eBay Hacks, 2nd Edition

Pay PayPal’s Seller Fees

Make PayPal a no-cost option for sellers reluctant to part with 3% of the money you send them.

If you’re a PayPal addict, you’ll soon start avoiding listings in which PayPal isn’t an available payment method. You can even have eBay filter search results to show only PayPal-enabled listings (click the Customize link in the Search Options box if you don’t see the Items Listed with PayPal option on search results pages). But that’s a little excessive, isn’t it? What if you see something you really want—something rare—sold by someone who won’t accept PayPal?

Nearly all sellers who refuse online payments such as PayPal do so for one of three reasons. First, inexperienced sellers may simply not know how to accept such payments; in this case, you can politely offer to walk them through the process. Second, a previous bad experience may have turned a seller against online payment services, and it’s unlikely that a single anxious buyer will change his mind. Finally, the seller may simply not want to pay the associated fees—this is where you have the most latitude.

Nothing speaks to people like money. PayPal takes about 3% of any payment a seller receives. Some sellers refuse PayPal payments merely to avoid paying the fees, despite the fact that the PayPal logo on their auctions will almost certainly get them more than enough additional business to make up for the fees. If this is the case, the seller may happily accept your payment if you offer to pay the fees yourself. ...