Paypal on eBay?

[smiley_miley]

I have a question for anyone who sells on eBay.

Those people on there that sell things for $.99 and things like that....and they accept Paypal, how do they deal with the fees?

For instance, if I have a merchant account, and I sell something for $1.00, I have to pay a $.30 fee, plus a percentage fee of the dollar.

If I have a personal account, there aren't fees, but people can't pay with debit or credit card, but that is why most people on auctions use Paypal in the first place, is so they can use their cards.

Money orders take too long, and checks are iffy. I want to sell some cheap things on eBay, but I don't know how to get around those fees!!! Someone help!

[Sallykate]

I am a frequent ebayer... for those that are selling things for that low of price...checkout their shipping and handling charges. They jack these up and make their money.

For exp. I am a homeschooler and order at least 90% of my books online. 80% through ebay. I just got a pb book that has about 30-35 pages in it and would cost less than a dollar to ship. I paid .49 but then paid over 4.00 in shipping! In the old days they called a methos similar to this bait and switch. You see .99 or.49!! and think WOW! you bid and then have a hefty ship price! ALWAYS ALWAYS check shipping prices b4 bidding. I needed the book that I ordered and knew I could not find it locally also a new copied would have cost the amount I paid + shipping ...so I bought it.

HTH

Sallykate

[smiley_miley]

Well, I don't think it is right to jack it up that much, but I think I would have to have a $.30 cent handling fee attached, otherwise, I would lose money. And if someone can't sell small quantities/items without making a profit, they will be forced to sell in bulk and people might not be able to afford it.

[Sallykate]

I don't think it is either! They should state the price of the item up front and not hide it in shipping and handleing fees. However, if you are going to be charged a cc fee then by all means on a low dollar item, add it in the handling if you have to. Otherwise you can do what alot of sellers do and just accept PP but not CC.

GOod Luck!

Sallykate

[sudsnwicks]

People who shop on ebay generally do have a paypal account. So, you could consider accepting paypal only as your payment method, and use a personal account to collect the payments. The $0.30 + 2.9% transaction fee for a business account would be high if you're selling $1 items, it's more worth it if you're selling a big item like a vehicle.

[prairieannie]

Most of the time shipping and handling fees are stated right up front as well, and if you don't want to pay them, don't bid..simple as that! I tend to look at this from a little different perspective..I have lost money on shipping time and again, and have learned my lessons the hard way being a seller way more often than a buyer on ebay. When I package something, I have to pay for packaging materials, which aren't cheap by the way, I have to pay to get the package to town to the post office (I live 15 miles from the closest one) and I have to cover the time. I take it all into consideration, and wouldn't think twice before charging 4 bucks for a book that might cost a dollar otherwise to ship. ESPECIALLY if it sold for .49 cents!!

I haven't ever once had a complaint that my shipping charges were ridiculous or outrageous, and if I did, I would come uncorked!!

I personally wouldn't bother selling something on ebay for 99 cents...to me that is a waste of effort in listing it, so the question is a non issue for me. I know lots of people do though, and lots of them probably do make a few bucks on shipping, and while I'm not saying it's right, it would highly depend on what the item is before I would say someone was getting greased.

The OTHER thing I have done with great success is put my starting bid higher or used a "Buy It Now" and offered FREE shipping to anyone who used the BIN rather than bidding on the item. This is especially great when I'm selling something I want to get the money for ASAP. In these cases I make my auctions a Papal only auction with an immediate payment required. It's been a great way to sell higher dollar items, and it makes everyone happy because it's always a deal, and no shipping is involved..I make it balance out well.

Okay, I'll just shut up now

[SatinDucky]

I'm not going to get into my opinion on the outrageous shipping fees that some charge. And actually I can't say too much about accepting CC payments for a 99 cent item, except they do recoup those fees in the S$H. Keep in mind that's only credit cards, not debit cards. Debit is direct withdrawls from your checking account, not a charge. IMO the solution would be to have a personal account and not accept CC's if you sell low priced item and don't want to have to add another fee onto the price.

[Sallykate]

I should have mentioned that the majority of my ebay transactions are as the seller. I sell alot on ebay and have found no need to justify charging ridiculous prices for shipping because I need to cover my gasoline etc. If i am selling such low dollar items... I simply put several together and sell them in a lot. I add in a MINIMAL cost for my packing materials and charge the lowest postage possible unless my customer wants to pay for express mail. I also offer insurance optionally and gurantee your refund within 30 days if you are not completely satisfied. But then that's just me trying satisfy the customer and establish repeat biz because as all we know an established businesses clientel is 80% repeat biz!

Best of Luck!

Sallykate

[prairieannie]

I probably should have mentioned in my earlier post that while I do agree with a reasonable shipping and handling charge, I do NOT advocate being ridiculous about it. For instance, If I can ship something in a flat rate box, and I know that I have made plenty of money on whatever that item is, I won't charge a penny over the flat rate shipping. I don't think I have ever charged more than 5 bucks for the "handling" portion of something I've sold, and my shipping is almost always "actual shipping" Lots of times we have to guestimate on that. I've taken a huge loss on shipping more than once..we recently shipped old truck fenders from here to the east coast and quoted a 40 dollar shipping charge. The fenders were huge and had to be shipped seperately, and each one cost 54.00 and change to ship. The 40 bucks we quoted was for both of them, so we lost 68.00 on shipping fees alone!! Who's fault was that? OURS! We had no idea they would be so pricey to ship, and should have done better research in order to have been fair to ourselves...as it turned out our total profit on that deal was 21 dollars LOL. So it was not a complete loss.

On the other hand, if I am buying something that I have managed to get a hell of a deal on...say I bought something for 99 cents that to me is worth more than ten bucks...I wouldn't bat an eye to have to pay up to what it's worth for me in shipping, even if I know it would have only cost 2 bucks to ship it to me. But that's just me.