Has Feebay really become this bad?

I sold a coin last nite for around $200.
eBay will take a healthy cut for sure, paypal took $6 themselves.
BUT, I have to wait till March 9th (estimated) to get my funds...
UNLESS I print my shipping label through them, then there's a chance I can see my funds a lot earlier.
So, my choices are to go to a local store and ship it through UPS.
Or, pay through eBay/Paypal to print a ready to ship label and give them a kickback and get my money early.
That's so pathetic.
The last time I sold on eBay was a few months ago. I sold, received my money instantly and shipped.
Now I have to let someone possess the item and still wait weeks (in certain cases) before receiving my funds.
Whats the point of a buy it now auction, for example?
List Buy It Now and receive funds instantly, but in all seriousness ONLY if you buy your shipping label through us, in all other cases you'll have to wait a few weeks still.
I have a 100% Positive feedback, most of which is fast payment/shipping.

Because I provided tracking information my funds become available 3 days after delivery is confirmed.
Roughly 03/03/12.
Hog Wash.
Any reputable coin auction alternatives?
In all seriousness I'd rather sell to my dealer for Blue Book values than continue listing on FeeBay and still receive about the same after multiple fees and a waiting game to boot.

 

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Neversold anything on ebay before.
So i have no idea what they do to earn money from it and how long it take before a seller gets his money

Been thinking about that myself also, because ebay is not always easy to find stuff on.

Wish i had the money to put up another site, been thinking about some sort of own second hand site before.
Would be great to have a site that does not charge the people who buy or sell something on it, and where everybody canput their coins, bills, tokens on.

Think i am going to search my old plans again for that second hand site i wanted to make one day.
With some adjustments its possible to make a site of it purely to sell and buy numsismatic related items on it.

Only problem i have with it is that (at this moment) i do not have the funds to start something (even something small and then expand it in the future)
And the biggest problem: will there be any intrest in it from collectors around the world?

 

Hmmm. My paypal funda are available immediately and using PayPal to getnerate the online postage is much cheaper than driving to the UPS. If I ship priority mail, I can even request that the package be picked up the next day.

For those folks that sell more on eBay, the restrictions are just not that bad at all.

Of course, you could try Craigs List but you'll be taking your chances.

 

If you had used eBay (or PayPal) to print your label, you could have saved about $1.00 in postage.

BTW, for all my sales on eBay, they have never withheld funds from a single sales - not one.

 

^ This was recently implemented and not retroactive so, if you had established a sales history prior to that you were not affected by it. Problem is hard to compete against ebay in online auction space since they already have established volume, sellers can shift to other auction sites but unless you get bidders to shift with them you are not going to make much $$ on your auctions.

 

They just did this to me. From my understanding it's some sort of security thing. They'll randomly withhold Money from people to make sure it's you. It's your money you just can't spend it yet. If you haven't sold on the bay in awhile, they probably want to make sure it's you. Thus the security check. I hang sold things on eBay for a long time then in the span of a month I sold 3-4 things. They held me for 21 days then at some point said ok, your funds are now automatically available. So again, I think it's a security type thing.

 

tdog, i understand what you are saying, but i think (and i have the feeling that the topic starter has the same idea) that it is not normal that you cant touch your own money.
I think if you sell something, then it is normal you get the money imediatly (or maybe a few days later) but not 21 days.

If you go to a shop you cant go there load up your cart and walk out and tell them you will be back in 21 days to pay

 

ditto for me on both. much easier to get postage through paypal and never had funds withheld. did the buyer use a paypal Echeck. if so then yes the check has to clear just like a regular check does

 

^That's exactly my point.
Yes, I hadn't sold in a few months, but I have been buying A LOT.
I didn't see them saying oh we want to make sure its you so we'll pay for this item for the time being, then when you receive it let us know and then you can pay if you like.
No issues if I'm buying but when I sell they have to verify, unbelievable.

The money IS there, they've literally just put a hold on it until 3 days after the item arrives.

 

I know the arguement, it frustrated me too. I was just clarifying what I thought was occurring.

 

I ran into this recently too. I am one positive feedback on my sales away from having the time restriction lifted, even though i've been an ebay seller and paypal user both for over 10 years. I sell maybe 2-3 items a year online, and I haven't gotten any feedback from my buyers since about 2008.
For me, not only are all the fees crazy, but the feedback system is a joke.

 

I've had an eBay account since the 90s. Although I hadn't sold anything for quite some time, I got my PayPal $$$ right away from my recent ASE sales.

 

Im restricted by this too, and it's understandable. Think about it; your a new seller, not proven-- paypal has everyright to take it's precautions. Just mail a label through them and once it's delivered you should have funds in 2-3 days.

 

Heritage auctions payment time is 45 days. Auctions need time to finalize. There are probably an average of 2-3 new sites open up for collectibles every year, and then close down. It is not easy.. Since many submission fees are 0 or very low, there are a lot of listings, mostly very low quality. Face it, the reason so many use eBay is the large viewing/shopping populations and the safety of buying. Sellers have a right to complain, but there is no alternative, IMO.

 

I can't blame them, I'm sure they've been scammed with all the buyer protections built-in now.

 

I've heard that Paypal will hold funds when the feedback is low, not sure if thats the case. They never held my funds for anything I have sold so far.

 

Also remember, Paypal is not an actual bank nor is it required to abide by actual or most banking laws. I've had issues with them long ago using them to sell things on eBay (not coins) and the like. They are even worse when it came to disputes between buyer and seller, not sure if they've changed since eBay bought them but I swore to never use them again, I only use it to pay directly from whatever account I have with them, I make sure I don't leave any funds in my paypal account ever, but I don't sell online any longer, only buy. At one time Paypal could freeze your account for any reason, not allowing any transactions. Might still be in the small print somewhere, not sure since I don't keep money in there.

 

FWIW, ebay owns paypal. So it's not like two separate entities getting fees. Next, I have never had this happen to me (been a long time since I sold anything on there). But it did happen to somebody I know. I talked to an ebay representative about this policy. They said it is completely random, amongst the targeted people. So it's random, but not everybody is targeted.

For example a company that sells coins on ebay every day is not going to get harrassed with it. Somebody who hasn't sold anything in a long time is eligible to be targeted. Other factors they look at is your selling history. If you've always sold coins and now all of a sudden you're selling an expensive purse, that auction may be flagged for funds to be held back until the buyer posts positive feedback. Value of your auctions is also taken into consideration. If you suddenly try to sell a higher dollar item than you have in teh past, you may get flagged. It's not guranteed to happen but you will be in the target group. Supposed to keep people honest I guess. It seems more of a way to harass the majority over a minority that this system probably rarely catches.

So that's it. There is no science to it. There's no point in comparing individual results. If you get flagged, you were just unlucky.

Saw a special on ebay one time. The FBI could take notes on how much ebay tracks you and your dealings with their site. Nobody would believe how much info they compile on you and your habits. They save everything to be used in their database. The money they rake in is beyond obscene. But that tends to happen when you're worldwide and you have that many people using your product. Point is, selling fees are all of 12%. They could get by on half that very easily.

 

An example of the reason for this policy are all those BIN's that have popped up over the last few months selling 100 morgan or peace dollars for three or four dollars apiece and they have 10, 20, 50 lots available. Scammer sells multiple lots to a lot of buyers, gets paid, and immediately funnels the money off to other places, accounts, or purchases. Eventually ebay notices and shuts it down. Now everyone who has been fleeced applies for repayment under the buyers protection and ebay/paypal get stuck for the money. By holding the money for new people or those who haven't sold for awhile it means the money is still there to return to the buyers. (At first those BIN's were from new accounts, now they are coming from highjacked dormant accounts.) By releasing the money once delivery is proven they know that at least something was received.

 

I just sold some coins on ebay. The sale ended and the guy paid me last Friday, Feb 10. Paypal said my funds weren't available until around the end of February. I sent the coins the next morning and typed in my tracking information. It took six days to get from PA or OR. As soon as it showed as delivered, which was Friday the 17th, paypal said my funds will be available on the 19th, which is today. I guess it is done to prevent scams. I only had 9 sales under my belt until then, but all of my feedback is positive, so perhaps you need a higher number of sales before they stop holding payments?

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to add that it's been a few years since I last sold on ebay, so perhaps that's another reason they held funds as a previous poster suggested.