Ebay

I don't come here just to rant but..... I happened to have some spare Raspberry Pis and with the chip shortage they are in demand, so I went on EBay and put them up for sale. I haven't Ebay'ed in some time as a seller. So, now EBay handles the money, (you can still select PP) no more paying extra fees to Paypal, yeah!! Right? Nope. EBay is holding my money for various reasons, depending on what page you look at. They hold it until the buyer confirms delivery, then they are holding it because I'm "new", which is not the case, then they want more info for tax reporting purposes. Anyway what it adds up to is they are holding my money to make money off it right? So they get ~two weeks to make money off my money, not that they didn't already take their cut, they do that immediately. I refunded a few people's shipping cost, but EBay doesn't take that from their cut, no, no, no.
These days it is seller beware.

 

I usually receive payment into my bank within a few days of the buyer paying. I suspect in your case it may be due to not selling in a while. Also if you’re in the UK & sell to the EU there’s now tax to pay.

 

Ok, Ebay has had my money for 2 weeks, so yesterday I was supposed to receive part of it, I went to my account and now they want to verify my bank account by them sending me microtransactions and I have to type the two amounts in to verify my account, like this could not of been done in the preceding TWO WEEKS? The website site says it may take 2 - 4 business days. There is a part that says I should request these transactions, but no info on how to do it. They offer help - see the gif - the telephone icon goes nowhere - LOL! I did find their fraud number and it tells you to go to the website, BTW.

https://i.imgur.com/lr8D6Sv.gifv

https://i.imgur.com/lr8D6Sv.gifv

 

I'm very happy with those streaming boxes from Android. Although one thing to be wary of, is that some aren't really able to stream in 4K quality, etc. Yet some can.

They all use some basic Chinese based mobile version, which is terrible. LOL. But other than that, I think the Raspberry Pi or even a cheap Windows mini PC will do you for basic home browsing.

 

I have sold a bunch of stuff on Ebay w/o issues - then stopped for a few years - and sold an item just a few weeks ago. Having been away for a few years, I did receive (1) request from Ebay to verify my contact info and bank account and (2) notification that because I was "new", Ebay may hold onto my money for up to two weeks.

Verifying bank account was easy. Sellers could do that any time - and I did right after I received the request from Ebay (couldn't remember the exact sequence/timing anymore, but suffice to say it occured long before my auction end date). I suspect foogoo didn't notice the need to verify until later on??

After auction ended successfully - and once USPS confirmed delivery to buyer - Ebay notified me they were ready to pay me (net of their cut of course) - and I received the money the next day.

 

My understanding is that Ebay takes a cut based on your item's sale price + the costs of whatever features you selected when you put your auction together. Lots of nickeling and diming - but shipping cost is not any part of it. So when you refund shipping cost, there is no reason for Ebay to share in that return.

I recall back in the day, some sellers would set ridiculously low selling prices - and charge commensurately hefty shipping costs - to cut Ebay out. Ebay stopped that nonsense pretty quickly. Sellers couldn't just 'dictate' their own shipping charges anymore.

 

I had a flat rate shipping cost and people that purchased multiple items didn't deserve to pay full shipping on each item, so I would refund the shipping cost... the old penny cost with $100 shipping in not what I was trying to do..and Ebay did take a cut of the shipping... next time I'll do the refunds after Ebay takes their cut and put it on the buyer.

 

Yeah sellers still do that when there are a bunch of them selling the same item. Happens a lot. Last time I was buying Wood Lock Balm, going through the prices, looking for the lowest one, and found it for $15....plus $25 shipping! It typically sells locally for $18, so it was definitely a ripoff. I've almost been suckered more than once like that. Also deceptive wording in the heading of the item is typical. Such as saying a bedsheet is silk when it's nylon, saying a Hawaiian shirt is rayon when it turns out to be cotton in the fine print, an so on. No truth in advertising on eBay...just caveat emptor.