posted on September 19, 2000 09:24:54 PM
I did all those searches for "Do not accept Paypal" in various forms, looked through several hundred auctions and saw none that was anti-paypal. I sell a lot of pottery, most of my auctions state, no chips or cracks and I do accept Paypal. There just happens to be those words in there, so I think that is flawed. Heather
posted on September 19, 2000 09:28:44 PM
If you put quotes around your search phrase, it searches for the exact phrase, so these auctions actually have the phrase "Do not accept Paypal," not just those words appearing somewhere in the auction.
However, this is not necessarily anti-Paypal and doesn't really tell us a lot.
BUT, if those number dramatically increase over the next week or two, I think that would certainly be significant.
[ edited by amalgamated2000 on Sep 19, 2000 09:33 PM ]
posted on September 19, 2000 09:31:55 PM
hcross: If you search for "Do not accept Paypal" in quotes, you will not come up with no chips or cracks and I do accept Paypal
At least not on eBay search... I don't know about other search engines, such as AW.
posted on September 19, 2000 09:50:28 PM
I did "no longer accept Paypal" "no longer accepting paypal" and got about 600 auctions total. A search through a few auctions showed 5 or 6 sellers account for the majority of those auctions. Also, even though it was in quotes, I still came across some auctions that do accept Paypal as a payment method. I just did "I do not accept Paypal" and got 5200 auctions, one person, a Canadian had over 200 of those auctions. More auctions from sellers who DO accept Paypal. I think this whole thing is relative, you will never know exactly how many people quit Paypal unless you go through every single auction. Heather
I also see several sellers with upwards of 2000 feedback and hundreds of auctions saying they will no longer accept Paypal because of the fees. If they are not a business, I am Miss America. Heather
[ edited by hcross on Sep 19, 2000 09:54 PM ]
Just because someone sells on ebay does not make them a business. The IRS has defined what is a hobby and what is a business. PayPal does not recognize the difference. To paypal, if you sell, your a business. Funny that the IRS doesn't see it that way.
posted on September 19, 2000 10:24:31 PM
So now you are telling me that someone who runs several hundred auctions is not a business? You are really funny. Heather
posted on September 20, 2000 03:39:39 AM
Heather, I just HAD to respond to your post...this is a post I made in one of the threads in AW Partner Services:
I was going to remain silent during all this PayPal fiasco...just quietly stop accepting PayPal payments from my auctions, stop promoting PayPal, etc. I think there are many part-time people like me that PayPal is not hearing from - they're just quietly taking out money from their accounts and not accepting PayPal payments anymore.
I'm a packrat - I've been one all my life. My home literally is bursting at the seams
with all the books, videos, a massive trading card collection, and whatever that I've
collected over the years.
I used to have yard sales to get rid of some of the clutter...then I found online
auctions! So, instead of having a yard sale every couple of years, I just post some
of this clutter on eBay, or Yahoo, or wherever, and another packrat takes it off my
hands.
I'm not a business...just a packrat. But PayPal considers me a business.
They can also consider me a non-customer as well.
Michael
Because of the nature of the items I sell, it appears that I have a volume business. But, I usually don't bundle books together - that would force a reader to buy a bunch he/she didn't want to obtain one book he/she does want. Same with videos, trading cards, and other clutter from my home.
Every seller is not a business. Many are like me - just cleaning out the house!
posted on September 21, 2000 09:03:01 AM
Were your results across all auction sites or limited to Ebay? When I did all sites I found 1507 for Paydirect, for Ebay only: 689
posted on September 21, 2000 09:12:51 AM
Kelly - You make a good point.
If PP is going to consider anyone who even lists an auction once to be a business, then they also have to define what a Person-to-Person transfer is.
If payment for goods or services under all cases is considered a business then why else would someone want to use PP? IOW, if I wanted to send Joe some money for a non-business reason (maybe because I'm just a great person) why should I use PP instead of just mailing a check? It's not like Joe can get the cash from his pc!
posted on September 21, 2000 09:48:32 AM
Deleted because it was really getting away from the title of this thread, which is very interesting BTW.
[ edited by labbie1 on Sep 21, 2000 10:10 AM ]
posted on September 21, 2000 09:51:22 AM
Michael, if you're making money on eBay, you must report it and pay taxes on it...above and beyond whether or not it's a business by IRS standards or not. And, if your profits after expenses are $400 or more, you will have to pay taxes on them.
You could have deductible expenses that reduce your eBay income to zero...or even provide you with a small deductible business loss. But you still have to report your earnings (and take your deductions).
If you've been doing this for several years, and made money each year, you ARE a business according to the IRS. There is a "rebuttable presumption" that an activity is engaged in for profit if profits are earned during any three or more years during a five-year period. ("Rebuttable presumption" meaning that you can argue with the IRS on this and win, but the starting premise is that you ARE a business.)
I'm a part-timer also, and I have another more profitable business that I run. But my eBay income is still business income, and I report it to the IRS and I pay state sales tax as required. You need to rethink your definition of "business" versus "packrat hobby seller."
posted on September 21, 2000 10:06:04 AM
Per my CPA when I asked about this, if you are selling the packrat items that you have, it is like a garage sale. You purchased the items for more than you are likely to sell them, thus you are not a business. ( there is always a big thread about this type of thing around tax time)
Can you IMAGINE having to pay TAXES on a garage sale!? Eeeek!
[ edited by labbie1 on Sep 21, 2000 10:10 AM ]