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
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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 ....