posted on June 21, 2001 09:58:15 AM new
I accept payment by check, money order, cash or CC (Paypal and Billpoint). I have been considering not mentioning CC payments in my auctions to help reduce the use of them as I do not want to keep keeping charging more to try to cover for their rising costs. Do you think this would reduce the amount of bids or sales I get and why?
posted on June 21, 2001 10:34:18 AM new
Yes, I think it would reduce your sales. I personally will not bid on an auction if I cannot pay by some type of credit card. (I will not use Paypal) but I look for a listing with Billpoint, PayDirect, Ecount, etc. If their auction does not state they will accept CC payments, I will do another search and find another auction that does.
CC's offer convenience, and a sense of security if you are dealing with a (possibly) fraudulent seller.
posted on June 21, 2001 10:38:16 AM new
Well, other people will post to the contrary, but I think if you're in a competitive market (and few things on ebay these days are not), you may end up losing bids. I know that as a buyer, my preference is to pay with Paypal. When I look at two auctions, all other factors being equal, I will bid on the one that accepts PP over the one that doesn't. I can't believe that I'm the only one out there that does this.
On the other side of the coin, as a seller, I don't see what the big deal is with the PP/BP fees. In my last batch of auctions, for instance, I offered (as I always do) payment options of PP/BP, checks & money orders. Only about one-quarter of the buyers even chose to use PP or BP, though typically it's usually about half. But spread across all of my auctions, it's really not that expensive at all. People like to have options for payment, that's why I try to offer a reasonable number of choices, even if it costs me a little to do so.
posted on June 21, 2001 10:52:39 AM new
I'm in the processing of trying this now. I have only mo & checks listed on items closing this week. Last week's items were all paid by these methods, so I thought I'd give it a shot. These are mostly clothing and book auctions however - and as I prefer shipping these for my customers by the cheapest method (first class/media) and are not covered by the paypal required "online tracking" I decided to see what the results will be. As I buyer, I too prefer the ease of paypal...but on these auctions, even including the m.o. cost if necessary, the savings in the s/h should (hopefully) inspire bids.
posted on June 21, 2001 10:55:51 AM new
If you are selling classic collectibles where the items are fairly uncommon on ebay, I am not sure that acceptance of CC payments really matter. I think a collector finding a difficult item will bid even without CC payment.
If you are selling items that are also currently offer on ebay, than I will look at the sell-thru rate after eliminating CC payments from auction description. If sell-thru rate has not fallen, eliminate the CC.
If 50% of your buyers uses CC and the fee is 2+% or more, that means you are adding about a 1% cost to your total sale. That may or may not be significant to you.
My concern is more with chargebacks than the cost. Especially if you sell Internationally.
posted on June 21, 2001 11:01:58 AM new
I currently have about a 50/50 split of CC and mailed payments. I probably will start by leaving PayPal off my choices (even though I accept it) I wonder if that would impact me much.
posted on June 21, 2001 12:16:05 PM new
Last week , I did up about 70 auctions with a series of romance by one author~ 90% who paid did so by paypal ~ I was shocked ~ this doesn't usually happen. I had considered taking off paypal but will keep it on my auctions. I accept billpoint as well . I am sure offering cc on line for me~ I am a Canadian ~ is a factor as the shipping time is much more ~ sometimes takes 2 weeks for a cheque or money order to even get to me~ sometimes people are late getting back to me ( late by only 3 days but in their minds they are late) and these considerate sellers say" I am late so I am paying by paypal) I think it does make a difference . I also say no hold for cheques as well but more and more of my auctions are paid on line. And I like the money coming in so quickly , send off items and post feedback~ can be done much more quickly. Paypal and billpoint charge me a 1% fee to convert to canadian funds + paypal 's exchange rate is lower than my bank and lower than Billpoint but who can complain with the canadian dollar at 1.50 + these days! However, that is one reason as a Canadian I didn't want to use paypal.
