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.