Money Saving Tip for Small-Time Sellers - Paypal Micropayments

Sethro

Hi all.

I came across something about Paypal micropayments in a recent thread and investigated further, and I wanted to share what I found because as a small time seller, this was big news to me.

If you regularly sell items on ebay that end under about $12, you can save some money on fees by opening a new Paypal account and setting it to accept micropayments.

Micropayment fees are 5 cents plus 5%, versus the standard 30 cents plus 2.9%, which can save you a little bit of money over time.

For example, under the standard fee if you sell an item that goes for $2.99 with $2.00 shipping you will pay 44 cents in Paypal fees.

Under micropayments, the fees for that same item would be 30 cents. A 32% savings.

No, this isn't going to make anyone rich, but why not keep that 14 cents for yourself?

It takes about 5 minutes to set everything up.

Paypal Micropayments

ga5150

I like the sounds of this. Would I have to relist all of my cheaper items under a different Ebay username for the new micropayment account? My main Ebay account is linked to my main Paypal account.

vintagechris

A couple notes on this, be careful before you sign up. Even if you sell small $ items, if you have people that win multiple items from you it can quickly add up to you paying more. The best thing to do is go into your Paypal account and check the fees you have paid in the past and what the fees would have been with the micro payments. In my case I would have paid more with the micro payments and most of the items I sell are under $10.

In my case, I have a lot of people who buy multiple items from me so for example, if someone buys $50 with of small $ items from me, my regular paypal fees would be $1.55. With micro payments it would be $2.55.

Also, you can set up two paypal accounts where one accepts micro payments and the other accepts regular Paypal payments, you just have to make sure when you list items, you put the correct email address to send each payment to. A problem having tow different accounts set up is it could cause problems with combined orders. There may be a way around that but I have not looked into it.

mcadams

<< <i>I like the sounds of this. Would I have to relist all of my cheaper items under a different Ebay username for the new micropayment account? My main Ebay account is linked to my main Paypal account. >>



This is my question as well. If this requires multiple ebay seller accounts and multiple paypal accounts, then I'm less interested.

This type of product doesn't seem to fit well with card and memorabilia sellers as many of your items will be higher priced than the tiers described. The product seems to make more sense for someone who only sells very low dollar items in high quantity (and to different buyers). Inexpensive Christmas ornaments or something like that, where a buyer is only going to buy 1 or 2 at a time, and not 50.

Sethro

<< <i>I like the sounds of this. Would I have to relist all of my cheaper items under a different Ebay username for the new micropayment account? My main Ebay account is linked to my main Paypal account. >>



Not at all. All you have to do is put the email address associated with the micropayment account when you create the listing. You may not remember, because it now most likely fills it in automatically for you every time you create a listing, but you are asked on each listing the Paypal address you want to be paid to. Just put in the micropayment address.

And even better, it's not set in stone! If a buyer buys multiple items, or if somehow an item sells for over $12, when you send an invoice just change the Paypal account from the micropayment one to the regular one.