Paypal / Ebay question.

[mikelz777]

I've been searching Paypal's "Help" section to no avail. Maybe someone here can help me with a question.

If I'm a U.S. buyer purchasing a "buy it now" item from a U.K. seller in United Kingdom pounds via Paypal, do I pay any kind of fees to either Paypal or Ebay or do I just pay whatever the conversion amount would be for that day?

[Head Man]

I've been searching Paypal's "Help" section to no avail. Maybe someone here can help me with a question.

If I'm a U.S. buyer purchasing a "buy it now" item from a U.K. seller in United Kingdom pounds via Paypal, do I pay any kind of fees to either Paypal or Ebay or do I just pay whatever the conversion amount would be for that day?

No fees for buying...only for selling. Don't forget to include any costs for shipping etc into the price.

[mikelz777]

Thanks for the response but I still wonder. I thought that Paypal (or Ebay) would charge a fee for having to convert my purchase price from dollars to pounds. It seems they want to ding everyone with a charge whenever it's possible.

[Brad]

They don't charge a fee for doing that. On paypal, you don't generally get charged fees if you send money.

[J.A.W.]

They don't charge a fee for doing that. On paypal, you don't generally get charged fees if you send money.

PayPal's not-so-great exchange rate takes care of the fee when sending money in a foreign currency.

[djcavanagh]

You don't get charged a fee but the exchange rate that they offer will be worse than the one that they would offer to me if I were purchasing something in Dollars. So if I wanted to send you $100 this would cost me more in pounds sterling than the number of pounds sterling that you would get for converting $100.

This is known as the "bid-offer" spread and is effectively a charge that anyone coverting currency will make. If you are ever at an airport you'll see that the spread is huge compared to other options.

[mikelz777]

Thanks for the responses. You were right about the exchange rates. It looks like the current market rate for 1 USD = .687677 GBP. Paypal's rate for 1 USD = .667699 GBP. Thankfully, it's not a huge difference and would cost me less than a dollar more than the regular market rates would.

[Brad]

Yes, their exchange rates are not so good, particularly if you compare them to something like xe.com. I suppose that's one way to make a little extra money

[Daniel A]

Rather than to create a new thread, I', posting my question here.

My only eBay experience is from the buyer's end, but against better judgment I'm now considering listing a couple of items for auction. There is no eBay site for Sweden, so I'll have to list them on eBay.com or eBay.co.uk. eBay is forcing me to set a "domestic" shipping cost for the US (or UK) that is way below the actual cost. Is there any way to override these settings (that obviously do not make sense for sellers outside the US or UK)? A flat rate won't do it, since it's limited by eBay according to what "average" buyers find "reasonable".

[Rooster_Ties]

I would wildly guess that you probably need to up the minimum amount you would agree to sell the item(s) for, to include enough "overhead" to both cover the difference between the standard shipping costs eBay expects that you'll pay, and your actual shipping costs.

AND, don't forget to factor in that eBay will get a cut of that difference too, so up it again by enough to cover eBay's cut.

[Dave Garrett]

eBay is about to start including S&H in its Final Value Fees. As you might expect, sellers are plenty pissed off about this. Others are of the opinion that the bad apples who charged exorbitant S&H rates to pad their sale prices ultimately wound up screwing the honest sellers when eBay cracked down on the practice.

eBay Fee Changes Hit Auction Sellers Hard

[Daniel A]

eBay is about to start including S&H in its Final Value Fees.

I think this policy might backfire. Many sellers will probably stop offering international shipping, which in turn will decrease the overall bidding level. eBay has dominated the online auction market for too long. Maybe the right time for a competitor to enter the scene?

[Royal Oak]

Rather than to create a new thread, I', posting my question here.

My only eBay experience is from the buyer's end, but against better judgment I'm now considering listing a couple of items for auction. There is no eBay site for Sweden, so I'll have to list them on eBay.com or eBay.co.uk. eBay is forcing me to set a "domestic" shipping cost for the US (or UK) that is way below the actual cost. Is there any way to override these settings (that obviously do not make sense for sellers outside the US or UK)? A flat rate won't do it, since it's limited by eBay according to what "average" buyers find "reasonable".

I see a lot of this on classical LP listings - most sellers who have to use the "domestic" rate add a big "PLEASE NOTE" message to their listings explaining that the Ebay shiping charges do not apply. They usually add their own rates into the listing details and instruct the buyer to await an invoice before paying.