What's up with eBay?

Ian gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Because eBay are trying their damndest to commit commercial suicide, with their silliness over trying to push PayPal profits over what customers & sellers may actually want.

Do you realise that ebay will not accept paypal for the payment of the sellers account.

That smacks hypocrisy.

Several possible reasons:

General loss of confidence among the classic car buying and restoring fraternity, leading to lower prices of complete cars, and thus an even bigger loss of money when carrying out major work. In other words - general recession in the classic car market. It will be interesting to see whether the forthcoming Restoration Show and the NEC Classic Motor Show reflect this.

Ebay's apparent hardening of attitudes to ordinary sellers - increased fees, insistence on acceptance of Paypal, and encouraging complaints by buyers and false Non-Received Item claims.

Ebay's changing fee structure, aimed at discouraging occasional sellers in favour of big sellers with ebay shops - but then making shop items invisible on searches.

This is all hearsay - I haven't researched it in detail.

Perhaps the pendulum will swing back to autojumbles?

Yes they will, that's how I pay mine.

Nope, your post smacks of bullshit.

The reason I haven't listed any parts for the last few weeks is entirely down to the darker evenings and crap weather reducing the time I feel like doing non-essential stuff outside. I'd expect a reasonable number of other people who don't do this commercially to feel the same.

More worryingly, it could be a symptom of higher scrap metal prices sending cars direct to the crusher without being stripped first. A year or two ago, you could buy cars on eBay for 20 quid or so, strip them for parts and weigh in the remains. Nowadays it's unusual to see any vehicle sell for less than 100quid.

I *really* don't know what all the fuss is over using Paypal. It's a very convenient way of paying - and on the one occasion I've had problems with a seller made getting my money back rather easier than if I'd paid in other ways.

From the seller's POV, that's exactly the problem. They can make arbitrary decisions to return the money without the seller having any real say in the matter. The ultimate stupidity is that the only way a seller can prove to them that the buyer has received the item, is by showing an official proof of delivery, even when the item was collected in person. So someone paying by Paypal (which eBay encourages), then collecting in person, can file an "item not received" and automatically get their money back.

From the buyer's POV, there's also the major issue that they can only get their money back if the item is of a type that is protected; if the seller has sufficient funds in their account; or if the seller uses their credit card's own chargeback facility. If you pay for an item with money you already have in your Paypal account and that item doesn't happen to fall into the right category to be protected, you could lose the lot. And because eBay don't enforce their rule that all seller's have to have a valid address registered with them, you can't even track them down.

Having said all that, I've only ever lost out once - when a duff seller strung things out until the complaint deadline had passed.

Because they won't allow any other electronic methods and its just another way to extort money out of the sellers.

No trader is *obliged* to take any form of payment other than cash. So if you don't want to use Paypal find another auction site that doesn't require it.

I don't think it is just e-bay. My local FreeAds paper carries a section for classic cars. Earlier this year it was about 5-6 column inches. The last 4 weeks there have been only one or two ads, and they seem to be mostly unfinished projects.

I wonder if money is a bit tight and the extra than might go into tarting up a car ready to sell isn't available, as well as the price being offered in "Similar Items" sales deters people from selling at a price that the owner feels is undervaluing his/her classic.

Jim

will not here!

'Pologies for firing from the hip there. I was having a bad day.

At what stage does it refuse? What do you see under the "eBay Seller Fees" heading when you click on the "My Account" tab? Mine is filled with Paypal options, including "Make a one-time payment using Paypal or another payment method", which is the way I've always paid.

I no longer have a seller account which I cancelled earlier this year and it was not an option then.

They tried to force all payments through Paypal, this was stopped by the ACCC (Government regularity body)

We are not allowed a reserve price either.