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Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
291–300 of 398 posts
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A true "amateur to amateur" auction type sales website is an area begging for competition... Really? Because this is the area eBay started in, and they pivoted to more "online retail" than "online yard sale" because (surprise!) there is a lot more money in retail. Really, eBay is more today's Viaweb than an evolution of either p2p sales or auctions.
While it's true that eBay pivoted to a more profitable niche, their original niche was still quite profitable: they were a successful IPO and pulling down cash back in the days when most sellers were regular people. So if they're abandoning that market to focus on a more lucrative one, it might [1] leave an opening for someone else to focus on it, and make good, even if not eBay-sized, profits. [1] With all sorts of…
Since this is meant to be HN:
There's a lesson to be learnt. If you want to build a niche, build one that anyone can access. Better still, build a niche which stops people being locked out. Later on, you can screw the unwashed masses, and turn it into a B2C channel. See - Youtube, eBay, the iApp stores, the internet in general.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chargebacks are a part of doing business any time you accept credit cards, whether paypal is your merchant provider or not. The problem here is Visa/MC/Amex etc. Since you almost have to accept credit card payments these days, you're stuck with their terms. Since the banks all provide credit through these card providers, there's very little competition. There are numerous ways to virtually eliminate CC fraud but the…
> Eliminate VISA and MC, who are basically skimming 2.5% off our retail economy. This claim doesn't make much sense. For example, an economy with RGDP 150,000 units, of which 2.5% go to Visa/MC, is not worse off than one of RGDP 130,000 units, of which 0% go to Visa/MC.
That's a false dichotomy – there's (at least) a third option – a service that doesn't skim so much off the top – 2.5% made sense when credit cards were a rarer payment method, used only for a small fraction of transactions.
Now, nearly everyone has and uses multiple visa or mc branded credit or debit cards, yielding trillions in transactions, making billions for Visa/MC.
In short, they've grown much more profitable due to their scale and none of that has value has been returned to businesses or consumers in via rate reductions, AFAIK.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#294These kind of stories is EXACTLY why I will never sell anything on eBay...
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ebay works great for buyers now, it just sucks for sellers. I buy on Ebay all the time, you can find all kinds of things there really cheap.
Have you ever tried to get your money back after getting scammed as a buyer?
Yes. I received some counterfeit DVDs many years back and I ended up getting my money back from PayPal.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#296Fundamentally, is this a problem with eBay/PayPal or how credit card companies deal with chargebacks (and eBay/PayPal simply having to parrot the same model)?
As part of a large OTA, I've dealt with credit card chargebacks in the travel industry and it's really not pretty. As soon as a chargeback is received by the bank, you, the merchant, are presumed guilty. It's up to you to prove your "innocence". The buyer can simply claim one of the many frivolous reasons without providing an iota of proof and you'll be stuck with providing reams of paperwork - chargeslip, e-ticket, boarding pass, verification from airline that the passenger boarded the plane, etc. etc.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#297The same thing happened to me with a BlackBerry a few years back. Somehow my Paypal account was limited immediately afterwards, and thus my eBay account was limited by virtue of connection.
I have no respect for either of these companies.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Eliminate VISA and MC, who are basically skimming 2.5% off our retail economy. This claim doesn't make much sense. For example, an economy with RGDP 150,000 units, of which 2.5% go to Visa/MC, is not worse off than one of RGDP 130,000 units, of which 0% go to Visa/MC.
That's a false dichotomy – there's (at least) a third option – a service that doesn't skim so much off the top – 2.5% made sense when credit cards were a rarer payment method, used only for a small fraction of transactions. Now, nearly everyone has and uses multiple visa or mc branded credit or debit cards, yielding trillions in transactions, making billions for Visa/MC. In short, they've grown much more profitable d…
> there's (at least) a third option – a service that doesn't skim so much off the top
I don't disagree with this at all. But I don't read the comment I was responding to as having come from the thought process of
"If Visa/MC charged a 1.5% cut instead of 2.5%, the economy would be 1.5% more productive than it is now, which means that, compared to that more enlightened hypothetical world, the non-Visa/MC portion of the economy is only 97.5% what it should be."
If you think credit is related to the size of the economy (and I do), you need to ask, where did that 2.5% number come from? Saying that Visa's entire fee represents nothing but a drag on the economy is very much of a piece with the historical loathing of merchants and usurers, who, as anyone could see, did not create value.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#299The only logical conclusion that can be made from eBay's and Paypal's policies is that they no longer want small sellers to use them. They want professional sellers to sell from their site, people who are used to dealing with chargebacks, etc, and can foot the bill when it comes to chargebacks/fraud. They want to facilitate BUYING from regular people, but make SELLING by regular people very difficult. There is no oth…
I agree. The consistency of their changes that always disadvantage small sellers, reveals intent.
But I don't agree with your suggestion that eBay-PayPal is doing this just because they are greedy. I think eBay-PayPal is run by people who take the Elite viewpoint - they dislike that the Internet is giving so much freedom and empowerment to the common people. And they want to reverse that.
Ebay originally provided a new and wonderful thing - a facility for individuals to trade easily with each other worldwide. I think that eBay has for a few years now been doing their best to destroy this capability, without being too obvious about their intent.
Another comment I have, is that eBay's practices are a very good proof of the social evils that result from software method and business practice patents. If others could provide a trading service that competed with eBay, but was sane and helpful to customers, eBay would be out of business so fast they'd wonder what hit them. (And same for PayPal.)
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Eliminate VISA and MC, who are basically skimming 2.5% off our retail economy. This claim doesn't make much sense. For example, an economy with RGDP 150,000 units, of which 2.5% go to Visa/MC, is not worse off than one of RGDP 130,000 units, of which 0% go to Visa/MC.
That's a false dichotomy – there's (at least) a third option – a service that doesn't skim so much off the top – 2.5% made sense when credit cards were a rarer payment method, used only for a small fraction of transactions. Now, nearly everyone has and uses multiple visa or mc branded credit or debit cards, yielding trillions in transactions, making billions for Visa/MC. In short, they've grown much more profitable d…
I should also point out that, if the assumption you start with is "the drag on the economy (relative to potential) from credit card fees is equal to the amount of those fees", you should quickly notice that the directionality is wrong.
In my example example, cutting fees to 1.5% (from any level at all, interestingly) requires the economy to expand by 1.5%. That's not a coincidence -- cutting fees to 0.1% would require the economy to expand by 0.1%, except that that's completely implausible; cutting fees further should cause the economy to expand more, not less.
With that in mind, it might make sense to measure against the hypothetical where credit card companies offer their services for free, but even then there is no obvious relationship to the current level of their fees. I have to stand by my assessment that saying Visa/MC are skimming 2.5% of the economy doesn't make sense. How'd we get that number?