just some background - ebay and paypal (now together, ironically enough) have lied about their fees and charges, and futureplans, since nearly day 1. so, if you use them, *expect* to get whacked with ever increasing charges.
however, i'd suggest checking out the usenet newsgroups if you're not in a super rush. make sure that you can post classified ads there..you'll often get afficionados in the groups.
back to ebay and paypal...tips to save some money.
-> if you're sure you're going to sell the item, add the ebay fee to your 'shipping and handling' charge. 30c sounds like nothing, but it adds up. ebay's final value fees come from the cost of the item, NOT the shipping and handling.
-> paypal has 2 types of accounts - one which charges money on ANY transaction through paypal (including credit cards), and one which does NOT charge money (except when you withdraw it), but you can't take credit cards. if you want c.c.'s, have 2 different paypal accounts - that are different from your ebay email account.
-> ebay will try and 'opt you in' to a million things. make sure they are unchecked. worse, they'll re-opt you in if you ahven't used them in 6 months (or a year, i forget which), claiming a bug in their system. they've had this 'bug' at least 5 different times.
-> don't let paypal have access to your checking account at ALL. there are horror stories out there about it.
-> if you get email from ebay or paypal asking to confirm your password by clicking here, DON'T. it's 'phishers' who want to steal your password and have set up fake ebay / paypal accounts. always go there by a pre-set bookmark you've created, or by typing it in.
-> don't expect to get satisfactory answers via email. ebay terminated all direct emails unless you go through their web server, so (for example) if you email
abuse@ebay.com about the scam artists, it will auto-bounce your mail back. also, if you post the publicly accessible phone numbers to ebay on their boards, you will get warned the next time you will get suspended because "ebay isn't set up to handle phone questions".
if you need to know the name of one of the good paypal employees (at least he was there a year ago, and since paypal got hugely negative complaints on most of their CS people and this one was hugely positive, i'd suspect he's still there), let me know privately.
-> check the completed items area to see what your thing has sold for. you may be surprised (or disappointed) at what the prices are. way back when, i saw a second bidder on a rare item that i had - no one else was selling - and i contacted the seller, and offered (via email) to pay ebay for this. they refused and said contacting is 'against ebay's policy' (this was before it was 'written').
-> similarly...ebay's VeRO program is wacky, inconsistent, and terminates (not 1% of the time, but more than that) items which aren't illegal / against ebay policy / etc. becaues of improper VeRO reporting. the improper reporters don't get terminated, unfortunately.
those are some of the things off the top of my head that you won't get on the "ebay is wonderful" trip.
despite it, i still use them from time to time. i also use auctions.yahoo and some others as well. but ebay is the top dog. yahoo had 2 chances to get a chunk of ebay's customer base, and both times dropped the ball. it's unlikely that ebay will lose their mainstream appeal any time in the next 5 years.
