Quick question how many of you accept payment from an ebay auction using postal money orders? I haven't had this request in some time. What acceptable methods are their if the buyer does not have paypal? I have a buyer asking if he can bid on my stuff or not, he is from Canada.
Canadian PMOs in US dollars can be cashed at Post Offices in the US. You can mark the item 'paid' manually. Ebay disapprove but what they don't know will not hurt them. The buyer has no access to 'buyer protection'. You will need to ensure that you do not have bidders without PP accounts ' on your block list, or add the username to your Bidder Block Exemption List. They are better for a seller than any other means of payment except cash in hand. No need to ship till you have cashed the MO.
Since the buyer would not know when it arrived, sent by post, they'd have no way of knowing if they were waiting while you cashed it.
Like cashier's checks, counterfeit money orders are not rare . . . to err on the side of caution, consider delaying shipment until a bad money order would already have come back to you, if deposited at your bank.
They can usually check online to see if the MO has been cashed, right? I have someone every six months or so ask if they can pay with a MO. I say, absolutely, USPS MO or Western Union MO are great, as long as you are okay with me waiting to ship the item until the MO clears the bank. If it looks genuine to me when I get it, I cash it and ship the item (it's usually a low-value item anyway.) Never had anyone try to scam me with this method. Not quite as fast as PayPal, but you get to keep the 3%.
I used to accept postal m/o's but no more, they are being counterfitted. And I NEVER accept Western Union.
I meant as long as the buyer understood that they may have to wait a week or so before you send their item, and they wouldn't ding you with bad feedback for having to wait.
At least he asked first, that is worth something. I've always said Paypal only in my listings. Yet some jerks win and then tell me they don't have PP. Canada Post is worse than USPS. Only time a buyer of mine said he didn't get my package, was in Canada. I still ship a lot to Canada.
Yeah usually they ask after. I had a really expensive coin won my someone in New Zealand before but I ended up not sending it. Any suggestions on sending to Canada.
Yes, include the following in all your listings: "Buyer to pay all duty, custom fees, and any other related charges." I believe your Cdn buyer has a lesser chance of paying high fees if you use USPS. FedEx, and especially UPS (sorry Greenie) have high custom brokerage fees.
I used to accept postal m/o's but no more, they are being counterfeited. And I NEVER accept Western Union. Cashing the MO at the post office (for Postal Money Orders) would eliminate the forgery problem for this type (and who is going to forge a PMO for maybe $50 or so) and the fear of Western Union is misplaced. Sending money to a stranger by Western Union cash transfer is as unsafe as it gets, but receiving money by WU cash transfer, or by WU money order is as safe as anything. Many people seem to have a fear of WU because of this confusion. It's like mixing up the wicked witch of the north with your grandmother because they are both old women. In earlier days on ebay I accepted many hundreds of PMOs from US buyers with never a problem, and all mine had to pass through the international banking system rather than being cashable locally.
Any suggestions on sending to Canada. It seems that the Canadians are no longer applying the low $20 import threshold for import taxes, on postal items only. It will still be applied to items sent with the GSP or by courier services like Fedex. It seems that $100 is more like the new de facto level for charging taxes but this is not official, they simply seem to have decided that collecting tax on very small values is simply not worth the cost of collection for the revenue raised. I reiterate that this only apples to postal imports. Sending stuff anywhere is safer if you do not mention coins or precious metals on the customs form. Numismatic Material,with a modest value is far better. It you buy a postage label online you get delivery confirmation to Canada and many other countries. Experienced shippers will tell you that completely ignoring anything ebay says about sending stuff abroad is a very good start.
In the early days of ebay there was no paypal and PMO's were the preferred form of payment, safer than checks.
safer than checks I also accepted personal checks and never waited to clear them. one or two a year would bounce, always for trivial amounts, but the cost of this was far lower than Paypal fees would have been. I even put on my listings that I did not wait to clear personal checks and that they were welcome, but there was no flood of opportunistic fraudsters. May people seem to have the idea that risk management means 'no risks' when it really means working out the cost of risks and accepting them if they make financial sense.
I don't mind taking money orders for ebay sales and wish more people would pay that way and cut out at least the Paypal fees. Although I haven't checked, I would assume if you mark the MO sale as paid Ebay still takes their fees.
Although I haven't checked, I would assume if you mark the MO sale as paid Ebay still takes their fees. The fees are debited to your account the instant the sale ends. They really don't care if you actually get paid.
when I buy something on feebay, I usually pay by US Postal Money Order and I send it certified ( in other words they sign for it, proving that they received payment and it comes w/ tracking a number ) ... also this is the way I pay for my other bill(s) and haven't ever had any problem(s) ... I also explain to them that they can retain the item until the Money Order is cashed in ... plus more money stay(s) in your pocket instead of paying the fee(s) associated w/ the site ... IMO
