Selling on eBay?

[RoadWarrior]

Okay I've decided to make my first million on eBay not really, just got some stuff to sell that won't sell here.

So I've got a question for anyone that's sold things on eBay before. How much do they authorise your credit card for? I swear I tried it once, a long while back, when I had like $150 available and they declined it.
Also once they've got your c/c how easy is it to make payments to them by check or whatever? In some parts of the site they seem to suggest you have it billed immediately to your card, elsewhere they say a few days after it's due from the statement.

If anyone knows this and also has any tips for dealing with them, please reply, thanks,

Road Warrior

P.S. Sorry mods if this is in the wrong place, seemed to fit best here to me.

 

[moorcito]

I can't remember how much it is to authorize the credit card, I just changed cards and the did $1.50, so it shouldn't be that much.

The payments can either be done by checking account, credit card, debit card, etc. I have used both, but either way they will bill you monthly, so it's not a big deal. Personally, I don't like them taking money out of my checking account, so I would use a CC, but I just switched to my Paypal debit card.

The only problem about selling things on ebay is all of the little fees that they charge you. That can be a pain if you want a certain price for something. For example, if you sell something for $25 ebay will take like $.60 for listing, and then a couple of bucks depending on how much the item sold for. So you end up getting like $22/23. Then if you have the buyer pay by paypal, ebay payments, or someother electronic means those things take more money away so in the end you'll end up with like $20.

Buy to get around all of this, you can state that you only accept Money Orders, etc. Another good thing is to make the buyer pay shipping.

In the end I'd recommend looking at similar items, and see what kinds of things those sellers did.

 

[Banyan]

i think with paypal if you verify your bank account there is no maximum...

 

[RoadWarrior]

Thanks guys.

I've got to head back to UK for a month or two, since I posted this. I was wondering whether I could use eBay to get rid of some stuff I have there. I guess I'd better tell eBay what's going on or they might go a bit freaky when I'm listing items in GBP when I've given them Canadian bank info etc.
Road Warrior

 

[nut581]

u can definitely use ebay to sell your stuff in UK .. matter of fact is, UK is the 2nd (if not 3rd after canada) place where ebay users do most of their transactions in ..

 

[XprincoX]

Well basically its a piece of cake as long as both sides cooperate. Depending on which service you use to accept CC payments, billpoint or paypal different service charges will imployed. They amount they charge depends on the amount of the transaction.

Checkout the service charges here for paypal and for billpoint

But ebay bought the paypal company so there slowly moving out the billpoint system. As for selling stuff you can basically sell to any anywhere in the world. Its just up to you as the seller where you want to ship to. Be aware about custom regulations to some countries.

As for credit card verification its pretty simple. Paypal requires a couple forms of verification. One is a verified email address, another an actually mailing address. And finally a bank account which they'll transfer payments to. Email verification is just about instant. Mailing address they'll mail something to that address and you'll need to enter the access code they mail. Bank account they make 2 small deposits in your account and you need to tell them how much the deposits where.

As a power seller i would recommend giving the buyer many payment options. However, credit card and eChecks are probably the easiest to handle. Tho eChecks usually take 3-5 business days to clear.

As for the listing fee stuff remember you actually have to chances to sell your stuff. If the item doesn't sell the first time you have the opportunity to sell the item again. If the item sells the second time around ebay will refund you the listing fee from the 2nd listing. Paying your fees can also be pretty simple. You have the option of either letting ebay directly deduct the amount from a set checking account (same as your billpoint) or you can mail em a check each month.

If you have any other specific question of legistic stuff just ask or pm me

 

[darkversed]

I used to sell alot of stuff on ebay. But the ebay/paypal fees definately do add up. When I was selling $1-2000worth of stuff on ebay a month, the final valuations fees that ebay takes out plus the 3% paypal adds up to sickening amounts. One option to soften the paypal blow is to use their debit card for purchases, they give you 1.5% back on everything you buy.