eBay & Paypal - Policies and Practices

[Randall Flagg]

I noticed that ebay is gong to require uploaded images be at least 500 pixels on one side. I agree with the policy, but as always unscrupulous sellers can comply, but provide an out of focus image.
Policy:
Starting July 1 2013, eBay will start enforcing these picture quality requirements on all new, revised, and relisted items:

• All photos must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side of the picture.
• Photos cannot have borders.
• Photos cannot have seller-added text or seller-added artwork.
• When you list a used item outside of books, movies, music, and video games, you cannot use the eBay catalog stock photo in the primary photo position. You must upload your own photo.
• You must upload at least one photo per listing.

[tippy4]

And now ebay requires a BUY IT NOW price to be 30% more than the opening bid when listing an item.

They went from no minimum, to 10%, to 30%?

WTF?

Maybe they could come up with some more useless rules?

I can tolerate all the other recent rules they have set up under the guise of protecting buyers, but this one is bullshit.

[tippy4]

I noticed that ebay is gong to require uploaded images be at least 500 pixels on one side. I agree with the policy, but as always unscrupulous sellers can comply, but provide an out of focus image.
Policy:
Starting July 1 2013, eBay will start enforcing these picture quality requirements on all new, revised, and relisted items:

• All photos must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side of the picture.
• Photos cannot have borders.
• Photos cannot have seller-added text or seller-added artwork.
• When you list a used item outside of books, movies, music, and video games, you cannot use the eBay catalog stock photo in the primary photo position. You must upload your own photo.
• You must upload at least one photo per listing.

Arghhh...more and more rules.

So now I cannot put my name across a photo if I want to prevent someone else from using my photo?

Why MUST I have a photo in my auction? Not that I ever list anything without a photo....it helps increase sales....but should it not be MY choice to make as a seller?

[cit74]

I noticed that ebay is gong to require uploaded images be at least 500 pixels on one side. I agree with the policy, but as always unscrupulous sellers can comply, but provide an out of focus image.
Policy:
Starting July 1 2013, eBay will start enforcing these picture quality requirements on all new, revised, and relisted items:

• All photos must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side of the picture.
• Photos cannot have borders.
• Photos cannot have seller-added text or seller-added artwork.
• When you list a used item outside of books, movies, music, and video games, you cannot use the eBay catalog stock photo in the primary photo position. You must upload your own photo.
• You must upload at least one photo per listing.

Arghhh...more and more rules.

So now I cannot put my name across a photo if I want to prevent someone else from using my photo?

Why MUST I have a photo in my auction? Not that I ever list anything without a photo....it helps increase sales....but should it not be MY choice to make as a seller?

I'll take the other side. I think this would prevent someone from using your photo - since if I got an item that looked nothing like the photo (because it was taken from someone else) - I'd be more likely to be dissatisfied, give poor feedback and return the item. So doesn't that help both the seller and buyer? Remember this is all consumer/buyer driven. If no ones buying then there is no business - I assume many of these changes are to benefit the buyer (and seem burdensome for the seller).

Take the example of working in the hospital. Everything we do, in regards to reimbursement, or even penalties, is based on feedback surveys from patients and how we compare with other facilities. When our hospital only gets a return rate of about 25% (and everyone always says well its just the unhappy ones that return the survey) - that has a huge impact - we are talking millions of dollars. So now we have to change how we interact with the patient (many will argue that the care itself has not changed) - in order to improve response rate, satisfaction scores. It's all about the consumer and what we have to do to meet those needs.

Just my 3 cents

[thegunslinger41]

I hate the fact that EBAY also charges the seller a % of the charged shipping charges as well. M*th3rFu@@kers! This is criminal.


G

[tippy4]

Theyre probably getting kickbacks from the USPS too!

[Scoogs]

Yeah, taking final value fees out of shipping costs is BS. Ebay's line is that we should just offer free shipping.
Sorry, have you seen international shipping rates lately? Having to add another 10% to that cost to cover the extra fees gets a bit ridiculous.

[Robert Fulman]

The reason ebay uses shipping in its fee calculation is because prior to that, sellers would routinely sell items for $1, plus $100 for shipping. They would then ship the item at the cheapest cost possible and keep the extra shipping money without paying any fees on it.

[barlow]

I just sent a payment via PayPal to Titto_Villa as a payment to friends or family. There was a fee for the transaction, not much around $1.50. This was my first international transfer via PayPal so I don't know if this is normal or if they have finally taken away the last free transfer option! I sent a payment to Shannon as reimbursement for shipping an item from his collection sale on Saturday and there was no fee. Has anyone else noticed any changes today?


Ken

[Randall Flagg]

I just sent a payment via PayPal to Titto_Villa as a payment to friends or family. There was a fee for the transaction, not much around $1.50. This was my first international transfer via PayPal so I don't know if this is normal or if they have finally taken away the last free transfer option! I sent a payment to Shannon as reimbursement for shipping an item from his collection sale on Saturday and there was no fee. Has anyone else noticed any changes today?


Ken

I'll check, but recently Paypal allowed "gift" payments within the USA with no fee as long as the amount was used from an existing balance.
If my Paypal account had been zero, then the gift would have incurred a small fee (which Paypal disclosed in advance).

[Patrick]

I just sent a payment via PayPal to Titto_Villa as a payment to friends or family. There was a fee for the transaction, not much around $1.50. This was my first international transfer via PayPal so I don't know if this is normal or if they have finally taken away the last free transfer option! I sent a payment to Shannon as reimbursement for shipping an item from his collection sale on Saturday and there was no fee. Has anyone else noticed any changes today?


Ken

I'll check, but recently Paypal allowed "gift" payments within the USA with no fee as long as the amount was used from an existing balance.
If my Paypal account had been zero, then the gift would have incurred a small fee (which Paypal disclosed in advance).

As recently as last week, as long as the "gift" funds come from a verified bank account (vs. from a credit card), there is no fee. It does not have to come from a pre-existing Paypal balance.

[TwistedNadine]

He did an international transfer and I think there is a fee for that regardless thats it a gift of paypal funds.

[barlow]

Thanks T.N. part of the transaction was from my bank account, but I have never had a fee for money coming out of my checking account before, but this was the first international transaction. I'm glad to hear it was just an international transaction fee. That means we can still avoid domestic fees, at least for the time being!


Ken

[Rachel Readman]

That might have been what they call a cross border fee here in the UK. For example here they charge me as a business 3.4% + 20 pence plus a cross border fee and then they use their own exchange rate (2.5% above the wholesale exchange rate) which is rubbish compared to the real world market exchange rates and of course it goes in their favour and into their big clown pockets.

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mp...onversion-fees

[cit74]

Last time I sent funds overseas - to Tom as well - there was a small fee from paypal - maybe this is just something special with Tom and he has found a way to get a little more out of the system?

[thegunslinger41]

Howdy fellas. I'm sure many of you are fed up with EBay's double dipping practices. I know they have changed for the worst over the past few years and as always, it's the sellers who suffer.

One thing that I noticed a while back when I was looking at eBay's itemized bill was that they were charging me an identical commission fee (~10%) for what I was charging for shipping. So...for $4 medial mail shipping charges, I saw a 40 cent fee from ebay. Now why should they even do that??? Ugh...now 40 cents isn't really a big deal but about a year ago I sold a set of books that I shipped to Sweden. Shipping cost me about $56 (of course, they buyer agreed to this shipping charge). Anyhow...ebay took their $5.60 (10%) cut from that.

Oh..and i'm sure all of you have dealt with their fixed $4 shipping fee...and how it can't be more or anything. So f**CKED up IMO.

I've gotten 2 warnings/disclaimers before "Ending an Item Early" from ebay recently...saying that they may STILL have to charge me a final auction value fee. I guess people are ending auctions early because they already sold their item.

I have found a way around this last issue. Recently I sold a Joe Hill S/L book to someone here on dt.org. However, at the same time, I had it listed on ebay. I went to end the auction and "BLEEP, BLEEP"...I received my warning from ebay. So...I didn't end the auction early. Solution: I Edited the auction and changed the BIN from $220 to $1000. Problem solved. Auction didn't sell of course.

-G

[redsoxfan565]

They won't charge you a final value fee if it doesn't sell or has zero bids when you end the item. You will still get charged the insertion fees if you end the auction early.

[becca69]

And sadly they started charging a percentage of your shipping, unless it is free, to keep sellers from over charging to compensate for their low selling price. The only thing it's done is screw the honest seller IMO.

[neosatus]

Howdy fellas. I'm sure many of you are fed up with EBay's double dipping practices. I know they have changed for the worst over the past few years and as always, it's the sellers who suffer.

One thing that I noticed a while back when I was looking at eBay's itemized bill was that they were charging me an identical commission fee (~10%) for what I was charging for shipping. So...for $4 medial mail shipping charges, I saw a 40 cent fee from ebay. Now why should they even do that??? Ugh...now 40 cents isn't really a big deal but about a year ago I sold a set of books that I shipped to Sweden. Shipping cost me about $56 (of course, they buyer agreed to this shipping charge). Anyhow...ebay took their $5.60 (10%) cut from that.

Oh..and i'm sure all of you have dealt with their fixed $4 shipping fee...and how it can't be more or anything. So f**CKED up IMO.

I've gotten 2 warnings/disclaimers before "Ending an Item Early" from ebay recently...saying that they may STILL have to charge me a final auction value fee. I guess people are ending auctions early because they already sold their item.

I have found a way around this last issue. Recently I sold a Joe Hill S/L book to someone here on dt.org. However, at the same time, I had it listed on ebay. I went to end the auction and "BLEEP, BLEEP"...I received my warning from ebay. So...I didn't end the auction early. Solution: I Edited the auction and changed the BIN from $220 to $1000. Problem solved. Auction didn't sell of course.

-G

I don't understand the hate. Ebay is a great service as far as getting your items/products views (buyers) from all over the world. If you don't like the fees, no one is forcing you to use it. Make your own website and sell that way. No fees that way, right?

Ebay began taking a cut of the shipping price long ago. They did this to keep people from selling stuff for an extremely low sell price and moving the cost over to shipping ( i.e. DVDs for .99 but she shipping is $20).

The $4 max only applies to Media Mail, and only for single/lightweight books. If you are selling a heavy book or a set/lot of books, all you have to due is enter the weight and then select the option to calculate shipping by weight.
This is actually a good thing, imo as it prevents people from gouging for shipping--an act I despised for years as I am honest and do not gouge and never would even if I could.


I like how you fail to mention that insertion fees and final value fees have dropped quite a bit over the years. And sellers can also get discounted USPS shipping which is nice.


You'll get no shoulder to cry on here. If you don't like paying for the service that allows lots of traffic to your listings then hey, don't use it. Then you won't have to whine about it.

[Dan]

My biggest gripe is that you are required to use Paypal. So, they take a cut from final valuation and shipping, then take a cut from Paypal.

Also, it's difficult to set an exact price on shipping because you are losing money the more shipping cost. For example, if I sell something to person A and it ships to $10, I pay $1 fee. It costs $10 to ship, so I lose a dollar from my profit. If same exact item is sold to person B and they live in an area that has higher shipping rates, say $20, now the fee is $2. Now my cut from profit is $2 instead of $1. The result is that you have to charge more initially, which is what I do. But you risk losing bidders by starting higher to ensure you cover the fees. I sold something that i listed the actual dimensions into the auction so it could be calculated by eBay. I had a buyer message me and tell me that i'm crazy thinking it cost $32 to send this item to Arizona from Oklahoma. I told him it's calculated, that I didn't set the rate. He didn't bid. I understand it's a business that I don't have to partake in. Just because it's my choice to use eBay doesn't mean I have to like their decisions.

eBay is definitely a buyers market over a sellers market. Unless you do bulk, then I suppose it's a way to make some money.

[herbertwest]

About a month ago (?), I had a job interview for eBay in Zurich. It didnt go as well as i hoped.
After that i applied to eBay in California > no reply.

Still love ebay

[Scoogs]

Neosatus is correct about letting it ship based on weight to get around the ridiculous $4 limit.
Not sure how to add insurance into the mix nowadays since they frequently block you from adding a handling fee.

My main complaint is that I can't leave negative feedback for buyers that don't pay.
Sure you can log a dispute and they will be flagged, but other sellers can't see that so the deadbeats can continue to bid on things.

[thegunslinger41]

Howdy fellas. I'm sure many of you are fed up with EBay's double dipping practices. I know they have changed for the worst over the past few years and as always, it's the sellers who suffer.

One thing that I noticed a while back when I was looking at eBay's itemized bill was that they were charging me an identical commission fee (~10%) for what I was charging for shipping. So...for $4 medial mail shipping charges, I saw a 40 cent fee from ebay. Now why should they even do that??? Ugh...now 40 cents isn't really a big deal but about a year ago I sold a set of books that I shipped to Sweden. Shipping cost me about $56 (of course, they buyer agreed to this shipping charge). Anyhow...ebay took their $5.60 (10%) cut from that.

Oh..and i'm sure all of you have dealt with their fixed $4 shipping fee...and how it can't be more or anything. So f**CKED up IMO.

I've gotten 2 warnings/disclaimers before "Ending an Item Early" from ebay recently...saying that they may STILL have to charge me a final auction value fee. I guess people are ending auctions early because they already sold their item.

I have found a way around this last issue. Recently I sold a Joe Hill S/L book to someone here on dt.org. However, at the same time, I had it listed on ebay. I went to end the auction and "BLEEP, BLEEP"...I received my warning from ebay. So...I didn't end the auction early. Solution: I Edited the auction and changed the BIN from $220 to $1000. Problem solved. Auction didn't sell of course.

-G

I don't understand the hate. Ebay is a great service as far as getting your items/products views (buyers) from all over the world. If you don't like the fees, no one is forcing you to use it. Make your own website and sell that way. No fees that way, right?

Ebay began taking a cut of the shipping price long ago. They did this to keep people from selling stuff for an extremely low sell price and moving the cost over to shipping ( i.e. DVDs for .99 but she shipping is $20).

The $4 max only applies to Media Mail, and only for single/lightweight books. If you are selling a heavy book or a set/lot of books, all you have to due is enter the weight and then select the option to calculate shipping by weight.
This is actually a good thing, imo as it prevents people from gouging for shipping--an act I despised for years as I am honest and do not gouge and never would even if I could.


I like how you fail to mention that insertion fees and final value fees have dropped quite a bit over the years. And sellers can also get discounted USPS shipping which is nice.


You'll get no shoulder to cry on here. If you don't like paying for the service that allows lots of traffic to your listings then hey, don't use it. Then you won't have to whine about it.

Neo...I actually agree with all that you said. LOL. Sometimes I just get hulk-angry though.

G

[dnemec]

Neosatus is correct about letting it ship based on weight to get around the ridiculous $4 limit.
Not sure how to add insurance into the mix nowadays since they frequently block you from adding a handling fee.

My main complaint is that I can't leave negative feedback for buyers that don't pay.
Sure you can log a dispute and they will be flagged, but other sellers can't see that so the deadbeats can continue to bid on things.

That's my major complaint too! I had a dozen audiobooks listed on ebay, all missing cds. I thought: I have no idea what to do with all these, so maybe someone else could use them! I made it ABUNDANTLY clear; even going so far as to list what cd was missing in each book. Buyer buys auction for $.99 plus shipping and leaves me negative feedback because all the audiobooks are missing discs. I was furious! Ebay then refused to remove the negative feedback. All I could do is leave additional feedback that the buyer was an asshole. Even 8 months later, I'm still pissed. And that negative feedback is still following me around. Now you guys have me all fired up!

[dnemec]

You do make good points, thegunslinger41. Ebay can just piss you off some days!!