How Many People Here Sell on eBay

[Pente]

I started selling stuff on Ebay about a decade ago, mostly electronics that I found and refurbished. Didn't make much money at it though and I lost my connection for stuff to refurbish. Decided to try selling bitcoins in 2014. I put a five day waiting period for delivery and made sure I withdrew my funds/bought new bitcoins before sending the purchased ones. I had around a 20% profit margin, which PayPal takes 3% and Ebay took 10%, leaving me with 7%.

Things went okay for a couple months with just a few minor chargebacks that still left me with a comfortable profit. I contested these and showed PayPal proof of delivery on the blockchain, but they always favored the customer.

The next month, one person bought about $3000 worth of bitcoins, so I decided to play it safe and also send them a letter with proof of delivery, with the tx inside of it and a printout of the blockchain address with it's contents.

The month after that I sold another batch of bitcoins for about $3000, but then suddenly before I could withdraw the money, there was a chargeback on the previous month's bitcoin purchases by that one person. So PayPal basically grabbed the money belonging to the latest batch of customers to give back to an older customer. I contested that chargeback and thought I would win this one since I actually had a PHYSICAL proof of delivery for the letter and the customer was actually claiming a failure to deliver. PayPal still denied me.

BTW, even though PayPal claims there is an appeal process, there is no such button on their decision page, so it is impossible to follow their directions to appeal. Also I have never found any other page or button to file an appeal. I did ask for an appeal with a direct email, but I never received a response. The only thing left would be to file a small claims.

So the last batch of customers, I cannot deliver their bitcoins since I never actually received their money (since PayPal confiscated it). I was certainly not going to give up my own personal bitcoins, but I didn't want them to lose money either, so I attempted to issue a refund through Ebay, but Ebay refused since I had no money at PayPal. So I sent emails to that last batch of customers, explaining what happened, asking them to file a claim for no delivery and that I would not contest it. They would get their money back and I would get a negative balance on my PayPal account. I figured PayPal could try and sue me, but then I could respond to their unwarranted confiscation of my funds, and besides, I am pretty much immune to lawsuits.

So here is where it got strange... none of these people filed a claim.

About six months later, I decided to try and sell some more bitcoins. Ebay said my account was suspended with some vague complain of customer complaints, yet no negative feedback on my account. I appealed it, they denied, so I called and talked to someone, they looked at my account, laughed and just said that it was absolutely final and that I would not be allowed to appeal any further.

A couple months later I deposited $10 into my PayPal account as a test. It is still sitting there today.

[WhatTheGox]

I am looking to see how many people sell on eBay.  If you do sell on eBay and would like to be able to use Bitcoin, please let us know here and why.  Just doing some general research.

Yes i sell a ton on ebay, i would like to use bitcoin because 1.)im into bitcoin already 2.) i would hope we could work to towards cheaper fees 3.)its another step of moving away from the banks.

[helloeverybody]

I'm an eBay seller, but if rather not reveal myself if I have to, thanks. I think bitcoin will be great on eBay, but to be honest, it won't change a thing. Not enough people use bitcoin for eBay to care. What I do, is convert my sales into bitcoin. Pretty much no difference.

I would rather people pay in Bitcoin because then paypal cannot allow them to chargeback.

You would also save on paypal fees which soon add up when your selling a lot of items. Paypals fees on top of ebays absolutely kill any profit i could be making.

[Blue_Tiger73]

I don't sell anything on ebay, but I do but a lot of things off ebay. I wish that I could buy things on ebay with bitcoin.

Yeah. I really wish that more sellers in ebay will start to accept bitcoin. It is a better way of paying compared to PayPal.

[EdenHazard]

I do not think this is a good question when asked in this forum, I mean what you ask perhaps you should be able to answer it, because as we know, that ebay is not accept bitcoin as a part of payment, and therefore I think just little people here who sell their goods on ebay

[Amph]

I'm an eBay seller, but if rather not reveal myself if I have to, thanks. I think bitcoin will be great on eBay, but to be honest, it won't change a thing. Not enough people use bitcoin for eBay to care. What I do, is convert my sales into bitcoin. Pretty much no difference.

I would rather people pay in Bitcoin because then paypal cannot allow them to chargeback.

then open bazard will be the thing for it, because i doubt ebay will ever take bitcoin as a means of payment, they are kind against it

[pawel7777]

...

No I had mine pulled for advertising that I accept Bitcoin,  that's why I wasnt sure if they even had a cash and cheque option anymore.

Are you US based? Have you offered bitcoin payment as alternative or as the only way of paying?

[TibanneCat]

then open bazard will be the thing for it, because i doubt ebay will ever take bitcoin as a means of payment, they are kind against it

agreed

ebay won't take btc anytime soon as it competes with paypal, which until recently were the same company

those who want to sell and buy with btc will slowly migrate to new platforms like bitmarkets and openbazaar

[helloeverybody]

You would have thought now that ebay and paypal have split that bitcoin might have been considered but obviously paypal and ebay are still in each others pocket.

[Amph]

then open bazard will be the thing for it, because i doubt ebay will ever take bitcoin as a means of payment, they are kind against it

agreed

ebay won't take btc anytime soon as it competes with paypal, which until recently were the same company

those who want to sell and buy with btc will slowly migrate to new platforms like bitmarkets and openbazaar

never hear of bitmarkets, seems another open bazar, but it run only on mac for now

is this https://voluntary.net/bitmarkets/?

[knightkon]

For those of us who rather pay people with BTC than Paypal, how would you battle the constant scam artists out there who always find the need to ruin things by scamming people and ripping them off?  This is the issue on why eBay will not do BTC right now, the buyers are not protected.

[Tmdz]

I think thats how ebay became so popular is that there is zero risk for the buyers, you can literally buy sometime and say item not as described and get all your money back including shipping.  But they do require some kind of proof they will back up the buyer 99% of the time.

I guess if someone used btc they have to use a escrow that won't release funds until everything is confirmed good, but some scammers will still find ways to steal from honest sellers.  It's kind of a problem that will always exist

[Swordsoffreedom]

I am looking to see how many people sell on eBay.  If you do sell on eBay and would like to be able to use Bitcoin, please let us know here and why.  Just doing some general research.

I don't sell on ebay but I did consider it the fee structure was the most unappealing part of it, but building rep etc seems like the main pain.
As for Bitcoin selling fee wise its far lower on the commission end but a medium is needed for people to list products and services

[helloeverybody]

I wonder if we could get enough bitcoin users together to make a petition to let ebay start accepting bitcoin. Even if your not a seller or even use ebay, If you use btc then it would be a good thing for all.

[dime2spend]

I use ebay from time to time to buy stuff never sold anything over ebay though. So far I always used PayPal to pay the goods. I might use Bitcoins to buy things if ebay provides some kind of escrow service.

[ausbit]

I use ebay from time to time to buy stuff never sold anything over ebay though. So far I always used PayPal to pay the goods. I might use Bitcoins to buy things if ebay provides some kind of escrow service.

I have used eBay before but now to promote Bitcoins and get benefits of it. I will try to do some transactions on eBay through Bitcoins. If there is good schemes is going on eBay for Bitcoins holder then I will definetly buy from eBay.

[richardsNY]

I used to sell stuff from time to time on Ebay, but I stopped doing so due to PayPal. Once they accept Bitcoin I will go back to Ebay. Right now I sell stuff on my local market site.

[Denker]

Nope never offered stuff on ebay.
But I think I will try out OpenBazaar for that to sell some things.
I'm really curious regarding OB, hope we can make something out of it, would be great for the community.

[knightkon]

I'm an eBay seller, but if rather not reveal myself if I have to, thanks. I think bitcoin will be great on eBay, but to be honest, it won't change a thing. Not enough people use bitcoin for eBay to care. What I do, is convert my sales into bitcoin. Pretty much no difference.

I would rather people pay in Bitcoin because then paypal cannot allow them to chargeback.

I agree with what you are saying, but like these scam EARN BTC sites, there are scammers on eBay and those sellers are just going to rip you off.  If you are a buyer, you want to feel protected when you are going to make a purchase in case there is a bad seller, you can get your money back.

[knightkon]

No I don't sell on ebay, I have heard various horror stories of sellers getting scammed by people who after receiving the product claimed that the product delivered to them was in bad condition and they received charge back for it. Its too risky, I'd rather find some buyers locally and deal them face to face then selling things on ebay.

This is the problem with selling physical goods online, ebay protects the buyer but there is no protection for the seller. Unless the goods are sent to a mediator which both parties can trust, these scams will continue but having a mediator in between for physical goods increases the shipping and handling costs and which is why even that won't work.

A mentor of mine used to sell on eBay back in 2001.  They had a sale during Christmas and because of the popularity of the product, they sold over 900k with in a month of Christmas.  Because of the control that Paypal took over the money, my friend ended up going bankrupt and lost everything he had.  He ended up with over $1,000,000 in inventory in his warehouse and nowhere to move it to cover the bills he was due to his suppliers.  PayPal screwed him bad all because they felt the need to reverify my friend after he was already verified.  I do not trust them for anything.  Playing with eBay and Paypal is kinds of like gambling.