eBay's new seller requirements

[RickR]

Who else has concerns?

Essentially, they will no longer allow Paypal payments.  For sellers, they are asking for:

• Your SSN (why, I'm not sure).
• A real bank account - to deposit sale payments and also to withdraw fees.

On the plus side:

• They won't take fees until buyers pay.  Why did this simple change take so long?

I still sell on ebay.  My plan is to come up with a free savings account and use that.  All of this starts Feb 1 I think. 

Your thoughts, please.

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by RickR

[Rocker67]

A question on this. Will they still be accepting payments from buyers by PayPal? I feel safer making purchases by PayPal instead of credit card or bank withdrawal as I feel there is some protection from fraud that way.

[RickR]

It doesn't explicitly say whether Paypal payments will still be accepted.  I do know they accept credit card payments directly through e-bay right now.  I'm not sure what the protections are. 

 

[Rocker67]

14 minutes ago, RickR said:

It doesn't explicitly say whether Paypal payments will still be accepted.  I do know they accept credit card payments directly through e-bay right now.  I'm not sure what the protections are. 

 

Guess we will find out in February if there are other major changes. Love how they want to be the premier auction site but are making it harder to use the site for sellers. My guess is they might be doing it to help fight against scamming sellers by making a little harder to become a seller.

 

[RickR]

I should also mention that it should reduce fees for sellers.  No more Paypal fees. 

 

[Justin]

It seems unfathomable that eBay will no longer except PayPal. Didn't even pay by PayPal for this very reason? If anything they should be expanding to except other forms of payment, including Bitcoin in my opinion. 

[RickR]

I remember when eBay and Paypal were the same corporate entity.  Paypal got split off, and it seems like this moment of "cutting them out" has been in the plans for a long time. 

 

[nosweargamer]

So from my understanding, sellers can still accept paypal for payment. Also, I think ebay is not forcing every seller to do this at once.

How were you notified Rick? Do you get a e-mail and a message through ebay or just e-mail? If you don't mind me asking, what was the subject line. I may search my e-mail to make sure I didn't miss something.

[RickR]

E-mail.  The subject line is "Getting paid on eBay has changed." and it came on Jan 12.  I can also see it in the "My Ebay" messages link.  When I try to create a listing now, it won't let me continue until I set that up. 

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by RickR

[RickR]

[nosweargamer]

I did not get that message yet, but it may be a matter of time. Ebay used to own Paypal, but no longer and are looking to pocket some of the money paypal was earning.

A quick Google search shows that several sellers hate it. They don't like giving ebay all that info, the money isn't available as quickly, they can't use the global shipping program anymore and it makes it easier for ebay to side with buyers in disputes. In the past if you had a problem, you could also ask paypal for help.

The bright side is that the fees may be lower than paypal (ebay will still charge a processing fee) and you don't have to deal with another party, as in Paypal.

It looks like I may need to add and extra savings account. I really liked paypal and it's a bummer that this is being forced on sellers to do business with ebay. I suppose I could also look into selling on amazon instead, but some items would be harder to move and amazon has a lot of fees iirc.

FYI, with you Soc, ebay may issue a 1099, but right now only if you make $20,000 in sales.

 

 

 

[TrekMD]

I don't often sell on ebay but I got MULTIPLE emails asking me to set up payments.  I stopped when they asked for the bank account and the SSN but had to do it afterwards.  They want report to Uncle Sam for tax purposes. 

[Justin]

I don't trust eBay to have direct access to my bank account. At least PayPal served as a buffer between the two. There've been more than one occasion over the past two and a half decades that I've been on eBay where they've acted unfairly or attempted an unreasonable chargeback without notice. Two months after an order is delivered someone decides they don't want it and hundreds of dollars get taken out of your account. I can imagine the unexpected overdrafts some people are going to face. That's a serious problem. A lot of people turn to eBay to sell things in times of need.

[RickR]

I completely agree @Justin.  I'm having serious doubts about this.  But I'm not sure there's any good alternative.  For all it's faults, ebay does work for selling (and buying).  I think I may just hold off as long as possible and see if they come up with something more reasonable.  Why not allow a credit card instead of a bank account? 

 

[RickR]

Well folks...I just sold my first item using the new seller requirements, and I'm extremely unhappy.  Why?

• Fees are way up.  Books for example.  The fees were 12% before.  14.35% now. 
• Without paypal, there are no more shipping discounts. 
• I have no idea when the money will show up in my bank account.  Paypal was immediate. 
• They keep telling us this is going to save on fees.  But I beg to differ.  A $14 book sale resulted in $3.57 in fees.  Why bother?

I'd love to hear others' experience as they start selling under the new system.  Me personally?  I'm probably done for a while selling on ebay.  What a shame. 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by RickR

[nosweargamer]

12 hours ago, RickR said:

Well folks...I just sold my first item using the new seller requirements, and I'm extremely unhappy.  Why?

• Fees are way up.  Books for example.  The fees were 12% before.  14.35% now. 
• Without paypal, there are no more shipping discounts. 
• I have no idea when the money will show up in my bank account.  Paypal was immediate. 
• They keep telling us this is going to save on fees.  But I beg to differ.  A $14 book sale resulted in $3.57 in fees.  Why bother?

I'd love to hear others' experience as they start selling under the new system.  Me personally?  I'm probably done for a while selling on ebay.  What a shame. 

I wonder if one could use paypal to ship the items and still get the discount that way.  It really stinks that these changes appear to benefit no one except ebay.

[Justin]

Game Gavel's not looking so bad 😐

[nosweargamer]

1 hour ago, Justin said:

Game Gavel's not looking so bad 😐

Except it no longer exists as a gaming auction site. 

I may end up looking into Amazon in the future...sigh.

[RickR]

I do have more info on my transaction.  The funds finally showed up in my Ebay "available funds" today.  And supposedly, it will sweep into my bank account tomorrow.  We'll see how that works out.  The way to see this info is very convoluted, and I'm appalled at the lack of detail and transparency.  They should know better.

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by RickR

[Justin]

8 minutes ago, RickR said:

They should know better.

This is starting to remind me of Quibi. If this is disastrous enough the rest of the world will be saying the same thing you are @RickR and they'll have to change their policies to survive.

[nosweargamer]

14 minutes ago, Justin said:

This is starting to remind me of Quibi. If this is disastrous enough the rest of the world will be saying the same thing you are @RickR and they'll have to change their policies to survive.

My hope is that they change it before they force me into it.

[RickR]

I doubt they'll change it. 

FYI - I have an account set up an on on-line bank (CapitalOne360).  I simply opened an extra savings account just for this ebay purpose.  I did not give ebay my account login info, but instead just gave them the routing and account numbers.  If you decide to proceed, I think this is probably the easiest thing to do. 

 

[RickR]

Update:  The funds from my sale finally showed up in my bank account this morning.  5 days after being paid.  On the bright side, they already took all fees.  There should no longer be a monthly fee invoice. I guess the other really nice thing is that they don't charge you fees at all until you get paid.  Remember with the old system, you'd be charged fees and if the buyer never paid, you'd have to wait quite a while to get them refunded. 

For those that are on the fence, the system does seem to work.  I don't necessarily like it.  It may take time to get used to. 

Edited February 22, 2021 by RickR

[nosweargamer]

Well, I was finally forced to switch over. I sold one game as a test, and just got paid today. Now to wait and make sure the money comes in before I list more.

[RickR]

It does work, and there are advantages.  They finally did add in shipping discounts, which is nice.  But the fees are still too high.