I’ve had a paypal account for about 2 years now with a couple hundred transactions. Love it, never had a problem with it. Cheaper for me as a buyer than paying for a money order or cashier’s check. Of course I get about 5 phishing emails a month with subject lines such as “Pay pal account suspended” etc. Just delete those emails as they are folks trying to get info for fraudulent purposes. (It is funny though to see how bad the grammer is on those emails).
I do see some folks here saying that their ID has been stolen a couple times each etc etc, but without any details it is hard to determine if those incidents were the fault of paypal or the user.
As to fees - as they only charge fees to the seller, I don’t have a problem of using it. If the seller is OK with paying fees, then I am also. If a store will accept credit cards there’s a fee there too. As I am looking at selling some stuff in the near future, I do think I will use paypal. Yeah I have to pay a fee, but I think it would be a lot easier than accepting a check or money order, getting to the bank to deposit it and running the risk of having it bounce (yeah money orders can bounce too if the purchaser of it cancels it before you cash it). I certainly do not want to get a merchant account from a bank to accept credit cards, seems like too much of a hassle for casual selling.
Of course in today’s world nothing is safe. What was that latest thing? 40 millions credit card numbers, security codes etc stolen from that one financial entity? To me that is much scarier than pay pal.
As a seller, I do prefer PayPal above anything else. Auction ends, get quick payment by PayPal, ship out item next day. Auction done. No waiting for 2-3-4-5-6 weeks for money order to arrive. Their speed makes their fees worthwhile.
As a buyer I prefer PAYPAL but I will get a BANK MONEY ORDER if I want the item bad enough. If you are uncomfortable or uneasy with PAYPAL then don’t use it that’s what I tell friends. My experience with postal money orders are so-so: I had one I sent (US funds) that the seller’s bank were going to charge him a $20.00 fee to process it due to the fact the teller had never seen a Canada Post money order and was leery of it due to mail fraud being fairly common with money orders. I got it all sorted out but it took forever to get a refund from the post office (they only refund in cash and they like to keep very little on hand).
Good for you! I looked at your auctions when you posted them. You had nice stuff and a good opening price. If you ever sell any N scale items let us know. I would love to have a piece of your work to show off.
Sorry Chris, I actually deleted that post after having second thoughts a few minutes after “pulling the trigger”. I had sort of hoped that nobody saw it, since it wasn’t up long. I did put a fair amount of thought into it, and it took a while to write, so I saved a copy before pulling it. If you really want to see it again, I can bring it back. I feel better now, knowing that you weren’t offended.
As for bogus emails and phishing, don’t delete them, REPORT THEM!!! Ebay takes that stuff very seriously, as it is an attack on their customers and their livelihood, and probably wants to stop it more than you do.
I’ve used Paypal probably over 200 times now with no problems what so ever. As a seller I prefer it because it is easier then waiting for a money order to come in the mail. As a buyer I prefer it because my item will be sent to me faster and I don’t have to go to the Post Office and get a money order. Money orders cost more then what Paypals fees are in most cases with me.
I actually bought a pet rock for my daughter on Ebay for $20. Maybe some of the best money I ever spent. She was 9 at the time, and never heard of a pet rock, so I bought it for her. I told her it was the only pet I would allow her to have in the house. I had no idea there was so much play value in a rock.
In the past, there have been a few topics about how to keep cats off train layouts. Personally, I don’t mind if Marissa (that’s the rock’s name) comes downstairs and sits on the layout. Eventually she will just blend in with the scenery, or I could even give her rides in a gondola.
My only problem with Marissa has been when she invites her “wild rock” friends in from the yard. Ever stepped on a rock in the dark?
What is involved in signing up for “Pay Pal”? I’l be doing it soon but would like to know more. From what I’ve heard you can use your bank account (checking? savings?) and that is how the money is transacted immedietly to pay for an ebay item.
I use PayPal quite often with no troubles. As a seller they take a small cut of the purchase price, as a buyer there is no charge. It is quick easy and makes money transactions so much less complicated. One not of caution though, Be Careful there are lots of people who will send you an email with titles like “update your account” or “you have added a new email” or many others. DO NOT, I repeat, do not log into your account through any of these emails. Neither ebay or paypal will send you an attachment, so go to their site directly and log into your account to check things out. Most people that have gotten burned through either ebay or paypal have been swindled through a bogus email. Good luck to you on your auctions
Randy Johnson
I use Paypal regularly as both a buyer and a seller. I’ve bought items as high as $2500 with no problems ever. I prefer to have people pay me through Paypal because I’ve received a check that bounced and a phony money order that someone thought I wouldn’t notice. The small fee as a seller is worth not having the hassle. I prefer to buy through Paypal because I keep a balance with them from things that I sell.
Pay Pal is so easy to use and in 4 years of using it, I have never had any cause for concern or complaint. I actually avoid bidding on eBay items that don’t accept Pay Pal. I never buy from a seller that only sells with MO’s. Why should I have to go to the post office and pay extra to purchase an item. Western Union offers a MO service, but this costs even more to use. I think that sellers that don’t accept Pay Pal limit the selling opportunity of their items.
I’ve got to agree with Big Boy - I have to really want an item and be able to get it for a steal before I’ll buy something on ebay without paypal. It’s just too much of a hassle. I’ve been using paypal for years, with several hundred transactions, with zero problems. (Most of those were buying, not selling - I was a real addict for awhile!) And it is true - if you have a store-front and accept credit cards, you pay a fee. The fee % is based on average volume, so unless you sell A LOT, the paypal fees are comparable.
I do take exception to sellers that use S&H as a method for jacking up their price - I think that’s a major rip-off! The fees for ebay and paypal are the SELLER’S cost of doing business, not the buyers! Like any retailer, make sure your price supports your your profit standards, and let the buyer decide if they want it for that price - free enterprise at it’s finest!
That’s how I have it set up, the money is debited out of my checking account. It’s been so long since I set it up, but I think I also had to give a credit card as a backup source of funds, but the default on my account is to debit the checking account.
I’ve only used it as a buyer, and I’ve used it maybe 60-70 times, but I think it’s great. I even use it to donate to Rail Images. Being outside the states it makes things a lot simpler for me than trying to mail stuff.
Living outside the US and buying from various other countries, I find PayPal is the easiest and quickest method. No problems so far either, and I’ve been using it now for about 2 years.
I have not created an account with them because I am already losing money to Ebay charges. IMHO, I shouldn’t have to lose more money because a buyer wants something quicker.
Maybe I should add the Pay Pal fee to the shipping and handling charge for buyers that want to use that service when I sell something. The buyer pays for the money order if he doesn’t use Pay Pal right? So maybe he should also pay the fee for using Pay Pal too?
How much does Pay Pal charge for each transaction? 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction within th United Staes. That’s an additional $3.20 fee for each 100 dollars of transactions. More for transaction outside the U.S.
And a U.S.Post Office money order is what 90 or 95 cents?
For a transaction over 21 dollars, it would be cheaper to use a post office money order then. Anything under 21, would be cheaper to use Pay Pal, if I am doing my math right.
Would you still buy from me if I charged you the Pay Pal fee? Let me know and maybe I will change my position concerning Pay Pal.
Paypal only charges fees if you have it set up to accept credit card payments as a seller. You can sell and accept a bank transfer payment at no charge and it is completed free as a buyer. One of the problems with the service is that you have to have a US bank account to set up a simple account (bank transfers for accepting and sending payments). A premier account is the type that costs money if you want to sell (and accept credit cards). Since I don’t sell that much I did not want to set up a premier account and hence I could not accept money through the service from NZRMAC. But if you are a seller that needs to accept MC/Visa, I don’t think the fees are unreasonable. It is basically the cost of doing business. I will agree that it probably is overkill for eBay to charge a fee and then paypal to charge a fee as well.
Craig, I’m afraid your math is a little off. The way I read the fee schedule, the 30 cents is only charged one time per price bracket, otherwise the percentage rate would say 3.2%. You are correct about $3.20 for a $100 sale, but a $10 sale would be 59 cents, and a $1000 sale would be $29.30. That applies to the first $3000 for a maximum of $87.30, after that the rate goes down to 2.5%, but another one time 30 cents is charged up to $10,000.
Money orders also increase in price as their amounts go up. Yes, by taking only money orders, you can throw that expense back on the buyer, but accept a single bogus money order, and Paypal will look like a bargain.
I recently bought a locomotive on Ebay, winning bid $226.01, and paid wit
I can understand the “cost of doing business” statement.
And it would be alot easier to accept when you truly have a business. There is considerable mark-up in just about everything sold by a retailer, and it is I think, usually already calculated in the purchase price when the seller sets his reserve and or buy it now price.
Now for me, when I sell something, I would like to get as much as I can for what I am selling. I am not a retailer, I am just selling stuff because I need some extra money or else I am selling something I never use anymore. I try to be as honest as I can when I do it. I charge the exact amount that it cost me for postage when I ship something. I feel that if the buyer wants express handling, then he should be the one that pays for it , not me. That’s the way it works when I buy from an online retailer right? Next day air and 2nd day usually is alot more than standard shipping. And the buyer pays it all, not the seller.
Not every seller that doesn’t use Pay Pal is a dishonest person. So in refusing to buy from a non Pay Pal seller, you may end up missing out on real good deals.
I understand what you are saying about not wanting to deal with “cost of business” but it’s there. I doubt very much that ebay and pay pal would be around much if they didn’t charge someone for the transaction. If you truly want to keep every penny of a sale - perhaps you should consider a garage sale - that way there is no fee involved to anyone. But then of course time is money.
Of course everyone wants to, as you say, get as much as they can for what they are selling. I would think that is especially true for a retailer who is selling stuff in order to pay the mortgage, buy groceries etc.
The key is balancing convenience, speed, attracting customers etc with the cost. As posted, there are some folks that will only buy things if they can use paypal. If a seller wants those customers he’ll have to eat a bit of the sales price. If he doesn’t want to deal with paypal, no one forces him to. Merhcants makes the same decisions all the time when they decide which credit cards they will accept and whether or not they’ll accept checks.
Of course no one can figure out what is really the best way to sell something. Sure, you can accept only money orders and find a seller to pay, let’s say $100.00 for it. Of course there’s no way to tell if there were a couple of people that would have bid the item up to $110 if the seller would have accepted paypal. You brought up an excellent point about “in refusing to buy from a non Pay Pal seller, you may end up missing out on real good deals” but then on the other hand by refusing to use pay pal you may end up missing out on buyers willing to pay more. Key word “may.”
Bottom line - each person, buyer or seller has to decide what works for themselves.