posted on May 6, 2001 06:00:22 PM
moving closer to a cashless society??? only if everyone rolls over like good dogs. as far as paying services to send me money that I made goes... if the buyer wants the ease of useing these services they should pay ,not the seller. let me ask something. how did everyone make any sales before these services??? if its so bad for sales to not take pay pal or others i would think ebay would never have grown to what it is today.
posted on May 6, 2001 06:16:08 PMsure you can make your $5 or $20 sale on ebay just takeing checks and money orders to sell there but your loseing the $200 fallow up sale to someone else.
Funny you should mention it...
I have a $170 money order sitting on my desk right now. I sold a coin to a guy for five bucks a couple of months ago (he paid with cash). In my EOA notice, I indicated that I had other items available, and when he asked about them, I sent him a list. A couple of weeks later, he was the high bidder on 10 or 12 of my auctions ending on one day (paid fast, by money order), and yesterday, I received the above noted money order in the mail in payment for a group of items from my list.
He's not the first one, either.
I guess I could have made a really big sale if I accepted credit cards, but I'm satisfied with how things are going as it is.
posted on May 6, 2001 06:25:08 PM
Here here...breinhold....I think of PAYPAL
as a dog food company....dogs have been around for 1000s
of years...yet dog food has only been around for a few...
What did people do be PURINA came to town?
posted on May 6, 2001 06:45:37 PM
jumpinjacko ,the dog / dog food analogy was outstanding!! also i wanted to add that i hate pay services that offer a 5 dollar reward to bidders to bully a seller into signing up.
posted on May 6, 2001 07:22:21 PM
great example. and what is this ease issue? are we becoming such lard as**es that we can no longer write a check? or, oh wow....but a money order??? someplace a guy with his feet on his desk is laughing saying "i cant believe people will pay for this".
>Umm I did say fallow up sales not the original sale.
That's a fair distinction, but yes, many of my sales are repeat customers (30 - 35 %), and considering that some of my stuff is probably what you call "categories of item(s) that are durable", that's a fair %.
>credit cards are make people feel as if they have a nearly endless flow of $$$ to spend.
Gee, maybe I'm doing them a favor, what do ya' think???
posted on May 6, 2001 07:31:06 PM
that is a favor!!! i have no interest in contributing to a persons foolish debt. selling an honest product for an honest buck to someone who can afford to pay for it is all i want. knowing someone is overspending on credit sucks. its one of the biggest problems in the country today.
I keep these too, and I make a point of looking for more of these items whenever I get a chance.
I think some people forget what a wide variety of items there are for sale on eBay. There is no way that the same sales technique should be expected to work when selling items as diverse as automobiles, 17th century books and ginzu knives (not to mention underwear).
There is one particular type of item that I collect, and certain pieces are listed on eBay maybe twice a year (three times, if it's a good year). Any chance I'll pass on one (especially if the price is better than right) just because the seller doesn't take credit cards? I don't think so.
Not everyone wants to use credit cards. We're freezing ours in a block of ice tonight. They're finally paid off & we're going on a cash basis from now on.
As a buyer, I'm paying for an auction item in the morning with a USPS money order.
As a seller, I started listing payment services at the very bottom of the list of payment options in my EOA's a few months ago-- listing money orders and personal checks first. (My exact order is MO, check, Billpoint, Yahoo PayDirect, C2it, then PayPal. I bury the electronic options under my address.)
I found that the number of money orders I receive is way up. The number of personal checks is [b]up[/] and Billpoint payments now outnumber PayPal payments by a very healthy margin. In fact, the PayPal total is so low, I'm switching back to my personal account for auction payments.
As an aside, I cut back in March by ditching my no-longer-free-now-very-expensive auction listing service for one that charges a flat $5 a month. April was my best month ever!
posted on May 6, 2001 07:46:18 PM
>I think some people forget what a wide variety of items there are for sale on eBay.
I do too. I cringe over some of the rule changes some people want to make to ebay. In order for eBay to be a place to sell anything (well, not anything, you better not list anything ORANGE next week ) the rules need to be "loose". What would fix a problem in one catagory would kill another.
posted on May 6, 2001 08:12:04 PM
I tried to sign up with c2it and it wouldn't let me. Does it really not charge the seller money for the transactions???
posted on May 6, 2001 11:36:31 PMThe beauty of older items:
It seems the whole "online payment service option" defense is based on the theory that if a bidder has a choice between an auction that accepts PayPal, Billpoint etc. and an auction that only takes checks and m/o's, the assumption is the auction with online payment options will always win.
Well.....I sell nothing but old paper collectibles and given that condition is a big factor in market value, you would be pretty hard pressed to find 2 indentical auctions of the same item. Flaws make this virtually impossible. The buyers tend to target the better item, regardless of payment options.
The item with less flaws goes for more than the other.
posted on May 7, 2001 03:53:17 AM
Marcn: I may have missed it, but I don't think on alternative was mentioned for taking credit cards: Yahoo PayDirect [is there an icon for ducking rotten eggs? ; - ) ]
In my auctions I offer PD for credit cards and PayPal for any non-cc payment. Invariably, someone uses a credit card on my PP account once or twice a month. Last month I recruited my husband's PP account for 2 weeks. At some point PP starting allowing you to deny incoming credit card payments, so I don't have to worry about having my account frozen because I went over the $100 limit.
For a while, folks were having trouble with PD, but I haven't heard that lately, and in May I took in a good deal of money that way.
I am sure it's not as great as offering every payment service option under the sun, but at this time I do not choose to pay for my customer's payment choices.
As a buyer, I always want to pay with PayPal, and given a choice of similar items, will bid on the auction with a BIN price in my budget and PayPal, so I can buy it, pay for it, and move on!
posted on May 7, 2001 03:25:04 PM
I don't use paypal as either a buyer or seller.
I'm selling unique items. The way I see it, either the customer wants the thing, or they don't. If they want it bad enough, they'll bid.
Also, I think that for every Ebayer out there who's too impatient to write a check, there's another one out there with checkbook in hand. If one person passes on it because they would rather wait for an auction where the seller accepts paypal, the next person will come along and bid because they just want the item, and are willing to write a check for it. In my experience, unique items usually reach their "fair market value" regardless, with a little bit of variety in there to keep it interesting.
I mean, if you're selling ginsu knives, you are probably screwed if you don't take paypal. If you're selling Stickley you could demand payment in gold coin if you wanted to, and you'd probably still find a willing buyer. So I agree that it does depend on what you're selling...
AND I agree with whoever wrote that not everyone wants to use credit cards. I think credit cards are evil.
