New to Ebay selling - help!

mutley_muppet

Hi everyone,

I have a few things I want to sell on Ebay. Nothing very expensive. Is there a specific thread anywhere to guide me through selling as a personal seller? I've had a search but my head is spinning.

I can manage the blurb & photos, but the thing thats confusing me is what payments i can accept. I have a paypal veryfied account, but does it cost me to accept paypal card funded payments? If i dont want to accept these how do I word my page? What about asking for bank transfers - is that safe?

Anything else I should look out for security-wise?
Or should I just give up, lol!
I'm sure it will get easier once I've done a few but my heads spinning.

Thank you. MM.

beefturnmail

Yes, there are fees associated with paypal. For a standard account these are 3.4% plus 20p for each payment received. For withdrawls of under £50, there is a 25p fee too. However most sellers cover these costs in the 'postage fee' they put on an item. For example, I often sell books on e-bay with flat postage rate of £1.50. It will only cost me about half that for postage and envelope. They rest will cover most of the paypal fees. Paypal is advantageous, as it offers security and speeds up the process. Buyers like it to, so it canincrease the value of your item in an auction. Once the money is in your paypal account you can send the item. Banker's draft offer the same security, but cost money for the buyers, so consequently will make your item less attractive. The other option is cheque, but that is slow, since you should really wait for the money to clear before sending the item.

When you put items for sale on e-bay it takes you through a step-by-step wizard and there is a box where you can put which forms of payment to accept.

frivolous_fay

Bank transfers are fantastically safe for you, and free, but you'll find people reluctant to use them as a) they're not very secure for buyers and b) people can be paranoid and funny about that kind of thing.

If you tick 'I accept paypal' you will be obliged to accept any PP payments. Yes, you will pay fees on these. If you don't like that, don't tick 'I accept paypal'. If you do tick it, you'll need to be prepared to upgrade to a premier account if you haven't already. (Otherwise you won't be able to accept payments from credit cards)

beefturnmail

frivolous_fay wrote: »

If you do tick it, you'll need to be prepared to upgrade to a premier account if you haven't already. (Otherwise you won't be able to accept payments from credit cards)

True, though it doesn't actually cost anything to do this. The fee structure is just different. There is a complete fee schedule on the paypal webiste. Can't get the link to work - sorry

mutley_muppet

Thanks for your replies. :beer:

I was confused because I read someone else's listing that said "I accept paypal, but not bank funded/debitcards funded"? I'm guessing thats not right and it should be either accept all paypal methods or none?

So I'm looking at 3.4% plus 20p per transaction. Thanks for the tip on covering this on the postage fee. I wondered why people had higher postage, thought they were just being greedy!

Also is it acceptable to send goods in secure but re-used envelopes/jiffy bags. I try to reuse stuff for the sake of the environment.
Should I state this in my listing?

I'm going to have another attempt later. Will report back.

mutley_muppet

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Bank transfers are fantastically safe for you, and free, but you'll find people reluctant to use them as a) they're not very secure for buyers and b) people can be paranoid and funny about that kind of thing.

Sorry if its a stupid question, but why isn't it secure for buyers?

frivolous_fay

mutley_muppet wrote: »

Sorry if its a stupid question, but why isn't it secure for buyers?

If you you pay with a) paypal, or b) cheque, you're covered by a) paypal protection and b) ebay protection if anything goes wrong. There's a fairly good chance you'll get some, if not all of your money back if the seller messes you about or fails to send the goods.

If you pay via bank transfer... it's extremely uncertain whether you are covered by ebay's protection (the help pages don't say)

Your bank can't reverse the transaction
The police will probably not help
Their bank don't have to give you any information about the seller, even though you know their bank details

The moral of the story is: don't pay large amount by bank transfer unless you trust the seller implicitly!

beefturnmail

mutley_muppet wrote: »

Also is it acceptable to send goods in secure but re-used envelopes/jiffy bags. I try to reuse stuff for the sake of the environment.
Should I state this in my listing?

I personally wouldn't have a problem with it. I use new jiffy bags when selling, but then I don't have any old ones to re-use! I guess it depends on what you're selling. Once you have a buyer, you can always e-mail them and check that they are OK with it.

soolin

Don't forget the tip posted on here a while ago...if you do use second hand jiffy bags mention it on your auction with a 'spin' that being green you try and recycle packaging wherever possible. That way you get the sympathy buys from the greens, every little helps!

mutley_muppet

soolin wrote: »

That way you get the sympathy buys from the greens, every little helps!

Lol, at "the greens" - sounds like they are aliens or summat??

The Jiffys I have are "as new", but just have labels on them that I can cover with a sticker.

Thanks everyone. :beer: