ebay and paypal charges help

sammyw

I've just started to sell some stuff on ebay and knew there was a listing fee, but I forgot about the selling fee, and didn't know that paypal charges you to receive a payment.
Is there any way around being charged to use paypal to recieve money from ebay buyers?
How do you make money with all these charges? I have loads of tesco vouchers to sell and I'm not sure it's worth it? Is it?

TKPeters

We include these costs into the item price

The way round it is to only accept Bank transfers, Cheques or postal orders as Cash is not allowed on eBay

digerati

sammyw wrote: »

...Is there any way around being charged to use paypal to recieve money from ebay buyers?

Not really. You can have two PayPal accounts - one personal and one business. All inward transfers to a business PayPal account are charged a fee, but non-card transfers to a personal PayPal account are usually free. You are supposed to use a business PayPal account for all eBay sales so you can accept card based payments. However, if a buyer is willing to send non-card funds to your personal PayPal account you may avoid paying any PayPal fees. Note that you'll need excellent eBay seller feedback, and a good track record to have many sales if you don't accept PayPal - otherwise it's too risky from the buyer's perspective. In some categories like electronics and consumables you will find it an uphill battle to make any sales without accepting PayPal or credit cards. Other categories like collectibles are better for non-PayPal sellers.

The easiest way to avoid paying PayPal fees is to ask for bank transfer - it's free for most non-business bank accounts in the UK (and indeed much of the EU if you use BIC + IBAN). Other alternatives are postal money orders, cheques or MoneyBookers.

sammyw wrote: »

...How do you make money with all these charges?

You build the eBay + PayPal charges into your sales model, usually as part of the shipping and handling fees, or with PayPal as part of the Special Delivery or Recorded Mail costs required for Seller Protection.

Be aware that the PayPal fee depends on the sale price + shipping and handling costs. Here's an online calculator that will help you figure your eBay + PayPal fees in advance so you can find the best way to recover them.

frivolous_fay

If you plan to carry on using paypal, it's a good idea to read the T&Cs thoroughly.

angelatgraceland

For very low cost items paypal realy is out of the question. In those instances I request cheque P.O or bank transfer. Its all a very careful balance. Always bear in mind that you pay the listing fees whether it sells or not.

soolin

I take paypal for everything, even my low cost items as I find I do sell more and therefore make more overall even allowing for paypal fees.

Many people, like me, have their default browsing set to 'items with paypal' only, so I wouldn't even see an auction where paypal was not accepted.

I do also offer cheques, postal orders and bank transfers as payment options, but only get a few non paypal payments every year.

lesandflynny

Hi Sammyw

I personally think that ebay and paypal charges are very high. I do ebay but I am always gutted by the portion taken by ebay and then paypal.

I would love MSE to have a really good look at this issue to see if there are alternatives or indeed whether we can evoke a revolution on "unfair and disproprtionate fees"

I am not clever enough mathematically, but it appears to me that anything selling on ebay using gallery and paypal for less than £6, ends up with the seller paying approximately 23% in fees to the two companies mentioned. It also strikes me that the higher the value the less the % gets with both companies, lets face it most items usually sell under £20 .......

MESSAGE TO MSE: is there a campaign in this???

soolin

What's to campaign about

If you don't like ebay then don't use them. They do have competitors there is a long thread about alternatives to ebay, if I can see it I'll bump it for you. However it is my personal experience that the other sites don't work for me like ebay, so I can choose to save money and go elsewhere, or pay money and stay with ebay and actually sell my goods.

Also, no one is forced to use ebay or any other auction sites at all, set up your own website, do car boots (although mine are now £9 a pitch so for me dearer than selling on ebay) or use your local free ads.

Soo

Tim_Deegan

I think most of us are fed up with ebay's high charges. For this reason I have been looking for alternative auction sites.

I've just signed up to 2 other auction sites. They both charge a fraction of the ebay charges:

https://www.tazbar.com seems to be growing very fast, and apparently they also advertise on TV. The only problem for me is that I don't think people have got used to the idea that you can buy beds and mattresses on there yet.

https://www.bestauction.co.uk is a new UK based site. I don't know if they will take off, but I hope they do.

By the way, does anyone know of any other good auction sites?

Sugar_Coated_Owl

While some may argue that eBay/PayPal charges are high it's worthwhile to remember what a huge audience of potential buyers eBay have. Where else would you find this?

Tim_Deegan

razorbladekisses wrote: »

While some may argue that eBay/PayPal charges are high it's worthwhile to remember what a huge audience of potential buyers eBay have. Where else would you find this?

Very true.....this is the only reason why I still use them.

Ebay are one of the worlds richest companies mainly because they exploit the fact that they don't have any real competition, and charge very high prices. We pay them between £1600 and £2200 per month (not including paypal fees).

Don't you think if people started using other auction sites, then ebay might take notice???