Sway4829

I'm thinking about putting some stuff up on ebay and seems like anymore you almost have to offer paypal as a payment option. I'm not very familiar with how it works and to tell you the truth their website didn't make much sense to me. I was wondering if some of you all who use it might tell me what it's all about. One of the main questions I have is they have two different kinds of personal accounts, a free one and one you pay for. The free one doesn't allow you to accept credit card payments... what other kind of payments are there that you could accept? And someone who has a paid accound, the rate is 2.9% + .30 USD... what the heck does that mean exactly? 2.9% +.30 USD of what? Anything else you can tell me about it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

btvsrocks

well there's the personal (free) account which is mainly for BUYERS to pay SELLERS. All you can basically do is send money or have other people send YOU money with ONLY THEIR PAYPAL FUNDS. I used to have a personal account cause I used to only buy stuff on eBay.

Then there's the business one (there's 2 versions, with no real diff between them). That doesn't "cost" you moeny per se; but they take a cut from money that is transferred to you. so that 2.9% + $.30 US is the AMOUNT they SUBTRACT from the money that is sent to you from buyers and donators. They call this money they take from you their "fee". So you, in effect, don't PAY for the paypal account but you lose money on funds that are supposed to be yours. But if no one sends you money, you don't lose any money.

You can accept credit card, bank account transfer, echecks I believe...that sorta stuff for payments. I didn't really look into it cause people usually pay with credit card or their bank funds anyway.

[ 03-22-2004: Message edited btvsrocks ]

Headhunter

For what it's worth, I've only heard good things about PayPal. Done some reading of technical analysis of their security systems, it's really solid...

Sway4829

Thanks a lot guys! Your information was very, VERY helpful.

Bethy

Headhunter

For what it's worth, I believe eBay purchased a majority (or complete) ownership stake in PayPal awhile back.

Casandra

And I assume of course, if you sell things on Ebay, you can just jack up your shipping costs to include that percentage lost for the PayPal fee. [img]smilies/look.gif[/img]

I honestly am not sure how the seller part of it goes, I've only used it to buy things. But PayPal itself, like HeadHunter said, has given me no problems whatsoever. And it affords you a bit of anonymity when selling online.

Headhunter

Yeah, I highly doubt anyone is willing to ship for $2... [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

M3

I recently upgraded my own account to business because I was "selling" stuff in addition to being able to accept credit card donations to my fan site. It's not that bad, on a $20 donation via a credit card you get $19.12 in your pocket.

Using a credit card means THEY dont have to have a PayPal account to pay you. That, as you know, requires a bank account confirmation and takes four days. Plus everytime you move money around in your account, it takes four days. Ai.

I have mostly heard BAD things about PayPal. Several friends of mine had their accounts frozen due to "fraud". There was no fraud. One was an artist selling and shipping via online means. She lost over $300 she had sitting in her account. It's been almost two years and she has yet to get her account unfrozen, her money returned to her, and she's blocked from opening a NEW account (as if she wants to) because you can only have one account per real life bank account.

Stories about accounts being frozen are quite common. I closed my own account long ago, only reopening recently and I make sure there's no more than $25 in the account, ever.

PayPal is a thief, but that's the way the whole world works, I guess.

Headhunter

Sounds like a big potential danger to be aware of. Quickly extracting all incoming funds out of PayPal is a good move; I'm planning to start up selling odds-and-ends on eBay, something to be aware of.

Thanks for the heads up!