E-bay / Paypal 101

[AKPilot]

Talk about a busy Mother's Day trying to keep mom happy?! I love it though, helping her feel good and show how much I appreciate her.

Does anyone have a good reference area for how to sell things on E-bay, using paypal?

My wife has a bunch of scrapbooking stuff she's made and would like to sell, she has both e-bay and paypal accounts set up; albeit not linked yet.

Just don't know how to do it and what the traps/pitfalls are.

Thanks,

 

[mkadams001]

I have been selling on ebay for a few years. Paypal and ebay are made for each other. Just follow the instructions on the ebay site to link the pp account to your ebay account. I have never had a problem with paypal and use it for my wifes teawithbear.com site for customer checkout.

I set up a separate bank account just for ebay and paypal. It works better for me.
Be aware of all the fees that ebay and paypal charges, it adds up.
Don't treat Alaska and Hawaii as a foreign country; like some people do and overcharge for shipping.
I have not gotten one in years but, watch out for fake emails from people phishing for personal information using paypal logos. If you get one report it to paypal. They will respond to you verifying that it is a fake. Read paypals information on scams.


Have fun selling. I really enjoy selling things on ebay. It always amazes me what will sell and for how much (good and bad).

 

[bcanino]

FYI, Just as a option, talking to my friends who are into homemade artsy type stuff, the place to be is https://www.etsy.com/ which is geared to homemade type things. Most of my friends are not very computer savvy, but were able to set up their account by them selfs. You might want to look into it.

 

[Pippen]

Here's the link to the ebay page which explains how to go about linking the paypal and ebay accounts.
https://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/paypal-and-ebay.html

Ebay makes it really easy to use paypal once you get the accounts set up. She can set it so that ebay automatically deducts the selling fees from paypal so she won't even have to mess with that. What she needs to know about paypal is never click on any links on emails from paypal--log in directly at the site or go through the ebay site.

What I did find more complicated than I expected was actually listing my first item. By the time I took photos, learned how to upload them, deciding how I wanted to list it, typed out the description, figured out the shipping details, etc. I'll bet it took me a good hour to list that first item. I started with a pricey item but in hindsight it would have been better to start with something relatively inexpensive the first few times just to get the hang of it.

It's a good idea for a new seller to always pay the extra to include tracking for packages shipped. One of my first items that I shipped on Amazon didn't arrive (or I was scammed) and a new seller can take a big hit on feedback.

 

[AKPilot]

FYI, Just as a option, talking to my friends who are into homemade artsy type stuff, the place to be is https://www.etsy.com/ which is geared to homemade type things. Most of my friends are not very computer savvy, but were able to set up their account by them selfs. You might want to look into it.

Thanks for the help on this.

My wife knows of etsy. The problem is that being's it's known as a craft site, the things she'd sell there wouldn't go for as much.

 

[powderburner]

One of the "unspoken" things about paypal is that there are literally thousands of hackers out there setting up traps to get access to your account---and take your money. I don't even have half of an account (I shut mine off during the application process) and I have gotten emails from paypal numerous times warning that some other party has access to my account and has signed on.

So---if you are buying, transfer only the minimum funds that you will need, and only do it just before your purchase. If you are selling, transfer excess funds out as soon as practical. Keep the money completely out of any credit card account that is linked to paypal. Do not leave large amounts of funds (or even medium amounts of funds) sitting in your paypal account.

Paypal will not mess with bad transactions or thefts below a dollar amount something like $20 or 25, so for those losses you are just hosed. You are entirely on your own to deal with hackers.

My experience with paypal and their attitude of "I don't care, don't bother me, just pay your bill" has me thinking that it would be simpler to just donate stuff to charity and take the tax writeoff than try to deal with that bunch of jerks. They are almost as bad as the thieves.

 

[WiK]

Avoiding scams and phishing sites online is just a matter of common sense, IMO. If you can't spot a fake paypal login page, then you really shouldn't have a paypal account...

So---if you are buying, transfer only the minimum funds that you will need, and only do it just before your purchase. If you are selling, transfer excess funds out as soon as practical. Keep the money completely out of any credit card account that is linked to paypal. Do not leave large amounts of funds (or even medium amounts of funds) sitting in your paypal account.

I'm guessing this is so that any thefts which do occur will be covered by your bank/credit card company's policies instead of paypal's?

Paypal will not mess with bad transactions or thefts below a dollar amount something like $20 or 25, so for those losses you are just hosed. You are entirely on your own to deal with hackers.

Just curious, what's your source for this?

Phil

 

[troj]

One of the "unspoken" things about paypal is that there are literally thousands of hackers out there setting up traps to get access to your account---and take your money. I don't even have half of an account (I shut mine off during the application process) and I have gotten emails from paypal numerous times warning that some other party has access to my account and has signed on.

Those aren't coming from PayPal; those are standard phishing emails. They make it look like it came from PayPal, but it didn't.

I get one or two of those every week, from a bank, from PayPal, from somewhere. Literally hundreds of them over the years, and only a few have come from somewhere that I actually have an account.

-Kevin

 

[jflis]

Those aren't coming from PayPal; those are standard phishing emails. They make it look like it came from PayPal, but it didn't.

I get one or two of those every week, from a bank, from PayPal, from somewhere. Literally hundreds of them over the years, and only a few have come from somewhere that I actually have an account.

-Kevin

You'll know the ones that are real. I see them all the time (fake and real):

Fake message begins "Dear PayPal Customer"...

Real message begins "Dear James Flis"...

You can also check the links provided...

Fake message will provide a link telling you that you need to click the link and log in.

Real message will tell you to go to your paypal account and log in (no link provided)

At least, in my experience
jim

 

[rokitflite]

Yep, Jim is right... I have had over 1000 paypal transactions and not a single problem with my account. I don't fall for the phishing scams and as a result, have no issues. In like 7 years I have only gotten maybe a dozen real emails from paypal, and only once was it something that I had to respond to.

 

[Pantherjon]

Pretty much the same here that Jim and Scott have related..I have gotten a TON of phishing e-mails for Paypal and Ebay..And more banks then you could shake a stick at, saying my account was in jeopardy of being 'locked' and that I needed to click here to verify my information..The PayPal and Ebay ones I hit 'forward' and send to [email protected] or paypal.com , whichever is appropriate..In fact I make it a habit of hardly ever clicking on links in emails..

 

[mkadams001]

I have never had a problem with paypal and I have had only two people who were not sincere buyers. So, overall I have had a great experience with buying and selling on ebay and using paypal for all my transactions.

I also like to use Auctiva and iSale for listing and I have my pictures hosted on my .me account. This helps to reduce the listing expenses. However, when I started, I just used ebays listing tools, then, at the suggestion from my brother, I signed up with Auctiva. Later, when I began selling more things I started using the third party software.

Anyway, based on my experience, I would highly recommend selling on ebay and using paypal.

 

[peter_stanley]

I've used Ebay and Paypal for years without issue. As someone else mentioned, the costs do add up, but it's not so bad if you pay as you sell. When I sell something, I collect through Paypal, then immediately pay my Ebay fees from the Paypal account.

As far as getting setup on Ebay for buying/selling, I found a great resource in the book Ebay Hacks, from O'Reilly. It suggests good strategies for buying and selling, and general does and don'ts.

 

[powderburner]

Avoiding scams and phishing sites online is just a matter of common sense, IMO. If you can't spot a fake paypal login page, then you really shouldn't have a paypal account...

When I get these notes (as well as the ones "from" banks, etc) the first thing I do with them is to send them to the supposed source with a note (like: what's this all about?).

Yeah, a few do turn up to be fakes. But most of mine have been sent from paypal as a courtesy/warning.

As to whether I should even have a paypal account, I would love to be rid of mine, I have asked paypal to completely close it (many times), it is nothing but a nuisance. paypal will not delete it (wild guess here: paypal is only interested in getting people to USE their stuff and make money off the transactions, not in allowing people to get away from them).

How do I know they won't mess with correcting small claims? It used to say that directly in the ebay fine print. I myself have been burned by this several times by crooked ebay sellers and an uncaring paypal, including another incident just a couple months ago (I made an ebay payment through paypal, the seller never responded, paypal never responded to numerous emails, and I had to go through my own CC company to get back my money...all $12-odd dollars of it).

I'm glad if some of you have not had problems with paypal or ebay, but you should still keep your eyes open and your brain engaged. Good luck in the future with paypal.

 

[WiK]

As to whether I should even have a paypal account, I would love to be rid of mine, I have asked paypal to completely close it (many times), it is nothing but a nuisance. paypal will not delete it (wild guess here: paypal is only interested in getting people to USE their stuff and make money off the transactions, not in allowing people to get away from them).

Funny, all I had to do to close an old account of mine was go to Profile and click the Close Account link. They no longer send me emails to that address, and I can't log in to that account any more. Might be differences between UK and US versions of PayPal, though.

...including another incident just a couple months ago (I made an ebay payment through paypal, the seller never responded, paypal never responded to numerous emails, and I had to go through my own CC company to get back my money...all $12-odd dollars of it).

Did you go through the PayPal/eBay dispute process first? I haven't had to use it yet for an unresponsive seller, but the 2 times I have had to use it things have worked out well.

Phil

 

[rokitflite]

I'm glad if some of you have not had problems with paypal or ebay, but you should still keep your eyes open and your brain engaged. Good luck in the future with paypal.

It is because we keep our eyes open and brains engaged that we don't have any problems...

 

[MarkII]

Now you've got me scared... :shock:

I have used PayPal on occasion for a few years, and I have never gotten an email either from them or from any phishers pretending to be them. Not one. Ever. Did I do something wrong?

MarkII

 

[RangerStl]

I've also had a mostly dormant account for the better part of 8 years. I have only received notes from them when my CC on file gets ready to expire. Then they say "Go to your account, login and update your information".

I've never been phished. Guess you're the lucky ones!