two bad checks on eBay, both from dealers. Both quickly made good, including my bank fees. Every transaction on eBay carries some risk with it. I expect to have a problem that costs me money about once in 100 transactions. I've been on eBay long enough, as both buyer and seller, that I have a good feel for risk. I last got taken last September but quickly changed my method of operating to eliminate that type of risk again. Since that time I have had well over 100 transactions without any problems. You get into trouble when you get sloppy and ignore red flags.

baccaruda

I've done probably 500+ transactions on Ebay over the last 4 years - no problems yet, knock on wood.

Dog97

In my own mind I think it makes higher bids, especially on the cheaper stuff where the buyer can go click click it's paid for instead of running all over town. I say running all over town because when I have to get a money order I have to go by the bank to get the cash then go by the post office to buy the MO. I don't get mo's at my bank because my bank charges $5 for a money order. I also work out of town so it's hard to get off work & do all that by 4:30 pm which is when the PO closes.
I don't bid less because a seller doesn't take PayPal but I may take longer to pay him. For example if I bid on an auction ending Thurs night and go to bed before it ends I don't check my email till I get home Fri night then next week I'm out of town & working late again it may be Tues Wed or Thurs which is 1 week before I actually even mail the money. If you don't mind waiting then it's fine with me.
And BAJJERFAN is right; a no-name brand MO from the grocery store or gas station is just like a personal check.

tlhoy

95% of my auctions end with someone paying with PayPal.
40% is a CC payment thru PayPal.
70% of the time I get paid within 2 hours (most of them within minutes) with PayPal.
The longest I ever had to wait for a PayPal payment is 30 hours.
I say that beats waiting 2 or 3 weeks for a check or money order.

One more thing, if you don't take PayPal, I WONT BID ON YOUR ITEMS.
Less bidders mean less $$$$$$$$$!
My shipping charges are $1.50 in the U.S.(no matter how many coins you buy from me.) I only sell about 5 to 25 coins at a time.
$4.00 Worldwide
Glenn

flaminio

<< <i>"Run all over town"? What kind of town do you live in? >>



For me it's three speed bumps, six stop signs, five stop lights, and two freeway exits to my post office. Once there, you get the fun of waiting in line for the MO. That's assuming I have the cash-on-hand -- otherwise a stop at the bank or ATM is necessary first. MOs are an absolute PITA and I won't do them unless it's a must-have, gotta-get coin and the seller takes nothing else.

I don't have the patience for checks -- too much writing, too long to wait with mail transit times and holding periods.

PayPal -- click click click done. You just can't beat that. I now include the "&pt=2" switch in all my eBay searches -- this shows only auctions that accept PayPal. The others I won't even see, so I won't be bothering you with my bids.

tlhoy

"or just quit taking PayPal for the rest of the 30 day time period (9 days)."

If you don't want to upgrade your account, how about just not listing anything for 9 days. That will work.
Glenn

moosesr

Glenn, I think I will just wait the nine days like you suggested or sell without listing PayPal. I usually sell right around $1000 or less per month, but I could lower the number of auctions and still sell enough items for my purpose. I just wondered if the additional fees of around $30 for $1000 in sales would be worth it to get more and higher bids on my coins.

I have been accepting PayPal from bank accounts only and about 30 percent of my sales have been thru PayPal.

I have been having a problem with people trying to pay with a credit card even with it stating in my auctions that I don't accept credit cards through PayPal. The way PayPal is shown on the auctions it makes the bidder think that if you have a PayPal account you automatically take credit cards.

Charlie

tlhoy

The way PayPal is shown on the auctions it makes the bidder think that if you have a PayPal account you automatically take credit cards.

Yea, you get that little PayPal sign & all those little CC signs come with it. That blows!
They need to fix that.
Glenn

moosesr

Hey Matt, You paid almost $50 in PayPal fees on two sales plus eBay FV and listing fees, I feel lucky when I make $50 on one of my sales. But, I usually don't sell items over $300 in value.

Charlie

291fifth

You folks are right about the no-name money orders...they are pretty much considered to be personal checks.
Also, thinking about the bad transactions I have had on eBay, most didn't involve coins at all. Two involved books and another art supplies and yet another CD's. Bad coin related transactions have actually been quite rare.

BAJJERFAN

Well the big concern with the no name money orders is that a store employee could steal them and you might have to cough up the dough if you accept one. My local grocery store sells the Travelers brand, but if the thing gets lost there is a 30 or 60 day wait plus a hefty fee to get your money back. I will pay with paypal but am a lot less receptive to taking it. If you ever got audited by the IRS and they went thru your bank statements and saw 200 PayPal transfers into your checking account they could get very curious; indeed they could.

Conder101

Moosesr, open a second Paypal account, You can use one for credit cards, and keep the other one on the free personal plan. You can put in your auction in big letters that you take Paypal but don't use ebays Paypal option. instead send in you contact emails the two paypay address clearly marked as credit card ONLY, and NO credit cards. You will still have some problems for people too dumb or too lazy to read trying to use the wrong one but it should take some pressure off your free account and keep you from being charged fees on ALL of your paypal receipts.

Barry

You will still have some problems for people too dumb or too lazy to read trying to use the wrong one

I've tried that. Very hard to do and have buyers get it right. Too many of my bidders have IQs less than 90...

Dave99B

Too many of my bidders have IQs less than 90...

Understatement of the CENTURY.

At the end of my last round of auctions (10 or so auctions) two people sent me their VISA card numbers in an email! What the ......?

Dave

jakebrake77

I don't have that problem on ebay, as I have only bid/bought coins on the site. I have never sold. The first thing I do when I see something I'm interested in is go to the payment options and if they won't take my personal check, I don't need the coin. I'm a collector and have learned to be patient in my acquisitions.
If the seller can't be patient as well, oh well. I thought that was what feedback was for anyway.
An evaluation of the purchaser?