Educate me about Ebay seller accounts, please.
 

I'm wondering if anyone has an eBay seller's account. I am getting ready to set one up to try and sell an accordion. I was reading about the fees and the various types of payment methods you have to select from in accepting payment. I'm leaning toward setting up a Paypal account only because it is the one I've heard of before.

Does anyone with experience have any advise, suggestions, tips or warnings? It seems like you are giving a whole lot of personal information to the website. My husband says eBay has been around for a long time and you don't hear of any trouble or complaints related to the company.

Ebay
 

:coolsmiley:
I have had an account for several years and have conducted over four dozen transactions without a hitch. Pay Pal works well also. They will even prepare shipping labels for you.

ebay
 

We have done eBay for over 30 years and PayPal is the way to go. It's easy and protects both the buyer and the seller. I would, however, suggest you put delivery conformation and insurance on the item. Since it's breakable you want to insure it and as for delivery conformation.....well, this assures you that the buyer got it. Sometimes, in this world we live in, people get stuff and say they didn't. This way you have proof the person got it. It it gets to be their word against yours with no proof, PayPal will give the customer a refund...hope this helps some.

Thank you PJOHNS2654. How does eBay get their fees from you?

It absolutely helps. Thank you very much. I wouldn't have thought of that.

If you plan on selling often on ebay, the Life Long Learning College has a class that is very helpful.

Hi BK!

I have had an eBay and paypal account for about the last ten years or so and have never had any problems whatsoever.

I have sold numerous items. When my husband died, he left me with a basement full of model trains. People suggested that I just have an appraiser come and offer me a bid for the whole lot. I decided to try eBay and it was a pretty smart decision on my part.

As far as a paypal account goes, I have that, as well. When you are selling, it is certainly a convenience. Normally, people who purchase on eBay will pay almost immediately when you have paypal. It's a little bit of a pain to set up, but well worth it.

If you have any more questions, feel free to pm me. I can give you my phone # and we can have a nice little chat, if you'd like!

PS As far as the fees go, I usually figured about 25-30% of the purchase price of the item would go to ebay and paypal combined. (Even that may be a little high.)

That would be good, starflyte1. Thank you. Do they go into market techniques in addition to the basics of setting up your account, payment method and the standard questions I have?

Before everyone gets too excited
 

about how long they've been using e-bay I would like to note that it was founded in 1995.

You're Welcome! :popcorn:

Thank you very much for the great information and the generous offer. I may take you up on that. I've gotten as far as setting up an eBay account and reading the fees. I haven't read the fee schedule for Paypal yet. I may be being too paranoid. I'm feeling more confident though.

Thank you everyone for your advice and thoughts.

The LLLC (Life Long Learning College) course goes into opening account, listing, fees and your questions, etc. Also suggests that you not link your primary bank account to your ebay account. You need both an ebay account and Paypal if you plan on using Paypal. I use Paypal for most online purchases from retailers.

Something that I did with my paypal account - I set up a separate checking account for the purpose of Ebay/Paypal transactions ONLY.

I didn't want my household checking account associated with my Ebay transactions. Secondly, in the unlikely event that something DID go wrong, I would not lose a ton of money. That's me just being cautious.

I have been an EBay seller for almost ten years and have over 1000 feedbacks. If you go to the EBay site there is alot of information about setting up an account including tutorials on some of the steps. It is really not that difficult.
Before you go to the trouble of setting up an account, check to see what the item you are going to list is selling for on EBay. It may not be worth all the effort to sell one item.
If you do set up the account, the fees to you would be an Ebay insertion fee, a Ebay final value fee, Ebay shipping fee based on the shipping charges you invoice the buyer. The PayPal account is free to set up and the fees to you for using would be based on the payment amount from the buyer.
If you have any questions, perhaps I can help, PM me.
Here are the fee structures (they can all be found on the EBay site):

Insertion fees for auction-style format listings

Auction-style format listings EbayStarting or reserve price
Insertion fee
$0.01–$0.99

Free for 50 listings
per month
$.10
____________
1.00–$9.99
$0.25
__________

$10.00–$24.99
$0.50
____________
$25.00–$49.99
$0.75
________________
$50.00–$199.99
$1.00
_________________
$200.00 or more
$2.00




Final value fees for auction-style format listingsAuction-style format listings
Total cost to buyer (less any sales tax)
Final value fee
(Based on the total amount of the sale, including the cost of the item, shipping, and any other fees a seller may charge, excluding any sales tax)

Item not sold
No fee

$0.01–$50.00
________________
9.0% of the item's total cost to buyer with a maximum charge of $100.00.

$50.01–$1,000.00
_______________
Fees for PayPal
There’s no fee to use PayPal to purchase goods or services. However, if you receive money for goods or services (such as from selling an item on eBay), the fee for each transaction is 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you receive.

I agree. JUST NEVER respond directly to an email. Go to the site to respond.

We pay our eBay account with a credit card.....works well.

Oh gosh Villagegirl.....seems like eBay has been around a lot longer than that. I guess we've been in business for 40 years that we just assumed eBay was there from the beginning! Thanks for the correction.

I have been with ebay since 1997 and paypal since they started later. Ebay bought them out and now owns them. Everything works good in their systems. Use a separate credit card for payments of fees. I use one with a very small limit in case something goes wrong, which has never happened in 15 years. Also as another suggested, use a separate checking account to deposit the paypal funds into (you have to elect that to be done each time or they will keep it in the paypal account). The feedback system is very important. I personally won't sell to anyone with less than 15 unless they write me first and explain and give assurances as the newbies cause most of the problems (no offense intended) and give the bad feedback without trying to resolve issues. I have over 1100 with 100% but you have to be vigil. Using Fedex or UPS is automatically insured for $100. and has free tracking to know where your package is and when it was delivered and you can require it to be signed for.

Selling accordian?
 

What make? How much?

I'm confused. Can you explain why you don't sell to people unless they have 15 feedbacks, write you, etc? If someone uses paypal or sends you a certified check or money order, THEY are the ones taking the risk, not you the seller.

That's not the problem. It's the kids who sign up, bid on your stuff, win it, then don't pay or ignore your payment requests or don't read the description or assume all kinds of things without asking in advance of bidding. You have to wait a certain amount of time before you can resell it and go through a process that could take a month or so to resolve with the ebay people. You're out fees until it's all cleared up and your merchandise is off the market. Not worth the problems to me. It's a personal thing from experience. Each seller is entitled to do their business as they see fit within the ebay rules. Always read the feedback of bidders or sellers you're wanting to do business with and if they have less than 100%, read the negatives carefully. If bidders have bad feedback for not paying or troublemaking I also won't sell to them either and I put all this in my ads plus I write clear, unambiguous ads. If you read lots of negative feedback you'll find much of it is not warranted and given by newbies. I'm not willing to risk my good reputation as I don't need a sale that badly.
A seller with 100% and several hundred or thousand good feedback is not much of a risk to do business with.
Like everything else in life, there are a few who cause the most problems for everyone else.

Never been an issue with me. Have only had two non payers. Wait two weeks and cancel the sale with EBays agreement. Some of my best buyers were new to EBay. To each his own.

Thank you Bogie Shooter for all of the useful information. I really appreciate the time and effort you took to post for me. It is greatly appreciated.

I'll remember the email suggestion, Grace, and only respond through the site. That is a good point.

RichieB, the seperate account if a fantastic suggestion. That is a must to me.

starflyte1, thank you, thank you. I think the LLLC course would be a lot of fun and very informational. I may just check that out.

Happinow and CaptJohn, the credit card suggestion is vital to protect yourself. Thank you for pointing that out.

CaptJohn, I admire you and the others here who have been involved with eBay for so many years. Trust me, I will take your advice on the feedback.
Also, the automatic insurance with UPS and FedEx will be a savings with the shipping and tracking.


Very good advice from everyone. I love this site and the reason it works is because of people like you guys. Thank you very much. I really do appreciate your suggestions and time. B.K.

make your life easy
 

a word of caution, whatever you do only sell to United States buyers. I am not saying anything negative about others, however to make your life with the least amount of hassle, do not get involved, if they complain or want to return, it is all just a major can worms you want to avoid

I have found that certain countries are bigger problems with buyers than others.

Do you sell a variety of things, or just one kind?

Selling is awful compared to say, four years ago.

Ebay is a great tool for both buying and selling .... although I am often amazed that people will pay within 10-15% of the price of the item new.

HOWEVER, if I were only going to sell a single item I would first explore using craigslist. It can be a little hassle (fielding calls, emails and setting up appts) but it is FREE, widely used and you avoid the whole shipping pain.

Just be careful when the buyer comes knockin on your front door..............