I was looking at the latest message from ebay in my ebay messages and was shocked to see that come october you will not be ableto receive or pay via checks or money ordeer for items you buy/sell. They want you only to use credit cards or debit cards and pay thru paypal or other electronic paying companies.
We’re taking steps to give sellers the most dynamic marketplace on the Internet: reduced upfront cost, optimized exposure, and a more consistent buyer experience to drive more sales. 1. Your Auction-style listings with a low start price are still the best deal on eBay – no change in Auction-style fees!
Plus, we’re introducing a new35¢ Insertion Fee for Fixed Price listings-regardless of the asking price or number of items in the listing-with a 30-day duration and automatic renewal option at no extra cost. For some of your items, this new Fixed Price option may be a great solution.
1. Driving more sales with a more consistent buyer experience We’re taking other steps to ensure buyers keep coming back to eBay:
i never buy anything on ebay if the vendor doesn’t accept paypal , so that doesn’t affect me .
i can see how some or all of those new ‘steps’ will hurt some vendors , mostly the people who are actually selling items they have rather than running a store on ebay like so many of the listings are now
isn’t interesting how every time some big company finds some way to screw the little guy they word the announcement as if they were doing them a big favour ?
I sell stuff on ebay every now and then & I’m OK with what they charge. I’ve sold stuff on ebay (for good money) that I couldn’t give away at local train shows. If you tell me you’re gonna charge me .35 to help cordinate a $50.00 sale to a guy in France I’ll say “Thank you!”.
Let’s be honest. They’re the main game in town (as far as on line auctions). True, there may be sites that charge less or have rules you like better but who ever goes to them?
I won’t deal with a vendor that requires a Payscam account. I’ve used a money order for everything I’ve bought off E-bay and have a 100% feed back rating. I guess I’d be willing to switch to my debit card, but I won’t like it.
I guess E-Bay’s taking a Q from our government. Cater to the big guy and screw the little guy…[V]
I figured that was eventually going to happen one day. I also recently heard a rumor that WalMart, Academy and a number of other businesses are going to stop accepting personal checks and will only accept cash or debit cards as payment anymore.
As for eBay. I’ve never liked having to deal with sellers that only accept money orders or personal checks. I like taking care of the transaction on the spot and getting my item as soon as possible…
Looks like they are trying to curb the fraudulent seller. Most of the changes clearly increase protection to the buyer. The cashed check or MO has no recompense if the seller fails to ship. It is also great news that they are finally doing something about insane shipping and handling charges. I was once a frequent buyer on EBay, but hardly ever use it anymore. It looks like e-Bay is trying to make this a more secure place to purchase items and therefore attract back folks that have been burned and walked away. This is the first time in a long time that the real “little guy” the buyer has been afforded some better protection by e-Bay.
“Sellers will enjoy the benefit of millions of confident buyers as we make the following changes”
I think that this sentence says alot. The site has developed a reputation for being a place to get ripped off. If the buying public is losing confidence in the place and leaving in droves then they need to reverse that trend.
I’ve been eBaying since 1999, mostly as a seller. In my last round of auctions, I specified PayPal only. Getting payment real quick and having the items gone right away are a whole lot more convenient to me that waiting until a buyer gets the time to go and buy a money order then sending it. Some money order users would take several weeks to send their payments, and mail to me here in Canada takes longer to get here than domestic US mail. So instant PayPal payments are a whole lot better. And with all of the Internet scams around, it seems to be pretty easy these days for the criminal types to duplicate money orders, bank drafts, etc.
And don’t forget the cost of money orders, here local banks and the post office charge several dollars for them, and then there is the cost of the stamp to mail them. It all adds up.
Wal Marts already doing a thing where they scan your personal check, have you sign a credit like slip and hand you your check back. My parents worked for Deluxe Check Printers all their lives and made a good living. My brother and I both worked there too. Deluxe is now defunct and tens of thousands of people are out of a job because of the debit card revolution.[xx(]
Mmmmm…the sour stench of progress…
I would agree that PayPal is the better payment method. EXCEPT: PayPal fees to sellers are excessive, and I suspect many sellers add to their shipping and handling to cover those excessive fees.
Ebay does not have much competition. However, Amazon has independant sellers of new and used railroad and model railroad books. Good selction of books, too.
Well, working with small town stores, one of them had accepeted a government cheque as payment for fuel and cigarettes. The difference was refunded in cash to the customer. Making them use a portion of the cheque to buy goods instore is usual business practice around here and government cheques are never bad are they? Retailer deposited the cheque the next day and found out that a stop payment had been issued on the cheque because the cheque recepient had told the issuer they had lost it and had already been issued a second one.
The store is now out the money from the cheque and the goods. And people wonder why stores won’t accept any cheques
I sell all of my weathered cars on eBay. I accept checks, money orders, and Paypal. I have some buyers that use checks only. Now that makes me wonder if I will not get there business anymore. Makes you wonder if you can get around the Paypal only payment. Probably say that you paid threw paypal and still send a check. I guess they wouldn’t know.
Checks only came into being because carrying and sending large amounts of cash became impractical.
Realistically, if you can do the same kind of transactions electronically, why use paper checks? With the advent of electronic bill-paying, checks are rapidly going the way of the dodo.
One of the last barriers was providing person-to-person electronic transfers. I don’t take MasterCard or debit cards myself, but I’m not a retailer, so why should I? But, I’ve got a PayPal account, so in theory I can now accept electronic payments.
How many of us have done away with the expense of our land-line telephones in favor of cell phones? It won’t be long before checking accounts, with their monthly fees, will start looking like opportunities to save money, too.