Sellers charging for Paypal fees

M

monteperformanc

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2009
I have noticed this seems to be a trend that is gaining popularity lately in the parts for sale forum. Sellers will ask for 3% on top of the asking price of an item to cover Paypal fees.

The way I see it is, Paypal is a convenience for the seller. Instead of having to take money orders or checks to a bank and waiting for them to clear, they have instant money in their account.

Maybe I'm way off base, but I don't agree with this practice. I have sold a lot of things over the years, and paypal and ebay fees are just part of selling over the internet. Without them, a lot of my stuff would have never sold. It's just the price of doing business.

When I am looking to buy something, and I see "plus 3% if using paypal," I just move on and look for another seller.
 
I remember a stink on this within the last few years. Someone said it was illegal IDK what the out come was.

I think its BS myself and the the seller should sell the part the the advert price with the paypal "Fees" added in and just sell the dang stuff:rolleyes:
 
I've been buying, selling, and using PayPal pretty much since it came around years ago and I've been down this road many times. While it does suck to get charged for a service when selling something, folks tend to offer things up at a low low price to make them more affordable for buyers along with being able to move items. While taking the hit on the PayPal fee's almost makes it like they are giving it away at that point. I mean to take it to an extreme measure if your doing 50K a year on PayPal well that's about $1750 in PayPal fee's you'll be loosing. In a crappy economy that's a lot of money.

The proper way to do it (and I'm sure you remember and see gas stations doing this) is you give a cash discount for cash or money orders. So in other words the price of an item someone listed is the price plus 3% of the item and cash is pretty much minus 3% of the item. But what happens is that throws that over all price up so high people won't buy your items now or the next guy sells it cheaper. That is the down side of using that aspect of it. OR you can and should call it a "handling fee". Now this "handling fee" can be charged for PayPal transactions as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge (in other words, the handling fee for transactions paid through PayPal may not be higher than the handling fee for transactions paid through other payment methods). You get the drift there I'm sure. :cool:

PayPal fee's are considered the price of doing business for the most part on the business end of it. On an open public forum you can pretty much do anything you want IE charge for PayPal fee's or whatever ever else you want to do. But it is against PayPal's TOS to charge a fee to use PayPal. If you want to spend a few hours reading their TOS it's all in there.

Now let's see how many selling parts change their wording to "If using PayPal there is a 3% handling fee." on the boards. :D
 
On the reverse side...I sell a ton of parts on 3 forums. Buick, Mopar, and 409 Chevys sights. Most of the time I prefer a Postal Money order, it is the buyer that needs the stuff as soon as they buy it and want to do it thru PAYPAL. So guess what???...+3% here it is. I usually always have my stuff photo'd and boxed up ready for an address, so a few days more to get a $$$ order in the mail is no biggie. I have never worded it in my ads, so I guess I will offer the option so I can cater to everyone. I do not want someone not buying what they need due to a payment option not being mentioned. I must admit, I really hate waiting for PAYPAL to transfer the $$$ to my bank account anyway.

:biggrin:
 
I use Paypal and a merchant credit card account. You wouldn't believe what I paid in fees last year, between them, website hosting, shopping cart program fees and stamps.com fees.

For someone selling parts here, why not just put the paypal fee in the price and everyone will be happy.:)
 
To the contrary, I view paypal as a benefit to the buyer, not the seller. Not only is it instant and the parts can be shipped out without waiting for a MO, the buyer is *somewhat protected*, should the seller be a scammer. As a seller, I prefer MO's because I have ample warning/time to package stuff up before I feel obligated to ship it out. As a buyer, I prefer paypal because of the quicker turnaround.

That all being said, I usually split the fees on larger ticket items I sell and eat the cost on the smaller stuff.

*I know there are horror stories out there, and no one is going to be completely safe from fraud paypal or MO.
 
On gunbroker most simply add the clause, "actual price reflects a 3% CASH discount." Meaning if you pay with CC or Pay Pal you loose your 3% discount;):biggrin:
 
TR Custom Parts said:
I use Paypal and a merchant credit card account. You wouldn't believe what I paid in fees last year, between them, website hosting, shopping cart program fees and stamps.com fees.

For someone selling parts here, why not just put the paypal fee in the price and everyone will be happy.:)
Click to expand...

Agreed! It sounds CHEAP when they say 3% extra to me & I usually look for someone else!
 
Calling it a gift the seller doesn't get charged, but paypal does charge the person giving the gift, ie: the buyer. Either way paypal gets their money.
 
I've never been charged when I send a paypal as a gift.


The way I see it, if the buyer needs to get in his car, drive to the post office, buy a postal money order and pay to ship the postal money order.....thats a real pain in the butt. And the buyer has no backing what so ever.

So, why not send a paypal to the seller as a gift. It's quick, easy, instant, and no fees. Paypal wont protect the buyer if he sent it as a gift but I wouldnt buy anything from someone I dont trust in the first place. Why not use the feature that paypal offers? They wouldnt offer it if they didnt want you to use it.

I believe Paypal legally has to offer a free way to transfer money and that is via "gift." The only way they can charge is if they offer their protection.


Either way, I'm all for sending and recieving paypals as gifts. Works great!:biggrin:
 
I think it's just a part of the transaction as the seller. If I remember correctly, it's against paypal rules to charge the fee to the buyer.
 
Paypal works for me. I almost always offer to pay fees.The way I look at it is its a great alternative if I dont have the cash and I can just pay with a credit card. I will never take a money order again unless its from someone I know. I got burned for some good money on a fake mo. The bs was the bank cashed the mo and then 2 months later, thats right 2 months later The money was taken back out of my account because the mo was fake. I fought with the bank over this for months and they told me there was nothing they could do.
 
Charging 3% PP fee is price gouging, like companies that charge a "fuel surcharge" on their invoices, just a way to make more money.....it's a cost of doing business people !!!! You want PP fees, add it into your price. If the seller wants a money order, they should pay for the MO and the gas to go pick it up....it IS a cost of the transaction, just like PP fees.

As a buyer and seller, PP makes it easier to do business because the buyer doesn't have to go to the bank or post office, the seller doesn't have to make a trip to the bank to deposit it and it is much safer than a MO.

Just my $.02......no 3% added.
 
So, what's the difference in cost to the seller, between a CC charge, and a PP charge??
AIRC, they are both about 3-4%??? Why the bitchin about PP?
On many hotrod/specialty parts, the gp is lower than many common car parts.
If I were in the business, there'd be the % added into the price for PP. [Or CC]
You can bet yurass it's there for CC use. Just look at the gas stations: Cash vs credit prices.
 
It is more convenient to the buyer than the seller. If the buyer doesn't want to go out in the real world, pay for a mo, pay to mail it, and then wait three days, THEY can pay the paypal fees. It doesn't bug me a bit to see the fees as a buyer, if it's enough money for me to care, I'll send a MO. Easier to hide that from the wife anyways :)

As a seller i'll take a postal MO anyday over paypal. I've never needed money bad enough to depend on an internet transaction anyway. And I don't have to worry about some scammer buying it and putting a hold on my paypal. Yes there are fake money orders out there, but most of them aren't doing POSTAL money orders. The ones that are, won't be doing it for long before the feds are after them. If you examine the MO when it shows up, and it has the security features, the chances of you getting burned from there forward are WAY less than the chances of someone putting a hold on your paypal. There is no sure fire way but that's the way I prefer.

Paypal is just the way things are on Ebay anymore. Hard to sell anything without it, but the stuff I've sold brought so much money that I can live with the fees. Where else can I sell my NOS honda express scooter wire baskets for $100+?
Honda Express NC50 New NOS Front Basket - eBay (item 110649315240 end time Feb-21-11 10:34:29 PST)
BTW the one before that brought $114 plus ship. :eek:
 
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