Wow! New Selling Rules on E-Bay

Ha!

- No more checks or Money Orders!
- Maximum shipping charges
- Minimum of 4.3 on DSR's
- No more E-Bay Express

I usually ignore e-bay changes because I'm small time. But these are going to rock the online auction world. It'll be interesting to see what the fallout is.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/ConfidentBuyers/index.html#1

 

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Wow is right. This will drive even more buyers and sellers away.

The most interesting part of this new edict is the payment restrictions - checks and money orders are not allowed, only "approved electronic methods" will be allowed. "Approved electronic methods" is a pseudonym for PayPal. eBay just happens to own PayPal. So eBay stands to make more money on transactions through PayPal; they make nothing on a payment when payment is made by check or money order.

This one will be interesting to watch.

Another thing I read recently - eBay is trying to get more sellers to offer their wares at a fixed price rather than at auction. Sounds a lot like Amazon to me.

Strange times at eBay.

 

The S&H stuff I love. Kinda...well, okay, I love undercutting fellow sellers with thier Huge S&H quotes. Seriously, 5 minutes on usps.com and you got your quote to see how stupid some of the prices are. $5.00 to send something thats worth a nickel? C'mon now...

Money Order/Check needs to kept as a backup measure. Who knows when one day your identity is stolen and you need to temporarily fall back upon your checkbook or the MO??

 

jerks.

nuff said.

 

alot of it 'sounds' like a good idea... but so does communism... and look what that looks like in practice!

These Ebay changes look like a good thing on the service... No more check or money order? Sure it may protect folks from doing bad things with fake chekcs and stuff ... but Ebay does own Paypal... is bidpay/western union/ other electronic paymnent sites accepted? Or is ONLY Paypal?? The maximum shipping might be a good idea, but what about large items that might be shipped? Will that have the same maximum shipping amount as say a small ring? We all know values and size of items do not always follow the same rule! a small coin can very easily be worth more then a car! So setting a max shipping charge can easily get in the way!

Change for the sake of change is not always good, and a misconcieved plan of change is most always assured failure! We will have to see how this affects Ebay, but i agree it will force alot of folks away ... but long term, will it bring even more back?

 

i am going to go buy my gold below melt while its still possible they are going to close down soon

 

Looks like most of the changes are so ebay makes more money not to help it's customers.

Ebay doesn't make money on shipping... so they set a limit.
ebay doesn't make money on checks and money orders so they make you use paypal so they do.

What's next?

 

Just read the rule changes.

Paypal is not going to be the only electronic form of payment (for now anyway).

The S&H charge limit only applies to media and states the lister must offer ONE shipping rate within the limit but can offer other rates as well.

Not sure if I like the no checks or MO's but if they lose a ton of business during the Christmas shopping season they'll know why!

 

A lot of overseas sellers like to offer items at dirt cheap prices and charge insane shipping and handling costs to make a big profit AND bypass the eBay fees on that profit...

So you can thank all those fair and upstanding sellers in China for giving eBay a perfect excuse to start using these new shipping rules.

 

I guess this just confirms for everyone that ebay is about EBAY and that is that and enough said on this subject.

 

no checks or MO...I'm done with ebay then....time to find a new coin shop (again:headbang


stainless

 

I'm writing an email to Ebay---if they keep the rules on Checks/MO then that will be the end of buying for me. My company has a PayPal account and I use it every-so-often, but not so much for ebay.

If ya'll want to send an email as well--I think this is where you go.
http://ebay-us.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ebay_us.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Speedy

 

It will either be send a check, wait tens days for it to be mailed, or use paypal so we can charge you even more. Paypal for a seller is horrid. You get charged listing fees, followed by end of auctions fees and then paypal fees. I have sold on ebay in the past, and have found other sites to buy from, but none that I have sold on as of yet.

I say we just start boycotting ebay and look for alternative on line auctions site. If anything it may effect ebays coin market somewhat, but I don't think it would have a drastic effect unless alot of people did the same.

Regards,
S

 

I doffed eBay for selling when they came out with the last rules, ie no leaving negatives for NPB's etc. Now I will likely give up on there as a buyer too.

eBay seems to want to kill off it's business.

 

I stopped selling in January because eBay was going to raise its FVF's in February.
Plus their changes in the feedback rules scheduled for May made their FVF raises look minor.

Now their newest antics have pushed me even further away from selling.

I still average buying about 1 item a week.
Good bargains can be found there.
I buy coins I want if I can get them for no more (including S&H) than 20% above CDN Bid.

To borrow from history:
eBay won't die, it'll "just fade away."

Here's an insightful comment made on eBay referencing their pending "PayPal only" policy along with other coming changes:

"What eBay is doing isn't illegal, but they do seem to go out of their way to give buyers and sellers a growing list of reasons to move elsewhere. IMO, it's a disastrous move to go head-to-head with Amazon. They will lose that battle and probably lose all their good auction sellers in the process. Amazon is light years ahead of eBay in every aspect of site programming -- from search functionality to product pages to checkout/payment systems, etc. Given eBay's long history of programming mishaps, it's hard to see them even competing in (let alone winning) that battle. What eBay had was magic - an untouchable niche as "auctioneer of the internet" -- but they're somehow managing to destroy that. Simply astounding!"

 

I do not buy much on ebay but when I do I always pay with paypal and when I sell any coins I always request paypal so there is no change there.

I like that they are limiting the S/H because some of the seller use it to mark up the price on the items and that is the reason that I do not buy from those type of seller. I have seen seller set their S/H at $10.00 to $15.00 for a roll of dollar and that is to high!

 

That's a great move IMO. I hate as a buyer only have the options of check/ M.O., then having to wait a while for it clear than a little while longer for it to arrive. Before you know it almsost 2 weeks have gone by! And as a seller, I stopped accepting checks or money orders just because Paypal the best and easiest way to do things.

I'm really glad they're doing this.

*I see I'm one of the few who like this idea...

 

Remember something here: eBay was a venue! You are entering into a contract between yourself and the seller. If you do not like the terms of the contract, you may always "Ask Seller A Question" and try to negotiate further terms...this is perfectly legal. If the seller accepts check/MO only, you can always try to get him to allow another payment source...that's how contracts work!

The problem here is that after implementation, eBay will NO LONGER be a venue! Aside from the fact that this may very well open up a number of legal problems for them because they would no longer have any form of safe harbor claims for being a venue, everyone needs to understand that eBay is no longer a venue and is placing itself as a party to the contract.

If you do nt want to accept certain payment types, that's up to you as a seller, and your right to assert such in your legal contract. If you don't like paying with check or MO only, then simply do not enter into a binding contract with the individual...it's plain and simple, really.

I'll expound on a few things in some other replies...but remember also, the Australian government already found much of what eBay is projecting to do as unlawful, and France has already found eBay not to have any form of safe harbor because of its involvement in the contracts. We are a common law society, and those issues will be raised here, especially when there are so many now that utilize their current structure as a means of livelihood. There will be numerous complaints filed against eBay...and I believe a fair number of them will be quite valid.

 

Everybody should also write to the Attorney General's office in your State! Something that most people seem to either ignore or not understand at all is that PayPal IS a financial institute. They are required not only to register the proper paperwork, but also abide by State regulations for financial institutes in each State they conduct business through.

This is VERY important, because I have yet to see anybody on any of the fora I frequent make a comment about exactly WHAT this new "electronic payment only" bid by eBay is really about.

Again, I emphasize, eBay is currently a venue, but will no longer be after implementation of their new "rules". Currently, you enter into a contract between the seller and buyer. These contracts are legally binding. You are not forced into these contracts, you may choose not to enter into the agreement. As such, and with any contract, the promissory to pay becomes a legal debt to the buyer. A non-paying bidder very well could be forced to pay the contract promissory by a court of law. This IS a contract!

Likewise, unless the contract specifically outlines the form of payment to be made to honor the contract, any legal tender may be used to tender the debt to the contractor...this includes checks and money orders. Now, with eBay "auctions", the payment form is specified, meaning that the seller may or may not choose to accept legal tender.

However, what we have with the new eBay rules, is the restriction from being allowed to accept legal tender for a debt! I do not personally know of any landmark cases to this affect, where a venue (along with all of its safe harbors) has done or has been found to have the legal right to restrict the use of legal tender.

Yet, even all of this is not the reason to "get in arms" about the electronic payment situation. I'll explain a bit more in the next post, and why it is imperative to contact the States and make complaints, inquiries, and requests for investigation.

 

Just read all the horror stories about paypal online. They did me a good one a while back, so I won't use them ever again. I also don't beleive in credit cards. Check or money order is my only option, take it away and they can stick it. I'll go to coinwants.com, craigslist, or elsewhere.