eBay

groupbreakhits · ‎01-24-2021

Let me explain why.

I sell sports cards on eBay.com in USD. The USD funds are deposited in my PayPal account. I then buy more sports cards on eBay.com in USD with my USD PayPal currency from eBay.com sales. I’ve done this for 20 years. Why not Canada? Has about 99% less to offer for cards, the market isn’t anywhere near the size to offer anything similar.

Now, with eBay Canada managed payments I will be:

1. Forced to convert from USD to CAD at their conversion rates plus a 3% conversion fee.

2. Pay a .4 % eBay.com seller fee.

If I want to buy on eBay.com with the funds I just got from my sale, I am forced to:

1. Wait until the CAD is deposited to my account - likely 4 days.

2. Convert back from CAD to USD - once again dealing with a terrible conversion and 3% garbage exchange fee.

Questions:

1. Why would a sane person ever do this
2. How can I continue my collection while being charged upwards of 20% more now
3. Why didn’t eBay Canada or EBay US think about this
4. Why are they rolling this out without a solution for Canadian Sellers and Buyers.

Now, before you say “they are working” on allowing Canadian Sellers on eBay.com to deposit USD funds to a USD Canadian Bank account, you are wrong. They are only looking into that if you have a *****US****** PayPal account (which 99.9% of Canadians don’t have / you have a Canadian PayPal account).

I can’t stress enough how this will drive collectors - sellers and buyers - to alternative platforms so they can accept USD to purchase in USD. Already, half my sales are going to Twitter and now increasing.

eBay, if you can’t figure out a work around, our 20 + year relationship will be severely diminished.

femmefan1946 · ‎01-24-2021

I was "invited" to join MP back in August and have been ignoring them ever since because:

I can only have one bank account
That bank account must be with a Canadian bank
I cannot attach my American* bank which is in US dollars.

So we are in agreement on the banking limits.

Because eBay went with a Payment Processor that does not allow the client to build a balance nor to use the funds for buying on eBay, either they are really stupid, which is possible, or sellers do not buy as much on eBay as sellers think they do.

However, most eBay buyers are not sellers and never intend to be sellers, any more than you intend to be a grocery clerk or a gas station attendant.

Those members will not even notice that their seller has changed payment processors.

They will still be paying via Paypal or credit card, or may even notice that they can now pay with ApplePay and GooglePay.

We sellers can still buy using Paypal, we just won't be able to add any funds to our PP accounts from our eBay sales. Which is my preference too.

I suppose we could back both our PP accounts and our MP accounts with the same chequing account, using MP to collect money and PP to spend money.

But again, the stupidity of not realizing that Canadian (and overseas -- particularly Chinese) sellers are selling mostly to the US market and making allowances for currency exchange is baffling. Especially since Ayden which runs the MP program for eBay is a Netherlands company and as such should be aware of details like... there are other countries than the USA and those have variable currencies. Even the EU made room for the pound sterling.

*This is NOT a Canadian bank account in US funds. It is a US licensed bank in North Carolina.

luv4orphans · ‎01-24-2021

From what I am gathering here also is when we make a purchase and have to use paypal there is now a paypal fee to the buyer. Or at least the total amount on ebay is always up by a few dollars less when you open up your paypal account to pay.

Do we have a choice on whether we can use our MP money to buy something. I don't remember seeing that option.

I ordered a few bike parts for a friend in the last few weeks and the paypal amount is always $3-4 more than what's shown on ebay. Can anyone explain that one. I talked to ebay but didn't really get any answer to that question. Can't be currency as it should be the same across the board no?

marnotom! · ‎01-24-2021

@luv4orphans wrote:

From what I am gathering here also is when we make a purchase and have to use paypal there is now a paypal fee to the buyer. Or at least the total amount on ebay is always up by a few dollars less when you open up your paypal account to pay.

Do we have a choice on whether we can use our MP money to buy something. I don't remember seeing that option.

I ordered a few bike parts for a friend in the last few weeks and the paypal amount is always $3-4 more than what's shown on ebay. Can anyone explain that one. I talked to ebay but didn't really get any answer to that question. Can't be currency as it should be the same across the board no?

Yes, it can be currency. eBay displays what they call "approximate" currency conversions on listing pages and at checkout based on the halfway mark between the non-US currency's "buy" and "sell" rate on currency exchange markets.

PayPal uses something closer to the exchange rate offered by a bank, which is the market rate plus various mark-ups.

If you don't like PayPal's exchange rates but still want to pay with PayPal, you can choose to have your currency converted by your financial institution or credit card issuer, depending on your payment source. If you don't like PayPal's exchange rates and don't want to pay with PayPal, you might have the option of paying by other means such as Google Pay if the seller is now using eBay's Managed Payments system.

To answer what I think is your other question, if you are a seller and receive money through Managed Payments, there is no "holding pen" for the funds the way there is through PayPal. When you set up Managed Payments, you have to specify how often you would like to have your payments disbursed to you by eBay (there are a few options).

marnotom! · ‎01-24-2021

@groupbreakhits wrote:

eBay, if you can’t figure out a work around, our 20 + year relationship will be severely diminished.

If you've been on eBay that long, you'll probably remember that the PayPal of 2000 was nothing like the PayPal of today. I don't think it was even available to Canadians at that point. PayPal grew and evolved as it became more savvy about international financial systems (being an eBay company for a number of years helped with that). I'm regarding Managed Payments to be a work in progress as well and more features will likely become available as Adyen develops the MP infrastructure. Patience, grasshopper.

femmefan1946 · ‎01-25-2021

Billpoint was a huge improvement over waiting for US checks to clear, and PP was an improvement over that.

when we make a purchase and have to use paypal there is now a paypal fee to the buyer.

Basically there is a currency conversion fee and a fee for using a non-US credit card.

I think some of those fees were hidden because we paid two sets of fees, one to eBay and one to PP.

With MP, not only are the fees on each* transaction more visible, but we are actually looking at them because of the changeover.

Still not thrilled about only getting to use one bank though.

*which has its own drawbacks, especially for monthly bookkeeping.

needsmorerobots · ‎01-25-2021

@femmefan1946 wrote:
I was "invited" to join MP back in August and have been ignoring them ever since because:
I can only have one bank account
That bank account must be with a Canadian bank
I cannot attach my American* bank which is in US dollars.
So we are in agreement on the banking limits.

Because eBay went with a Payment Processor that does not allow the client to build a balance nor to use the funds for buying on eBay, either they are really stupid, which is possible, or sellers do not buy as much on eBay as sellers think they do.

However, most eBay buyers are not sellers and never intend to be sellers, any more than you intend to be a grocery clerk or a gas station attendant.
Those members will not even notice that their seller has changed payment processors.
They will still be paying via Paypal or credit card, or may even notice that they can now pay with ApplePay and GooglePay.

We sellers can still buy using Paypal, we just won't be able to add any funds to our PP accounts from our eBay sales. Which is my preference too.
I suppose we could back both our PP accounts and our MP accounts with the same chequing account, using MP to collect money and PP to spend money.

I do both. I sell and buy using PayPal. I buy from eBay using PayPal to add items to my own collection and to resell.

PP will now have to be taken out of the equation to make eBay purchases. None of my credit cards can add to or accept funds from PP. My bank accepts PP money in just 1 business day but takes about 5-7 business days to add from bank to PP. This means if I want to keep using PP as a payment option (with potentially increased fees) I have to wait 4 business days to receive money and then another 5-7 to load it into PP.

I'm not financially savvy as some people but this tells me I need to spread out and look at the other payment options.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-25-2021

With my PayPal balance I was always able to make purchases, pay eBay fees and buy postage with immediate processing.

Going forward with MP, is anyone familiar with how long it takes to make a purchase through Bank Funds to PayPal and what options are available for paying eBay fees and the timeline to process? Just something I never really had to think about in the past.

I realize with receiving funds from pending mileage may/will/does vary.

-Lotz

motomike_canada · ‎01-25-2021

@marnotom! wrote:
@groupbreakhits wrote:

eBay, if you can’t figure out a work around, our 20 + year relationship will be severely diminished.
If you've been on eBay that long, you'll probably remember that the PayPal of 2000 was nothing like the PayPal of today. I don't think it was even available to Canadians at that point.

yes it was.

And you could even have a PayPal "debit" Mastercard at that time.

This was fantastic as I lived on the border then, and would ship from USPS in Michigan ($3.85 flat rate in free boxes), hop over to the local US Bank to get my cash. Now, they wouldn't open an account to Canadians, but that wasn't a problem since the cash machine would accept the PayPal Debit Mastercard, which I used for a Cash Advance to withdraw US Dollars.

Then I'd come back to Canada and deposit it in my USD account, and only transfer to CAD if/when needed at a preferred bank rate.

Those were the haydays of both eBay and Paypal. Now it's a mess of exorbitant fees and and **bleep** exchange rates.

I use my USD in PayPal to make purchases from suppliers fairly regularly, so am also not looking forward to managed payments in it's current form, if/when they ever get around to figuring out how to apply it to sellers listing in multiple currencies.

triber · ‎01-25-2021

"I was "invited" to join MP back in August and have been ignoring them ever since because:

I can only have one bank account
That bank account must be with a Canadian bank
I cannot attach my American* bank which is in US dollars."

I am with you femmefan, I have a savings account with my husband, but no checking bank account, I use store credit cards for my sales.

I am 78 years old with health issues and there is no way I am going to go into banks to try and open an account in this pandemic, I don't like having banking on line.

I have never been invited to join Managed Payments yet, how long can we ignore the requests, have you had threat to stop you selling?

d_j_james · ‎01-25-2021

Totally agree, my "hobby" was selling my CD collection and buying Stamps on eBay, the convenience of having money in my Paypal account from sales was the reason I used eBay, they have just removed my choice and also my reason for using them. Just wrote an article on LinkedIn regarding this - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/goodbye-ebayits-been-fun-david-james

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-25-2021

I have not gotten the invite yet either, but it is my understanding that when given a date by which you DO have to sign up, that if that is ignored, selling privileges will be removed> you won't be able to list/re-list and any current items will not be able to be edited. It also means that any sales resulting from items still listed on eBay beyond that date will just sit in eBay's account, as the funds would no longer be allowed to go to PayPal, and if there is no bank account to send those funds to, well those funds will be withheld by eBay indefinitely and/or until there is a bank account made available by the seller.

marnotom! · ‎01-25-2021

@motomike_canada wrote:

@marnotom! wrote:

if you've been on eBay that long, you'll probably remember that the PayPal of 2000 was nothing like the PayPal of today. I don't think it was even available to Canadians at that point.
yes it was.
And you could even have a PayPal "debit" Mastercard at that time.
This was fantastic as I lived on the border then, and would ship from USPS in Michigan ($3.85 flat rate in free boxes), hop over to the local US Bank to get my cash. Now, they wouldn't open an account to Canadians, but that wasn't a problem since the cash machine would accept the PayPal Debit Mastercard, which I used for a Cash Advance to withdraw US Dollars.
Then I'd come back to Canada and deposit it in my USD account, and only transfer to CAD if/when needed at a preferred bank rate.

Those were the haydays of both eBay and Paypal. Now it's a mess of exorbitant fees and and **bleep** exchange rates.

I use my USD in PayPal to make purchases from suppliers fairly regularly, so am also not looking forward to managed payments in it's current form, if/when they ever get around to figuring out how to apply it to sellers listing in multiple currencies.

My wife and I did most of our eBay selling during eBay's "Bronze Age" in the late 1990s, early 2000s. There was no eBay.ca when we started and we continued listing on .com when eBay Canada did become established. Paper payments made up the bulk of our sales and we had to open a US dollar chequing account at our credit union in order to accept US dollar money orders and cheques. We were really glad when Billpoint was made available to Canadian sellers (I'm 99% certain that Billpoint had the jump on PayPal when it came to availability to Canadians) but we'd still field queries from potential buyers asking us if we were able to accept PayPal.

I wasn't too thrilled by the notion of having what seemed to be a fly-by-night, rag-tag internet startup operation hanging onto our funds and making us pay for the privilege of withdrawing them. (Billpoint automatically transferred funds upon a sale's completion.) In addition, tales of PayPal freezing these uninsured accounts at the drop of the hat seemed to be rampant at the time, so we held off adding PayPal as a payment method until--Guess what?--we were forced into it when eBay phased out Billpoint in favour of its recently acquired PayPal. It wasn't as bad a transition as we had feared, although I think we were getting a better CDN$ exchange rate through Billpoint than we were through PayPal at the time.

Living on Vancouver Island made options such as commuting to WA time-consuming and impractical, so that's likely why we didn't pursue some of the avenues you did when it came to dealing with your PayPal balance. I also don't think we dealt in high enough volumes of merchandise to make this strategy worth pursuing anyway.

alacar-8 · ‎01-25-2021

I also ignored my invitation to join, but months ago they froze my store as far as new listings, revisions, price changes, markdown manager etc. were concerned. They allowed me to keep my existing listings active, big of them. In order to stay in business I was forced to sign up. Since then it's been business as usual, but I smell MP becoming part of my life soon. I would've held out as long as you have, if I could have! Keep it up, thanks for being a great community member.

pjcdn2005 · ‎01-25-2021

We were told a while ago that sellers who list on .com won't be forced to join until they figure out a better way to handle $US funds for Canadian sellers. Since femme was given a date to sign up for MP and her account wasn't restricted by that date, they may still stand by that.

motomike_canada · ‎01-25-2021

My wife and I did most of our eBay selling during eBay's "Bronze Age" in the late 1990s, early 2000s. There was no eBay.ca when we started and we continued listing on .com when eBay Canada did become established. Paper payments made up the bulk of our sales and we had to open a US dollar chequing account at our credit union in order to accept US dollar money orders and cheques. We were really glad when Billpoint was made available to Canadian sellers (I'm 99% certain that Billpoint had the jump on PayPal when it came to availability to Canadians) but we'd still field queries from potential buyers asking us if we were able to accept PayPal.

I wasn't too thrilled by the notion of having what seemed to be a fly-by-night, rag-tag internet startup operation hanging onto our funds and making us pay for the privilege of withdrawing them. (Billpoint automatically transferred funds upon a sale's completion.) In addition, tales of PayPal freezing these uninsured accounts at the drop of the hat seemed to be rampant at the time,

Those were the days. I had stacks of US Postal money orders (the green ones, not international ones) that I'd have to bring in to the post office in Michigan to get cashed. My credit union would only take the pink ones 🙂

also - yes I wanted to empty my PP account as soon as I could, due to all the reports of frozen accounts, and more. They must have been sued dozens of times for 'acting as a bank' when they were not a bank, among other practices that were patently unfair.

Kind of funny that it became an eBay company, then they sold it off only to now try to roll in a new player with what appears to be worse 'features' for the sellers.. funny but in not a 'haha' way.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-25-2021

Kind of funny that it became an eBay company, then they sold it off only to now try to roll in a new player with what appears to be worse 'features' for the sellers.. funny but in not a 'haha' way.

PP was an eBay company, but eBay did not sell it off willingly.

The sale was forced by Carl Icahn, a Wall Street wolf, known for breaking up companies and destroying them in the process. Then he walks away with the money.

EBay for some reason did not want to deal with the independent PP, and opted for Ayden, a Netherlands based payment processor, to run their in house system.

Basically they moved from an in-house processor that was very profitable, to a third party processor which was less profitable, back to an in-house processor but now run by a third party.

ypdc_dennis · ‎01-25-2021

@triber wrote:
... I have a savings account with my husband, but no checking bank account ...
I am 78 years old with health issues and there is no way I am going to go into banks to try and open an account in this pandemic...

Consider opening a no-fee chequing account with one of the Canadian no branch banks:

* Tangerine.ca (formerly ING Direct, now owned by Scotiabank)

* simplii.com (formerly PC Financial, now owned by CIBC)

* Motusbank.ca (started in 2019, owned by MeridianCU)

Procedure for motusbank.ca was to apply online, if approved, print out a code, take it to your local post office, show ID and have the code scanned for account verification.

Disclosure: I have dealt with all 3, with a slight preference towards motusbank (higher interest rates)

katlover1952 · ‎01-25-2021

I too am like you femme, although I have not received an invite yet, I live near the US border & my PayPal bank account is in the US. I have not as yet been contacted about switching.

ricarmic · ‎01-26-2021

Yes I remember this too:

"Those were the days. I had stacks of US Postal money orders (the green ones, not international ones) that I'd have to bring in to the post office in Michigan to get cashed. My credit union would only take the pink ones :)"

No matter how many times in how many places you told people "Don't send the green ones" they came anyway!

Every change has its ups and downs.....I'm not looking forward to when I have to MP migrate but as with many others here, I've survived others, some worse than this (on other sites especially).