Us Australians are about to become guinea pigs for ebay to see how much money they can screw out of everyone. Come June, payment on ebay.com.au will only be through paypal (or cash for local pick up), they are banning the use of bank transfers, money orders or anything else that they can't grab their extra few percent from.

They claim it's like the introduction of compulsory seatbelt laws for driving, it's all about protection...not the most appropriate analogy I'd suggest.

Anyway, I assume they're trialling this system so they can use it worldwide at a later date. The weird thing is that my only problems with potentially losing my money were with paypal payments, but I was fortunate enough to lodge a claim before the culprits tried to run with the funds, others weren't so lucky. I never had a single issue with a bank transfer, it's harder for a seller to hide behind the anonymity that you can get with paypal.

Hopefully the reputable lego sellers on ebay discover there is another great venue for selling lego and they can save a substantial amount in fees, although bricklink doesn't get the occasional crazy auction bidding you see on ebay and maybe that is what attracts some sellers.

I was particularly interested in seeing if this ends up aplying to Europe as well, as I've noticed many German sellers only accept cash or bank deposit.

Edited April 17, 200816 yr by hewman

Selling & Buying are 2 two ways service to both parties and equally helping each other out.

Sellers will get to have their stocks cleared and revenue, buyers get to receive what they (of course, otherwise why would they buy).

Many do not use Paypal upon receiving funds are due to the transactions fee incur by these third parties but if that it's only a small percentage, I think that it is reasonable. eBay, BL & paypal is providing their services to us, both buyers & sellers.

As a buyer, I don't mind to pay slightly more if that sellers do able to accept paypal for me even that the listings stated no paypal. I would ask before bids as I understand the charges incur for them and I wish to be "Buyer Protected". But if that they accept the paypal in their listings, it will affect the auction as if I don't win it, others will not be able to pay the "additional" charges the seller wants to impose. So, I will omit purchasing from them.

4 in 5 buyers will prefer paypal and most of the time, the same product with 1 seller accepting paypal & 1 don't. The seller with paypal auction will receive a higher ending auction and so, isn't eBay providing a good returns for them too right?

But there is one thing is unacceptable for me is the exchange rate that paypal is charging & withdrawns rates.

I believe that Sellers in Australia had received funds in AUS$ & withdrawn in AUS$ too and maybe pay a little amount for withdrawn fee per transaction. Similar with other sellers in USA / USD$, UK / GBP etc...

I'm a seller in Singapore & my paypal is default in USD$ which mights it harder for me to sell in eBay.

When I pay for something, paypal charges me USD 1.00 = SGD 1.42 and if on the same day if that I would to sell something and/or withdrawn from paypal, the exchange rate is only USD 1.00 = SGD 1.32 subject to withdrawn fees.

I would had lost quite a huge amount in these exchange rate.

And if items won & sold are the same price (example USD 50.00) in the same day, I would have Buy at S$71 and Sold at S$66 and using the banks exchange rate, is about USD 3.70 lost in exchanges.

Adding on, my paypal account allows me to receive payments via SGD$ but it will convert to USD$ immediately. I ever once sold and receive a SGD$ 40, it converts to USD$ & I had withdraw it, I only got back only $33.00 = USD 5.20 loses.

That time, I still can recall that I had sold a set of Lego 6344 Jet Speed Justice to an employee of eBay Singapore .

Lucky, I had charge shipping otherwise, I would be better off not selling at all. But shipping, is only the cost of my petrol & buyer is located in 10 mins drive away from me. That doesn't cost me much .

eBay requirements, sellers must be take these additional cost for paypal & ebay to the selling price & not add on to shipping charges as it will be as eBay fraud. So if that I would add these charges to all my BUY IT NOW auctions, I need to sell higher prices to my customers & end results, I will lost them all. It will not be fair that buyers pay cash suffers too.

If payment via paypal, no self collections & you pay for shipping which I personally deliver, shipping charges are the cost for petrol and eBay allows so as items sold are Ex-Home not Ex-Post Office. In cash, free delivery to all & I reward buyers paying cash with much lower exchange rates which = two ways service to each other. But there are some nasty buyers I met before and I made changes with the delivery terms again but that is another story to tell >).

I'm able to deliver items as it takes little more then an hour to travel to any point in Singapore as it is very small country.

I can say I had been a good seller as I have a DSR of 4.9 stars for my 2 years old account in eBay. Started selling Lego for over a year as I had just rediscover the passion for them in my dark ages.

Just my comments & somethings I would like to get off my chest.

Oh I forgot, EB is about sharing. I don't know why that my previous signature that been changed otherwise it would be as:

"Eurobricks members, pls drop me an note if that you want to buy from me as I will absorb some shipping cost. We are sharing the passion for Lego".

Lastly, I sell mostly because of passion & not for the profits. Items sold are mostly from my personal collections and thus, certain items which I like it so much that only greed can make me depart with them .

Edited April 18, 200816 yr by vhtf.hw.lego