Should PayPal Be Your Only eBay Payment Option?

Should PayPal Be Your Only eBay Payment Option?
© by Dave Lovelace
www.auctionplatinum.com

If you're selling on eBay, most likely you're currently using the services of PayPal (or have used them in the past) to process your transactions for you.

Afterall, eBay owns PayPal, so its' services are custom tailored to make doing business on the world's largest auction site a breeze, right?

Maybe. It just depends on who you ask.

I recently received a question from a subscriber who couldn't use PayPal (because of where she lived) and wondered if there were alternatives.

Based on alot of feedback regarding PayPal in eBay's forum, it's plain to see that alot of sellers are searching for other solutions, but for different reasons.

Today's tip will attempt to provide a couple of options.

PayPal has its Advantages and Disadvantages. Let’s take a look at what PayPal can do for you, and what it can’t.

The Disadvantages.

PayPal is very vulnerable to fraud, and it’s you as the seller who’ll be paying the price when it happens. What’s more, they do take a percentage from every transaction that you could be keeping if your buyers were paying by check.

You might also have noticed that PayPal comes from the eBay school of customer service, enjoying such pastimes as hiding their phone number and only ever sending out automated responses to emailed queries.

PayPal has an unusual number of campaigners against it, most of them people who’ve had their accounts frozen and had to chase PayPal for months for thousands of dollars. Some of these people recently filed a class action lawsuit against PayPal, claiming damages for lost business and they won. This alone should make you cautious about using PayPal.

The Advantages.

PayPal is quick and easy for buyers to use, and is certainly a more secure and reassuring way to accept credit cards than signing up for your own merchant account. You’ll probably also find that it’s cheaper for you.

That’s before you even consider that eBay buyers are more eager to buy from someone who accepts PayPal, as it saves them all sorts of hassle with posting payment and then waiting around. PayPal lets you give speedier customer service.

But Should You Use It Exclusively?

It's really a matter of customer service. Some of your potential customers might not have or want a PayPal account. Not everyone loves electronic payments. Some fear them. So a good rule of "options" is a smart one. The more options a customer has available to them to pay for their item, the better the chance of meeting the demand and therefore increasing sales.

Keep in mind that some buyers come to eBay because it is one of the few places on the Internet where many sellers will accept payment by more traditional methods.

Question is... do you want these people as customers?

You might notice that some people are aware of the issues of PayPal and refuse to use it, but still want to pay electronically.

For these rare cases, it’s worth opening an account at a well known PayPal rival that has a better reputation. A favorite seems to be NoChex (www.nochex.com), a U.K. based company, which offers free chargeback protection.

NoChex is quite a lot better than PayPal by most standards, but just doesn’t have the same market penetration or convenience of use on eBay. Still, there’s nothing stopping you from accepting both, just as long as you make it clear that you do on your auctions.

Tip: if you find that you really prefer NoChex to PayPal, then you could offer your buyers a discount for paying through NoChex.

You may also want to check out a U.S. based company called ProPay at www.propay.com. They have been approved by eBay and have been getting good reviews.

I've read some comments at the eBay forum where Google may be introducing it's own merchant system called "googlebase". The "jury" is still out on this, but look for more info coming soon.

Finally... if you've been looking for a more traditional merchant account, without many of the fees associated with them, I came across an alternative solution over at www.free-merchant.com. They claim their cart-system "integrates easily with your e-Bay auction!"

There you have it, a few alternative solutions to PayPal. Keep your options open as a seller and your buyer may thank you with a winning bid!

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Dave Lovelace is the author of eBay Platinum Profits, a step by step beginner's training guide to making money on eBay "the right way the first time". Subscribe to Dave's FREE 9-day mini-course, "eBay Success Tips: Quick-Start Guide To Winning The Auction Game (for Newbies)" and discover everything you need to know to get started right away! Get lesson 1 within 2 minutes when you click here now ==> www.auctionplatinum.com/ebay-course.html

Regards
Roger Mayne
eBay Hot Items

An Introduction to Bidding and Buying on eBay

Have you noticed that whenever you open a newspaper, watch the TV or have a conversation, people seem to be talking about eBay? If you’ve never used it and you’ve no idea what it’s all about, then the chances are that you’re starting to feel a little left out. But don’t worry! This email contains everything you need to know about the basics of bidding and buying on eBay.

So What is eBay?

eBay is an online auction website – and not just any auction site, but the biggest one in the world. If you know how an auction works, then you already know how roughly eBay works. Someone adds something they want to sell to the site, and then buyers come along and place bids on it. The highest bid wins the item! It’s that simple.

eBay being an online auction makes a big difference, though. Buying and selling are not reserved for any elite. eBay accept almost any item, no matter how small, and will then advertise it on their sites all over the world. It’s a powerful combination of an auction and a slightly chaotic marketplace.

What is Bidding?

Bidding is when you say how much you will pay for an item in an auction. Bidding on eBay, however, doesn’t work in exactly the same way as a normal auction, at least in theory. On eBay, you tell the site what the maximum you are willing to pay for each item is, and then eBay places the bids on your behalf. That means you could say you were willing to pay up to $100 for something and only have to pay $50, if that was the highest maximum bid anyone else placed.

It’s not as complicated as it sounds – the best way to get used to it is to give it a try. First, the best thing to do is to go to the eBay website designed for your country. If you don’t know the address for it, just go to www.ebay.com and it will tell you there. Now, on the front page you should see a big box marked ‘search’: just type in anything that you’d like to buy there.

Wasn’t that easy? Now you should have a list of items for sale in front of you, along with how much people are currently bidding for them and the time when bidding ends for each item. If you click one of these, you can read the description, and then – if you’re happy with the item and happy to pay more than the current highest bidder is – you can bid!

How Do I Bid?

Go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of an item’s description page, and type the maximum you are willing to pay (your maximum bid) into the box. Then simply press the ‘place bid’ button – you will need to sign in once you press the button, or go through a quick registration process if you don’t have an eBay username).

If someone else’s maximum bid on that item is higher than yours, then eBay will tell you and give you the opportunity to bid again. Otherwise, you’re now the new highest bidder! All you need to do now is wait until the end of the auction – if someone else outbids you, then eBay will email you and you can bid again.

All sounds great, doesn’t it? But by now you might be wondering whether a site as chaotic as eBay can really be all that safe to buy from. That’s why I'll soon be telling you about your rights when you buy from eBay.

Regards
Roger Mayne
eBay Hot Items