Hey all,

A friend of mine helped me to put a couple of radios on EBay over the
weekend. He used Vendio, and listed them both under "Consumer
Electronics\Radios: Ham, CB etc\Shortwave". The 2 auctions were set
to start Sunday at 9:00pm. Today he discovers that they didn't start
because EBay says you have to allow PayPal for certain categories of
items.

WTF??

My friend won't take PayPal because it costs extra. He has had no
problem with bank checks and money orders in past auctions. I thought
maybe it's because electronics cost a bit more, but my friend usually
sells high-end guitars and other instruments, so cost doesn't seem to
be it. Then my cynical side kicked in, and I figure EBay must be
getting kickbacks from PayPal. Does anyone know the real story, or
have ideas?

Anyway, sorry for the rant...

DWP

CelticDude wrote:
Hey all,

A friend of mine helped me to put a couple of radios on EBay over the
weekend. He used Vendio, and listed them both under "Consumer
Electronics\Radios: Ham, CB etc\Shortwave". The 2 auctions were set
to start Sunday at 9:00pm. Today he discovers that they didn't start
because EBay says you have to allow PayPal for certain categories of
items.

WTF??

My friend won't take PayPal because it costs extra. He has had no
problem with bank checks and money orders in past auctions. I thought
maybe it's because electronics cost a bit more, but my friend usually
sells high-end guitars and other instruments, so cost doesn't seem to
be it. Then my cynical side kicked in, and I figure EBay must be
getting kickbacks from PayPal. Does anyone know the real story, or
have ideas?


ebay owns PayPal. They're highly motivated to drive users to allow
Paypal for a couple of reasons. One is the access to personal
information that PayPal use permits. Information harvesting, collation
and sales is a profit center for most businesses, today.

Second, PayPal itself is a profit center for eBay. And not always in
a good way.

Do a websearch for some of the horror stories. It's not pretty.

"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...
Second, PayPal itself is a profit center for eBay. And not always in a
good way.

Do a websearch for some of the horror stories. It's not pretty.


OTOH, I won't buy anything on eBay unless the seller takes PayPal - and I
buy lots of stuff on eBay. Going to a bank/post office to get a draft/MO
is too much hassle.

This is the 21st century. If you don't take electronic payments, I'm not
interested in buying from you.

OTOH, I won't buy anything on eBay unless the seller takes PayPal - and I
buy lots of stuff on eBay. Going to a bank/post office to get a draft/MO
is too much hassle.

This is the 21st century. If you don't take electronic payments, I'm not
interested in buying from you.

Yup-same here. No way as a buyer I'll consider a non-Paypal item. Running to
the bank/post office is a major pain in the ass. Also, Paypal offers me
protection. I had to get them involved after a couple of scumbags wouldn't
ship the radios or just sat on them. Without PP I'd have had no recourse.

Rich

D Peter Maus wrote:


ebay owns PayPal. They're highly motivated to drive users to allow
Paypal for a couple of reasons. One is the access to personal
information that PayPal use permits. Information harvesting, collation
and sales is a profit center for most businesses, today.

Second, PayPal itself is a profit center for eBay. And not always in
a good way.

Do a websearch for some of the horror stories. It's not pretty.


In European community, everybody has an IBAN/BIC set of numbers/codes, so
that you can transfer money for free... (within EG ..)

Marc
--
--
Shortwave transmissions in English, Francais, Nederlands, Deutsch,
Suid-Afrikaans, Chinese, Dansk, Urdu, Cantonese, Greek, Spanish,
Portuguese, ...
http://users.fulladsl.be/spb13810/swlist/ Updated every month or so ....

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't know that PayPal was so closely
connected to EBay; that explains a lot. Ironically, as a buyer, I
also will not generally bid on an item unless they take PayPal, as I
feel it's the safest bet for me. OTOH I do not have PayPal connected
to a bank account. I have heard of PayPal taking money out of a bank
account if they decide you owe them. At least with a credit card, I
have some recourse beyond PayPal.

However, this policy of EBay's still strikes me as incredibly
arbitrary. Why for some categories, and not others. My radios are
listed under Everything ElseOther. Very annoying.

DWP

"CelticDude" wrote in message
...

My friend won't take PayPal because it costs extra.

Not a valid argument. It's well documented that Paypal acceptance increases
average selling prices, way beyond the fees charged. So someone that
doesn't take Paypal is LOSING money. People that refuse to take Paypal are
usually the sellers that have been on the losing end of a dispute. Good,
honest sellers take Paypal if they want to sell their items for as much as
possible.

On Mon, 5 May 2008 16:01:08 -0700 (PDT), CelticDude
wrote:

Hey all,

A friend of mine helped me to put a couple of radios on EBay over the
weekend. He used Vendio, and listed them both under "Consumer
Electronics\Radios: Ham, CB etc\Shortwave". The 2 auctions were set
to start Sunday at 9:00pm. Today he discovers that they didn't start
because EBay says you have to allow PayPal for certain categories of
items.

WTF??

My friend won't take PayPal because it costs extra. He has had no
problem with bank checks and money orders in past auctions. I thought
maybe it's because electronics cost a bit more, but my friend usually
sells high-end guitars and other instruments, so cost doesn't seem to
be it. Then my cynical side kicked in, and I figure EBay must be
getting kickbacks from PayPal. Does anyone know the real story, or
have ideas?

Anyway, sorry for the rant...

DWP
No kickback involved. eBay owns PayPal lock stock and barrel. It is
simply a way to extract further money from Ebay sellers by using an
illegal and anticompetitive advantage.

On May 6, 1:01*am, CelticDude wrote:
Hey all,

A friend of mine helped me to put a couple of radios on EBay over the
weekend. *He used Vendio, and listed them both under "Consumer
Electronics\Radios: Ham, CB etc\Shortwave". *The 2 auctions were set
to start Sunday at 9:00pm. *Today he discovers that they didn't start
because EBay says you have to allow PayPal for certain categories *of
items.

WTF??

My friend won't take PayPal because it costs extra. *He has had no
problem with bank checks and money orders in past auctions. *I thought
maybe it's because electronics cost a bit more, but my friend usually
sells high-end guitars and other instruments, so cost doesn't seem to
be it. *Then my cynical side kicked in, and I figure EBay must be
getting kickbacks from PayPal. *Does anyone know the real story, or
have ideas?

Anyway, sorry for the rant...

DWP

So sorry that many of you have had bad PayPal experiences, as here in
Afrika the comming of PayPal has been the best thing for me since
George Washington came to town.

Prior to PayPal I had to go personally to my bank twice for each
transaction and get a bank draft, for which I got zapped $30 for each
one, then I had to send it snail mail and the whole sorry saga took
weeks and many sellers refused to deal with me.

Now I just pay PayPal via my Mastercard and the whole thing takes
seconds and I don't get charged any fees and get the best exchange
rate = lovely!

Never had a problem at all over many transactions.

John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
Icom IC-7700, Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8. ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop.
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx