[DeTomaso] NPC - RE: eBay fees a lot higher now?

[Orville]

eBay has a very astute and competent group of lawyers on their staff. Their
integration with PayPal was a skillful manipulation of banking regulations.
PayPal brings in an additional 3% of the sale since one is almost forced to
accept PayPal, which is a subsidiary of eBay, as the means of payment. That
added to the 9% of FVF starts to add up. Another item to consider is:

PayPal is retiring its Money Market Fund, so none of the money in your
PayPal account is working for you. Users keep roughly $2.6 billion in
interest-free accounts with PayPal, and only $471 million in the interest
bearing Money Market fund. Put your money to work for you, not for PayPal! 

Their goals have migrated over the years to meet market demands, but they
continue to make lots of money. They do pay their employees well, but due to
the complexity of the myriad of items sold, they can't be knowledgeable in
all fields and give the impression that they adhere to the "Golden Rule":
Those that have the gold make the rules.

I have been selling on eBay since 1998, and the little man is slowly being
forced out of their marketplace. The prime problem is that there is not a
readily available comparable venue which one may substitute for eBay. Most
of the items I have sold in the recent past have been antiques,
predominately glassware: http://tinyurl.com/orville-eBay. If one desires to
continue selling on eBay, then the only viable approach is to incorporate
the fees into the sales price of the item being offered which makes you less
competitive with others selling similar items. The other option is to move
to another venue which doesn't have anywhere the visibility of eBay.

eBay is currently trying to move its market source to one similar to Amazon,
which is new material in the electronics, literary and clothing lines which
is to be held in eBay warehouses.

 

Orville

 

  _____  

 

A while back I put in an extra charge if the buyer paid with paypal and they
pulled the auction.  Sure looks like an antitrust issue.

 

The officers are making all the $s they can before ebay collapses.  The new
American way.

 

Ken