We also list most of our inventory on our Ebay store. However, it is more expensive to purchase from us on Ebay because the cost of doing business on Ebay is higher. Based on the categories of items we sell, it costs an average of 12% per transaction (Ebay’s fee + PayPal’s fee) versus $0.30 + 2.9% for domestic orders or 4.4% plus a fixed fee which varies by currency. This fixed fee approximates the $0.30 per transaction for domestic orders. So, it’s about 9% less expensive if you purchase the item here and pay with Paypal – unfortunately, we don’t get the traffic like Ebay gets, but a few folks stumble on us from time to time.
Now, Ebay is requiring sellers to switch to their managed payments program where they are cutting out Paypal and processing payments in house – well, with a company called Adyen– it looks like Ebay is going to make even more money and the money is not necessarily being intercepted from Paypal – it’s going to cost sellers even more which is unfortunate for everyone as sellers will have to pay more and then pass on the extra bill to buyers by increasing prices. Oh well.
So, we’re now being told by Ebay that we have to switch to managed payments in order to continue selling on Ebay without interruptions – we will report back later with how the fees compare for Ebay managed payments versus Ebay + Paypal.
We’ve been buying and selling on Ebay since August of 2000 – a long time ago. – actually since 1998, but we had a different account back then that went with a former business partner – we used to receive checks and money orders in the US mail for items sold on Ebay – sometimes folks would send cash. We would cash the postal money order at the post office and then ship out the item.
31 August 2020 Update – We’ve been using Ebay Managed Payments now for about a month here are some observations:
- Cost of doing business: Overall, for the items we generally sell on Ebay, Ebay Managed Payments is about 1% less expensive than the old Ebay + Paypal, however, since we’re not paying those Ebay fees via credit card as they’re taken out of pending payouts, we no longer get the 1% cash back on credit card spending. So, it seems like a wash here in terms of money, but we get the 1% discount immediately and don’t have to wait to redeem credit card points.
- Speed of getting the payment: It still takes 2-3 business days before the money is in our bank account – about the same time as Paypal, but without having to manually transfer the money. With Paypal, you have to login to your paypal account and manually transfer the money whereas Ebay Managed Payments transfers the money to your bank account automatically.
- Shipping:
- USPS (United States Postal Service): Ebay allows you to deduct the USPS shipping costs directly from your pending payouts or pay for those with Paypal – here we also lose the 1% cash back by using the credit card if we choose to deduct the shipping costs from pending payouts. However, it is convenient to be able to not have to have everything in one site.
- FedEx Ground / Home / Smartpost: These services are still billed to your monthly Ebay bill, along with your monthly fee for an Ebay store, listing fees (350 fixed price listings per month are included with our Ebay store), any listing up charges, and other Ebay fees other than final value fees. So, you still pay these with your credit card and still get 1% cash back . . . .eventually.