posted on November 30, 2001 11:28:57 PM new
Well it Had to Happen, I got the Warning from PayPal more than a week ago, NOT to allow the Billpoint Logo in My Auctions, or I would Lose a Preferred Status. I wasn't (I know Believe it or Not) even aware of It (the Billpoint Logo), I got them because I signed up for AFA and Didn't delete it when I Listed through eBay. Well I Slipped up, of the 24 Auctions I have Running ONE Has the Billpoint Logo (I forgot to Delete it!!), and of Course PayPal was Monitoring ME (They didn't Bid on ANYTHING!!) and Suspended me when they Saw my Insidious attempt to accept Billpoint, THOUGH I CLEARLY STATE in ALL My Auctions that I only accept PayPal as an Online Payment. Damon, You Have helped me in the Past, AND I do Think you are A GOOD Guy, BUT Don't Bother, From NOW on I accept PayPal AND BILLPOINT, with a Preference towards BILLPOINT!!
posted on December 1, 2001 12:31:48 AM new
docpjw, You get more bids if you offer more payment options. Some eBay bidders only want to use Billpoint. Some only want to use Paypal. Others only want to send the seller a check or money order. The bidders who consider payment options to be an important factor as to whether they will bid or not on an auction will click out if the seller doesn't offer the payment option of their choice. In your situation you will see over the next few months more bids for your auctions because you are offering Billpoint to those users who want it. More bids result in higher prices and offset any losses from not having Paypal's advanced features.
Another piece of advice is to make sure the bank account you have attached to the Billpoint account is interest bearing. Billpoint is real fast at making deposits. My Billpoint deposits show up in my bank account within 24 hours and I start earning interest income immediately.
posted on December 1, 2001 04:44:27 AM new
I don't accept any online payments except paypal either. I think they took my 1.5% payback on purchases because of the checkout button on my auctions.
I didn't ask for or want checkout and have now opted out of it, but the damage is done.
posted on December 1, 2001 06:57:21 AM new
go back and tell paypal you want your cash rebate back.
mine was taken aways from me,restated,taken away again and this morning restated.
paypal checked once a week and in the past if you have relisted an item and not reviewing carefully,billpoint options may have been stated by ebay,now all you need to do is to go to my ebay sell page and place an option you dont want checkout.
i think if paypal keeps doing this to us,it will eventually turn us off and we wont be bothered.
my 1 1/2 % rebate does not amount to much.
posted on December 1, 2001 01:05:44 PM new
Got my "Busted" email this morning too. Sent my two word reply back...can't type it here but the first word started with F and the second with Y.
Until PayPal convinces me that I'm important to THEM (hummm...maybe a lower commission rate for us "little" people), I'll list every concievable method of payment I can find. I figure the easier it is for people to pay, the more likely they are to bid.
When I put something on an auction it's so I can make a buck...not so PayPal can get their cut!
I can't wait until Citibank gets serious with C2It and PayPal joins the rest of the "client unfriendly" e-companies on the cyberspace scrap heap.
posted on December 1, 2001 05:28:30 PM new
The sellers who offer a full range of payment options do get more bids and higher prices than their competition.
For every payment option, out of the four major options of Billpoint, Paypal, check and money order, there are a percentage of buyers within those categories who will only use that payment method. If sellers don't offer the option the buyer desires to use, then the buyer doesn't bid.
You can spend a few hours on eBay, start tracking sellers who offer the full range of payment options versus the sellers who don't. Look at the sellers who actually sell items that are in demand. Then look at their completed auctions. You will see that the sellers who limit their auctions are not doing very well during these down economic times, whereas the full payment option sellers appear to be making a nice living.
I took it one step further. I wanted to see if Checkout is yet another option that might make a buyer not bid. Again, I see the sellers who offer Checkout, along with the four major payment options are doing well. Whereas the sellers who are not enabling Checkout, plus have limited payment options, appear to be listing a lot without getting any bids at all on many of their auctions.
I looked mostly in the antique type of categories.
In a way it sort of makes sense if you think about it. Every day new users sign on to eBay. They are unfamiliar with the process. As they scroll through auctions of various sellers they will gravitate towards the auctions that look the most professional, auctions that don't show any negativity, auctions that spell out in clear language what is expected of the buyer. The sellers who present a nice clean auction page, readable, concise, complete range of payment options, easy to complete end of auction process, those sellers will get the bids from the new arrivals to ebay. So even if a seller might think having Checkout enabled is a pain in the rear, or providing all of the various payment options is a big hassle, the rewards are shown when the auctions sell at nice profits. And that is what it is all about, making profits and staying in business.
posted on December 2, 2001 08:00:23 AM new
I don't use the paypal logo but I do take paypal. I don't take billpoint. What I would like to know is would I be better off taking both? This is a good thread to ask. I have been debating about joining. I will tell you I won't use any payment logos but I state in my auction what I take. Maybe it can be worded. "I accept on line payments, which will be stated in my EOA notice." that way PayPal or ebay won't know what you take. Does eBay automatically insert the billpoint logo in your auctions or do you have to do that yourself? Lots of questions and I hope I can get some answers. thanks.
posted on December 2, 2001 10:33:03 AM new
Libra63 -
You draw more buyers if you offer both services and if you enable Billpoint to show on your auction pages. eBay has specific search functions for auctions that are Billpoint enabled, so your auctions will show up for those users who search using that methodology.
In my auctions I show the Billpoint logo and I state in the Checkout box that I take Billpoint, Paypal, check and money order. Billpoint and Paypal have pluses and minuses to the seller, which really don't matter because the fact is that there are a significant number of bidders who only bid on auctions that offer the payment option of their choice. The seller who offers all of the payment options will do better than the sellers who don't. My auctions - I have a 100% sell rate, which means all of my auctions sell.
Essentially, there is this big corporate battle between Billpoint and Paypal for dominance of market share within eBay. Paypal offers financial incentives to sellers if they don't use Billpoint, whereas Billpoint focuses on the buyers and tries to get users new to eBay committed to their payment form. In my opinion it is foolish for sellers to take sides with Billpoint or Paypal.
Yes, there are pluses and minuses to each payment service for the seller, but the minuses (if they occur) need to be calculated as the cost of doing business because the two major pluses outweigh all other considerations. They are: 1)sellers get more bids by offering full payment options and 2)sellers need to be diversified to avoid catastrophe and maximize profits. At the minimum, think about how fast corporations tumble to oblivion in today's economy, like Enron and some of the internet companies. Plan your business strategy accordingly.
posted on December 2, 2001 11:24:18 AM new
Hotcupoftea-Thanks for the info. I think you have really given me the incentive to join Billpoint. I never have a 100% sell rate unless I relist at least a couple of times or more.
Now if I join Billpoint will the logo go automatically or do I have to insert it. I don't really want any logo on my auctions so I hope it doesn't go in automatically. Would I be better off if I had both logo's on their and then used both automatic checkouts?
I hope someone has the answer to that. Thanks.
posted on December 2, 2001 12:47:48 PM new
Libra63 -
If you spend some time on eBay and look for the sellers who are successful, you will find that the majority of those sellers have the Billpoint logo showing. Some of them have a Paypal logo also. Most of them offer Checkout also, even sellers who list hundreds of auctions at a time.
If you want to capture the buyers who prefer to use Billpoint, then you need to have the eBay Payments showing on your auction pages.
You need to understand the buyers.
The buyers who prefer Paypal tend to be sellers also. They are more experienced eBay users.
Whereas, buyers who prefer Billpoint tend to be just buyers. They are less experienced eBay users.
On the above, I'm not saying that is true of each and every user, but it is probably true of the majority.
You want to capture the attention of both sets of buyers, so you offer both payment options. Billpoint is more effective if the logo is showing because new users are looking for it. Whereas Paypal, all you really need to do is state in your auction that you accept Paypal.
Regarding Checkout, it is more effective to enable it and let the winning buyer use Checkout if desired. Again, I urge you to take time and look at the auctions of sellers who use Checkout. Take their seller id, go to Seller Search, click on All and look at their completed auctions.
Checkout has brought about another category of buyer who will click out of auctions that don't enable it or which have negativity regarding Checkout. What I mean by negativity is that there are sellers who have put anti-Checkout prose in their auction text or anti-Checkout gifs. Buyers see such things and they click out without bidding.
The successful seller has only positively worded auctions. If there is trouble in the background, the successfull seller does not give any indication of that to the buyers.
Let me give you an example. There is a city street with three pizza parlors. A group of friends go into pizza parlor number one. They go up to the counter to order an extra large combination pizze. The man behind the counter starts talking with them, going on and on about how the local Zoning Board is doing him in, forcing him to change the way he does business. The man behind the counter tries to force printed literature on the group of customers. Now all these people want to do is order an extra large combination pizza. Instead, they get an obsessed man telling them his business woes. They are just customers. They have no desire or interest in knowing what is going on with his business. What do they do? They turn around, walk out, go across the street to another pizza parlor, order their extra large combination pizza, get nice friendly service, no indication of zoning problems with this business.
That is how it is with some buyers and Checkout. They click into an auction, it is Checkout enabled, they win the auction, and with a few clicks they have contacted the seller through Checkout. It was a fast and easy experience for the buyer. They win another auction and they have the same experience. Then they click into an auction and the seller has all of this negativity about Checkout, on the auction page or on the Me page. The buyer concludes the seller is not rational for the same reasons the pizza buyers did, because any good business puts the customer first at all times, so the buyer clicks out and takes his bids elsewhere.
posted on December 2, 2001 01:33:32 PM new
sometimes i wish bin laden will blow away ebay-item listed for 7-10 days,bids are getting lower and lower,ungrateful bidders argue with you on shipping fee,if return,they want you to pay return shipping,they nick pick and nick pick and want you to leave glowing feedback.
all for what?take a look at ebay items,more and more items for under 10 or under 5,how much work shoudl one spend on listing on ebay,dont we all have something better to do??
look at some of the merchandise being offered on ebay-smelly moldy,cracked,chipped,misrepresented items.
posted on December 2, 2001 02:30:40 PM new
Well I'd liked to know what you are selling that you have a 100% sell thru....That's hard to believe.... even in the good times Most sellers didn't have a 100% sell Thru...
posted on December 2, 2001 06:50:13 PM new
I got busted also, but don't really care. Billpoint payments show up in my bank account the VERY next day. I have an online bank account and my bank is very, very far away. If I want money transferred to my account with Paypal it can take 5-7 days. If Billpoint can get it into there within 1 day, why can't Paypal? The debit card is nice, but when I need money in my accounts it isn't. Billpoint also gave me the 1.75% rate and they don't threaten to take it away from me when I fall below $1000 a month, which has been every month since September 11th.
posted on December 2, 2001 09:20:27 PM new
I agree it is helpful to have both forms of online payment. I also take Bidpay which makes it easier for some international buyers, or anyone, to pay with Western Union money order for a reasonable sum.
As to checkout, I still have not found out how to use it. I state an option of priority or media mail for books. How is that stated in the checkout. Now I did use the 'send an invoice' on one auction just to see and the buyer used Paypal to pay. It was quick and painless. I may try using that when I get started up again.
The only time someone just jumped in and used Checkout, they neglected to add postage - didn't answer any emails regarding this. I sent the package anyway, with a note, thinking they would be honest, but no such thing. I have yet to hear from this person. This has been a problem with Checkout and I don't want it to happen again.
I am not negative with my statement, I just state that I am not able to use the option at this time.
posted on December 2, 2001 10:35:48 PM new
mitch3 -
I sell within a few selected categories only, pretty much antiques I guess. I only sell what is in demand. I know my market, I don't play guessing games, I list only high-end that I know will get bids. I don't know how many sellers have a 100% sell rate but I know I see such sellers when I am searching for items to purchase. For example, today I won an auction, the seller is an antique mall in Canada. The seller has hundreds of active auctions. I always look at the 30 day selling history before I bid. This seller had a 100% sell rate, a safe assumption since the seller doesn't use reserves. The seller gave a lot of payment options and had Checkout enabled. Nice thing about the transaction is that I haven't heard from the seller, understandable since the seller is an antique mall and the auction closed on a Sunday. But I was able to go through Checkout and pay for it, left the seller a nice note of appreciation.
hcross -
I prefer Billpoint to Paypal too. I work hard not to let my customers know I have a preference, but interestingly enough most of the customers end up using Billpoint, versus checks or Paypal. One suggestion for you if you have not done so already is to make the bank account attached to Billpoint interest bearing. Billpoint is so fast with the deposits that it makes sense to be earning interest on those deposits in your bank account. With Paypal, I won't keep my money in there. I transfer it out real fast. If Paypal goes down the tubes I don't want a couple of thousand dollars sitting in there and not be able to get it back. Look at Enron - all of those thousands of employees with 401K retirement plans that were 100% Enron stock. At the first sign of trouble Enron froze the retirement accounts and the employees watched their years of retirement savings disappear because they were not allowed to sell their stock. How horrible and awful for them. None of us know the nuances of what corporations can do when bad things are happening. It is better to be on the safe side, get your money out of Paypal as fast as it comes in and into a bank account that is FDIC insured.
nnt -
If your auctions are doing well, then don't worry about enabling Checkout. But if you need to improve your sales, then look and see how other sellers in your category have enabled Checkout. Perhaps the solution is simple, like if 90% of your buyers prefer to use the media rate, then set up the auctions with a fixed shipping rate for media, then explain in the Checkout Box that shipping is more for Priority Mail and the shipping costs will need to be ajusted.
The auction I won today with the Canadian antique mall, the seller had everything in their Checkout Box, how much to add on for insurance, how much to add on for special Canadian taxes, etc. This is a seller with a 100% sell rate.
I network with half a dozen other sellers within my categories. We share knowledge and resources. All of us are up and running with Checkout, we assisted each other through the process. One seller who hated Checkout at first now loves it. She now admits she hated it becasue she didn't have it enabled at the beginning and so her customers were confused. She says she loves Checkout now because before she even has a chance to send out an end of auction email over 50% of the buyers have gone through Checkout and paid for the auction, either through Billpoint or Paypal. Thus her cash flow is turning over faster. At the same time the number of dead beat bidders has dropped for her.
