eBay/Paypal woes...

[AmiDude]

You would be surprised what fees you pay using banks these days that you may not even know about.

You don't have to pay any fees with (inter)national bank transfers within the European Union, while Paypal charges
fees which are out of proportion.
Paypal is one big bamboozle!
 :rtfm:

[tokyoracer]

I use a Debit Card for my purchases. Just like a bank card that can be used on-line without the damn interest risks (as-long as you don't overdraw). I'm guessing you don't have cards like that were you are? :-?

[guru-666]

this is all a bunch of whinning.  What e-bay and paypal offer is fantasic.  Buying an item off eBay with out paypal only help people like DoomMaster.
If you don't want to pay the fees the e-bay charges don't list.
I have had my fair share of "Bad" ebay transaction but with swift help form eBay/paypal my money was refunded.  Try that on amibench.  
I listen to the issues people have once they step out of the security of eBay think then I thn the fees are O.k.

the internation things is a bit funky.... I agree but it a small price to pay for security.

I have been the buy and the seller... and I agree I hate to pay the e-bay fee but I build it into the price.

[dannyp1]

I agree they are greedy theives and they get away with it because they are a monopoly.  Just recently they raised listing fees for items with a starting price of $1 to $9.99 from .35 to .40.  The reason they gave was and I quote "To Correct Unhealty Dynamics".  What the F*** is that?  Why can't they admit that they are just greedy and want every last cent they can get out of you!  What ever happened to a fair service for a fair price?  If you list an item for $2 and it sells for that amount, you pay .40 for listing it, over 40 cents for selling it and over 40 cents to paypal for the transaction.  If that's not theivery I don't know what is.  You can make the argument all day long that if you don't like it don't use it but that doesn't change the fact that what they're doing is a rip off.  Just my 2 cents.  :madashell:

[Boot_WB]

@Amidude

Correction - you don't have to pay any additional fees when transferring funds between EU countries compared to in-country transfers.
This, however, only applies to transfers in the same currency.
Consequently, if you live in "rip-off Britain" you will still pay around £9 for the privelige of transferring money from your GBP account to your friend's Euro currency account.

[Ami_GFX]

Compared to Merchant credit services, Paypal is a great deal.
For me to have a Merchant credit account, I would need a valid business license and I would pay $30-70 in monthly fees and the same percentage as with Paypal on each transaction.

True Paypal has it's faults but it's also brought financial services to the masses that used to be solely available to professional merchants. It is nice to be paid instantly--If I sell something on Ebay and I get paid with paypal, I can immediatly go the nearest shop and buy a bottle of wine and get some cash back with my Paypal debit card. Much better than waiting a week for a check to arrive and another week for it to clear the bank so I can finally spend the money.

And as for Ebay, it's the biggest online game going with real prizes and real money and a definite element element of gambling. Of course they're making money hand over fist. Buying on Ebay--especially for desiriable items like Amigas--is sometimes like playing high stakes poker and selling is like betting on a horse race. Ebay isn't thievery, it's a very profitable gambling operation.

[platon42]

> Correction - you don't have to pay any additional fees when transferring funds between EU countries compared to in-country transfers.

You have to. They changed that in February (that's why I canceled my PayPal account back then). Whatever you do, you always pay a fee, even when there is only bits being shifted around. This is pretty offensive.

[countzero]

AmiDude wrote:

You don't have to pay any fees with (inter)national bank transfers within the European Union, while Paypal charges
fees which are out of proportion.
Paypal is one big bamboozle!
 :rtfm:

Nice for you guys in the EU, but when I want to make a bank transfer from Japan to anywhere in the world, I end up paying about $60 ! (depending on the transaction, depending on the bank). Now, who's the thief here ? And even the cheapest bank here (which is Citibank) charges $20 for the smallest transaction, and to have that you have to have a bank account with them, and you have to pay $20 monthly to keep that account open (or keep $2000 inside all the time). For me, paypal's fees are very reasonable when you think about the service they provide. And I have done more than a hundred transactions without any problems at all.

If you're gonna get screwed, you can get screwed with or without paypal. When you buy/sell something over the net, you have to take the risk. Otherwise don't bother with it.

[McVenco]

The only problem I have is that apparently I CAN'T update my Paypal account to a "verified" account without a creditcard. I'm not going to pay 25 Euros a year for a creditcard, just so I can use (and pay for) Paypal.

And so I can't enter "shipping worldwide" on eBay without a verified Paypal account...

I have no problem with the fees for Paypal or eBay, I only dislike the fact that it is so creditcard-minded. Not everybody has (or wants/needs) a creditcard. Or debitcard or whatever card. But indeed banks should let go of their high international tranferring fees as well.

platon42 wrote:
> Correction - you don't have to pay any additional fees when transferring funds between EU countries compared to in-country transfers.

You have to. They changed that in February (that's why I canceled my PayPal account back then). Whatever you do, you always pay a fee, even when there is only bits being shifted around. This is pretty offensive.

No you don't. I have transferred money within the EU a couple of times this month, and neither I nor the receiver had to pay any extra fees...

[AmiDude]

@CLS2086 wrote:

Around 1500 deals using Paypal all over the world, from L.A. up to Tokyo... no problem

1500 ?! :-o Then you must have payd a fortune on paypal fees...  :crazy:


@guru-666 wrote:

this is all a bunch of whinning. What e-bay and paypal offer is fantasic. Buying an item off eBay with out paypal only help people like DoomMaster.

Nonsense. I'm buying/selling for years now on eBay, and always use bank-transfer. Never had any problems. Above that, I only have to pay eBay fees and no paypal fees.


@Boot_WB wrote:

Correction - you don't have to pay any additional fees when transferring funds between EU countries compared to in-country transfers. This, however, only applies to transfers in the same currency.
Consequently, if you live in "rip-off Britain" you will still pay around £9 for the privelige of transferring money from your GBP account to your friend's Euro currency account.

True. It's about time that the UK exchange the Pound
for the Euro.


@platon42 wrote:

You have to. They changed that in February (that's why I canceled my PayPal account back then). Whatever you do, you always pay a fee, even when there is only bits being shifted around.

Wrong! With bank-transfers, no extra fees are charged within EU countries that have the Euro for currency.


@countzero wrote:

Nice for you guys in the EU, but when I want to make a bank transfer from Japan to anywhere in the world, I end up paying about $60 ! (depending on the transaction, depending on the bank). Now, who's the thief here ? And even the cheapest bank here (which is Citibank) charges $20 for the smallest transaction, and to have that you have to have a bank account with them, and you have to pay $20 monthly to keep that account open (or keep $2000 inside all the time). For me, paypal's fees are very reasonable when you think about the service they provide. And I have done more than a hundred transactions without any problems at all.

:-o WTF! What kind of rip-off banks are that?! No such banks here in Europe. You really have a good reason to use that crappy paypal.
 :getmad:

[tokyoracer]

To dannyp1...

They may be greedy but you have to be sure you are selling something with some value. This is how they make money and stay in business. Seems nasty but thats the only way to do it, otherwise the funds won't be sufficient for them to stay in business. I think PayPal is an excellent service especially if you are a buyer. Although it can be a bit annoying for sellers but at-least it is in-front of the whole world that way.

[dannyp1]

To TokyoRacer:

With Ebay now it's about making more money, not just making money.  They have made money since day one when there wasn't a fraction of the sales there is now.  As I said earlier it's a monopoly.  Until someone finds a way to break into it we will just keep getting ripped off.  Don't get me wrong, I love Ebay.  It has opened up the whole world to me for buying and selling items.  But when I'm paying $1.50 to Ebay/Paypal for fees on a $2 sale something is wrong.  You state that one should sell something with value to avoid the problem.  Well if Ebay lost all sales of items under $10 I would be willing to bet that they would lose more than 50% of the sales.  A lot of people would pay 2 or 3 dollars for a used Amiga magazine but not very many would pay over $10.  Ebay knows this.  Another point, if you list your house for sale with a real estate agent you pay nothing if it doesn't sell even though they have put time, effort, and money into it.  They don't get paid because they haven't done their job of selling your house.  Ebay charges you over and over again to list the same item even though they haven't done their job of selling it.  You can make the point that nobody wanted the item, but nobody wanted your house either.  There should only be one listing fee for an item no matter how many times you relist it.  If you think about it, comparing real estate and Ebay is not apples and oranges.  It's very similar.  The government here in the US controls what we have to pay for items such as the phone and natural gas and electricity.  The companies are allowed to make a fair profit with out ripping the people off.  Gee, guess what.  The companies still make money.  I know the argument is coming that you have to have the utilities.  No you don't.  You have the choice to use a wood burner for your furnace if you want to.  You don't have to use natural gas.  It's just easier and more convienient to use.  Well it's easier and more convienient to use Ebay also.  Again, just my 2 cents.
   Dan  :madashell:

[NoFastMem]

Retromania wrote:
When I last listed something on ebay, I could not turn the "Paypal Accepted" option off.  

I had the misfortune to sign up for it a couple of years ago so that I could pay for something and have emailed them several times since requesting that my details be removed - no reply at all from them.

When I list something now, it forces me to accept paypal because it won't let me go to the next stage of listing without entering my email address.  Then, when you get the listing on screen once the auction is live, you get the little Paypal icon that means "Paypal accepted".  I think this is out of order.

Retro

I had no trouble turning that off. There's a link somewhere during the listing that says "you have chosen to accept Paypal for all transactions" that you can follow to remove it.

I tend to accept UK buyers only, with good old fashioned postal orders. My only annoyance with ebay's payment system is that it doesn't differentiate between POs (which are great) and cheques (which are a massive pain in the arse to keep track of.)

Paypal only makes sense if you're selling in volume.