DISQUS

Henrietta · 1 year ago

This is the question I asked you the other week, how would the upcoming requirement that your merchant credit processor integrate with eBay checkout affect your operation.

Given the glitchiness and general instability of the eBay platform as a whole, together with the planned anonymization of the communication process between buyer and seller through temporary email addresses -- adding the famed 'not quite ready for prime time' eBay rollout label, it looks like a recipe for nightmare soup.

colderice · 1 year ago

I see this as a problem for many sellers and 3rd party vendors. The time frame is compressed for a rather complex operation. Then to have only 1 other authorized user on the platform is simply the cause for one hell of a traffic jam. I hope this whole thing get reconsidered fast!

Cliff Aliperti · 1 year ago

Well at least eBay has seemingly backed off Google Checkout being unsafe when John McDonald said "Why not include Google Checkout? The simple answer is that Google’s products and services compete with eBay on a number of levels. So we are not going to allow Google Checkout on eBay."

I can at least respect that as an honest answer.

I don't get how or why buyers are so PO'ed in transactions involving checks/money orders. I can see how sellers might not like it, but it's the buyers choice. Why are they pissed, cause their check bounced? Because the seller actually waited for it to clear? I don't know.

That said, I've only had one check bounce in 8+ years on eBay, no fake money orders, and I've been screwed once as a PayPal buyer, 2 or 3 times as a PayPal seller, so my experience ranks them all pretty evenly. Then again, I'm not working with high demand items like the Elmo doll. My last PayPal dispute taught me that anyone who pays with a credit card can basically dispute anything and get their goods for free--that's just part of the cost of doing business, but at the same time, that seems least safe to me as a buyer.

It may be a pipe dream, but I wouldn't be shocked if sometime in the future, and I'm talking years here, after the dust settles quite a bit, we have PayPal on Amazon and Amazon Payments on eBay.

So you're going to try ProPay out then? I'm leaning towards giving them a shot myself.

colderice · 1 year ago

Cliff, from my short talk with ProPay they are looking for seller input. they asked if I would be open to doing some of that with them and I agreed. But also they are really ramping up quickly to deal with this new partnership and that is alot to handle.

From all the sellers that I do come in contact with, I find that many collectors seem to be VERY familiar with check acceptance. It seems like that is almost the PREFERRED payment method for many of the high prices antique dealers going back many years.

So I do understand that it is all about where your products are and who the buyers are. As you said it is a personal choice between buyer and seller and I chose to cut it off long ago. I would take money orders forever, but to see them go...I would not shed a tear honestly.

Cliff Aliperti · 1 year ago

I agree, it's going to be less work for us in the long run as checks/mo, even without any fees tied to them, are really a PITA to receive and process--especially receive, I often have to play mix and match to figure out what a buyer is paying for and have even returned a few saying they needed to identify their purchase.

I've maintained all along that eBay's #1 job during this paper payment elimination is educating buyers, and not doing it with BS--I mean, why not just say "we're banning these payments because that's our choice"?

That said, I'm very happy they're going to allow us to accept them for a time, if we so choose, as long as we don't mention it first. Yeah, I don't really want them, but I don't like turning down a sale, you know?

If ProPay runs any kind of extended Promo I'd sign up in a second. I think it was Henrietta's Red Ink Diary that showed they were not a very good alternative in terms of fees. I do like the idea of having a PayPal-alt for the PP-haters, so I'll probably sign-up anyway, but an extended promo would certainly help make up my mind!

Thanks,
Cliff

Eddie · 1 year ago

Yep, we deal with quite a few US sellers of collectables who do not either accept Paypal at all, do not accept Paypal from International buyers and also do not have their own Merchant accounts - OK it is a niche market - but nevertheless it exists, and quite what these sellers are going to do in the future (apart from breal eBay policy) I have no idea - there is no immediate solution for them.

So Fritz and all you other coin/stamp dealers in Europe - I have no idea how you can buy of those non Paypal eBay sellers ?

Eddie

colderice · 1 year ago

Eddie that is an issue that should be looked at with eBay. Since the industry is NOT accustom to electronic payments, could there be some way for eBay to bring that issue to the front and allow for certain transactions in those niches to exist under the new policy? Hmmmm....

John

Brandon · 1 year ago

My Name is Brandon Crotts, I am a product manager at ProPay. The announcement that ProPay will be added to eBay's list of acceptable payments in October has brought lots of questions about us. ProPay has been in business for over 10 years. Right now we only offer a merchant account, but at the end of September we will be announcing a new special account for our eBay customers. You can check more out about features of propay's ebay payment option, and we also encourage you to watch for our announcement regarding the package we will offer for ebay sellers.

John · 1 year ago

Hello Brandon, that is fantastic that you chose to put that comment out there for us. Really appreciate the personal touch.

Thanks,
John (ColderICE)