bbarsh wrote:But did you know they have outlawed personal checks and money orders? I didn't. In fact, I had to beg them not to end all my latest auctions early because I was in violation of the new policy which took place on Jan 15. To give them some credit, they did let my auctions close on Jan 16.However, the entire concept that we as sellers can't take any form of payment but the ones ebay gets paid for is shit.
JohnGaunt wrote:Sellers can't mention other methods of payment in their auctions. Buyers can still pay through other methods.
Pipswich wrote:No kidding, I wouldn't ship based on a personal check or a money order from a stranger. They are clearly too easy for people to forge. Chargebacks from you bank on forged checks can happen weeks later. It's just not wise. I don't like ebay's monopoly... but... the western union scams and the check scams compromise all of our ability to do business on ebay. They have to do something.
Badmike wrote:It's not that bad. I've been selling online since 1994, way before Ebay or paypal. Between 1994-1998, I had exactly two bounced checks out of several hundred sales, both for small amounts and (oddly enough) both from military men. Never had an issue with a money order, including foreign money orders, except for once some guy forgot to convert from Canadian Dollars to US dollars and I deposited the MO, whoops, my bad, got shorted AND charged a conversion fee. Since Ebay/Paypal, I've never had a bounced check or bad money order. It's really simple...you don't ship until the check or money order clears. Simple as that. Never had problem one in ten years of Ebay, and now Ebay wants to tell us the switch to Paypal only is for our own protection. Yeh, thanks guys, I didn't need your protection, but thanks for giving me no choice in the matter. To top it off, I had a lot of foreign buyers pay through Western Union. Also never a problem, sometimes for very large amounts. These fears have been overblown over the years by continual nonsense warnings from Ebay/Paypal making you so worried about accepting anything but Paypal that you'll gladly pay their excessive fees for "protection". Sheesh. All a buyer has to do is claim NSAD and he gets back all his money, and you have zero recourse anyway. What kind of "protection" is that? I'd love to go back to checks and money orders only....In the good old days, a seller's rep was his lifeline. Screw a buyer, send him crappy material, and the word got around very quickly on the forums and boards dedicated to buying/selling/trading RPGs. I saw more than one bad seller get hammered completely for sending late or damaged items, to the point where they were chased off the boards and stopped selling RPGS. Several of the early RPG sellers online, like Noble Knight, Dragonstrove, the original Titan Games, the Hit Pointe, and myself, started out that way and flourished by doing the right thing by buyers. Oh, and EVERYONE spent a lot less, since prices weren't inflated to pay for ebay fees and paypal fees. It's really a damn shame. I'd go back to that sort of business in a second, problem is people have been so brainwashed by Ebay and Paypal's constant campaign to brand anything but their sites as "shady" selling it's hard to change people's minds.Mike B.
