PayPal account for eBay sellers?

I've bought on eBay for years - I have a feedback around 750, with no negatives. I've had a verified PayPal account for six years, but have used it only to buy, never sell.

Now it's time to sell off some of my hoard - mostly WWII related items, and historical memorabilia. Some of it is (I hope!) relatively expensive - $200 to $2,000. Question: should I get a PayPal Premier account? I've read all the horror stories about PayPal freezing your account for weeks at a time, which makes me nervous, but I know that more people will buy with PayPal because it can be accomplished easily, without fuss, and with a credit card. My clientele will be (mostly) seasoned collectors who will (probably) not mind getting postal money orders or cashier's checks, but....I hate to reduce the buyer pool. PayPal would also allow me easy access to potential buyers in Canada and the UK, and perhaps a quarter of my offering will related to Royal Air Force or RCAF.

Any eBay veteran sellers on CPF who can help me out with this decision? Any hints when setting up a Premier account?

Thanks!

Well...if you have a personal account, you will be required to "upgrade" your account the first time someone pays for one of your auctions with a credit card with PayPal.

JM-99

Or you can deny their payment and ask for a balance transfer.

I'd be interested to see how it goes for you. PayPal has a way of freezing people's money when activity changes, like going from not selling to lots of selling.

That's one othe things I'm afraid of. I've heard that a sudden change in use can trigger a freeze - something I'd rather avoid.

Anyone know how to avoid it?

ABTOMAT said:

Or you can deny their payment and ask for a balance transfer.

Click to expand...

If you do that and the buyer reports you (all it takes is one PITA to do it), that can get your account "frozen" with PayPal (and possibly the eBay account too, since eBay owns PP now), so...I wouldn't try that.

Go here for some nice horror stories...

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=97

Go post your idea there and see what sort of responses you get.

JM-99

Good idea. I've sent an email to an eBay tech who specializes in PayPal - we'll see if I get anything other than a mealy-mouth reply.

Any other experienced Ebay sellers out there?

You can maintain your personal account, but you will get bombarded with Paypal requests to upgrade. The Premier account allows you to accept cc payments, but the fees are horrendously high. If you wish, just figure either the fees and/or the shipping costs into the price.

Paypal can be a major PITA especially if you are selling expensive items.

I dont have an answer to your question, but I am also curious as to what would be best.

Just an FYI: regarding freezing of accounts, my Paypal account is attached to an isolated checking account, which has only a few dollars in it.
If I want to purchase something, I load the account (takes about 3 days).
If I sell something, I empty the account immediately.

Paypal can "freeze" this empty account all they want.

I would never attach Paypal to a primary account...not sure if a credit card is a good idea either.

Bob

I had 2 credit cards that I have used for years with never a problem. Shortly after I started using them for PayPal, both got deluged with fraudulant charges and new cards had to be issued. I am currently just using a seperate checking account, and I transfer money in or out every couple days to keep less than $100 in it. Just in case the fraud migrates to the checking account now that the credit cards are cancelled.

There certainly seem to be a lot of issues with using PayPal as a seller - the credit card scams included.

BUT over 90% of eBay sellers seem to offer it now.

Still in a quandry. I'll make the decision in the next 48 hours, since I intend to list my first items on Sunday.

Any other opinions from those with experience will be very much appreciated!

With all of the fees and risks of selling expensive items on EBay (I am not an EBay'er)--would you want to contact a local auction house for an appraisal and possibly sale through them? See how much they charge vs. EBay/Paypal fees.

-Bill

His market will be much, MUCH larger if he uses eBay instead of a "local" auction house. If he goes local, the prices will be probably be much lower.

JM-99

Jumpmaster is dead right. I've bought for years on eBay, and the only time I can buy a "bargain" is when the item is misspelled, poorly described or put in the wrong catagory. I've learned to search for those items, and have picked up some nice bargains - though it's getting harder to do.

The buyers are there, and are willing to pay a market price for rarer items. The question is whether they are willing to go to the trouble of paying by money order or cashier's check.

By the way, auction houses charge anywhere from 10% to 20% for their services. They make PayPal seem cheap...

Thanks to everyone who's replied - It's been a help. I emailed both eBay support and PayPal about 48 hours ago with my concerns. So far, no responses.

Weekend bump. Any experienced eBay sellers who use PayPal care to weigh in?

If you are selling expensive items, Paypal is the last thing you want to use. Buyers that are going to buy the kind of stuff you are talking about are going to buy it whether you offer Paypal or not. Paypal is OK if you're selling scads of low-priced items--those are the kind of buyers that will not want to bother with M.O.s, checks, etc. On lower priced items, it's not worth the trouble for a buyer to scam you, but on expensive items, all it takes is one crooked buyer and you could be out thousands of dollars.

All it takes is one buyer to pull a SNAD or a credit card chargeback through Paypal, and you are screwed. Is it really worth the risk? I have had no trouble whatsoever selling items worth over $1,000 without offering Paypal. Also, you don't have to pay their fees that way either. Paypal is a good deal for a buyer because they can use it to control the money after the sale is over, but for a seller it's an unnecessary risk and expense. In your situation, you really have nothing to gain but plenty to lose. There are people who have used Paypal extensively and had no problems, and they love to point it out, but once they get burned you never hear from them again.

Lightmeup, you said exactly what I had been thinking but was afraid to believe. PayPal is scary for sellers, for good reason.

I listed a few things tonight as a trial - let's see what happens. If anyone is interested (though there's nothing flashlight related), I list under cookes_peak.

Thanks for the advice, guys. It's appreciated! :rock:

If anyone else cares to chime in, please do!

pedalinbob said:

IJust an FYI: regarding freezing of accounts, my Paypal account is attached to an isolated checking account, which has only a few dollars in it.
If I want to purchase something, I load the account (takes about 3 days).
If I sell something, I empty the account immediately.

Paypal can "freeze" this empty account all they want.

I would never attach Paypal to a primary account...not sure if a credit card is a good idea either.

Bob

Click to expand...

Excellent advice, and I do the same thing. You can also get a bonafied merchant account. I use Propay which is very reasonable, www.propay.com that will allow you to take credit cards directly.

Regarding the fees, you will have to pay fees to accept credit card payments pretty much no matter who you go with. It's just the name of the game.

Regards,

Dave

Sturluson said:

Lightmeup, you said exactly what I had been thinking but was afraid to believe. PayPal is scary for sellers, for good reason.

I listed a few things tonight as a trial - let's see what happens. If anyone is interested (though there's nothing flashlight related), I list under cookes_peak.

If anyone else cares to chime in, please do!

Click to expand...

I checked your auctions. They look pretty nice, and you are already getting bids, which is a good sign. One suggestion. The name of the game when selling this kind of stuff is exposure. If the buyers aren't finding your auctions you won't do well. Many people only search on 'auction titles', rather than "titles & item descriptions.' So it is critical to get the best/most info into your title as possible. You are not utilizing the full amount of space available to you in the title area. For instance, I think if you put "WWII", and "memorabilia", or "souvenirs", etc., it would pull in a lot more potential buyers. Get the drift? Also, there is no reserve price that I noticed. If any of this stuff is very valuable, you might want to include a reserve or a starting price to protect yourself from getting skinned if nobody happens to notice it. Just a couple of suggestions to think about. Also, have you looked into other forums that specialize in War memorabilia and have their own buy/sell forums? Sometimes those places are very good selling/buying venues.

LMU

I don't know if you are familiar with these, but in any case, here are a couple of free tools that come in handy at eBay:

find misspelled items in auction listings:
http://auctionbloopers.com/

eBay auction fee calculator:
http://home.alltel.net/micrep/fees.html

LMU

just a quick note here - I think when paypal freezes an account - the money is in the paypal acount and it will not allow a transfer out to a regular acount.