Checks and money orders no longer allowed on ebay US
 

Check out ebay's latest FAQ. They are disallowing the use of checks or money orders for payment. They are pushing everyone towards PayPal.

i can see this turning away a lot of people.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/OtherFAQ/#3

What do you recommend as an alternative auction site? Because, alas, Craigslist is a PITA.

F*ck that!

I have a love-hate relationship with PP. I like the convenience, but the 3% on all payments sucks donkey butt.

Good! For a while now I have only accepted Paypal and wont bid unless the seller did as well.

Be very careful dealing with PayPal. They stiffed me out of over $200. I had gotten a refund from a seller which was sent as "cash" because the transaction had been so far back, that he could not send it as a refund. This was considered a non secure transaction by pay pal. When said seller went belly up and owed a lot of people money, they took the guy's money back out of my account. I guess they paid the secured transactions with any "unsecured" funds that they could pull back. I protested and they sent an email every week or so, saying they are "investigating". 4-6 weeks into it they "closed" the case and I was SOL.

This left a serious bad taste. I have all but stopped using Ebay since. There are some real nightmare stories out there, including a lot of people taking PayPal to court:

www.paypalsucks.com

George

That would be why I remove my Paypal funds immediately

i don't like paypal.. the last transaction i did the guy didn't send the item, paypal tried to refund me the money, but none to date!

I've had the spectrum of experiences with PayPal. They've been horrendous in the past but during a recent dispute, I found them to actually be accessible and willing to help out. Perhaps they're trying to bolster their image and fend off the previously-held view that their customer service is (was) non-existent? Maybe reinventing themselves?

I love how PayPal has been able to completely skirt money-transfer and banking laws.

My real life PayPal story: I volunteered to use my Paypal account for the donations to help out Warren (Early_S_Man). Paypal viewed these donations as "suspicious" and froze my account. It took over two weeks to convince Paypal I was not up to some illegal activity. I was guilty in their eyes without a shred of evidence.

ebay is doing some really questionable things -

forcing you to use their payment service for which they take a cut as well (paypal and ebay fees add up to a fair amount) plus not allowing a seller to leave negative feedback - i have heard they are also limiting shipping fees to $15 max

understood people have abused shipping fees ($.01 to buy item and $100 to ship to avoid fees) but there are legitimate shipping fees in excess of $15

I hardly use ebay anymore for anything. All I buy anymore are car parts, games and food. Whenever I go there to look for something its like $20 (including shipping) and I can drive to the store to get said $20 item for about the same price and have it that day. I'm not patient enough to wait around I guess.

Use www.gunbroker.com - available via different URLs such as "forthehunt.com"

No listing fees for basic listings, only pay when you sell something. True auctions also - no sniping. Any bid in the last 15 minutes resets the clock to 15 minutes. Great support, can list anything that is legal.

I like that - eBay should have done something like that.

Not in Australia Mate
 

They were trying that little number here in OZ but they have been stopped from implementing it by the local officials. Bad luck. How long they will be able to hold them off is another thing.
Dave

That will put your account into the negative. That will freeze your account. And possibly will get them to hand it off to a collection agency. They won't have your money, but you aren't off much better, IMHO.

George

That's not quite true. You can use your own credit card, or one of several other methods. You do NOT have to use Paypal. But, you're right, by the end of OCT, no more checks/MO's/Cashier's Checks.

I'm sure there are a lot more horror stories with Cashier's Checks, Checks, etc. than with PayPal.

Large items are excluded, it says.

Paypal. They've been great to me several times, both as buyer and seller. I'd have been SOL without them.

I guess this is the best alternative to paypal.

http://www.merchantinc.com/

I am going to look into it a little more myself and maybe try it. I don't trust paypal, never have - I've heard too many legitimate horror stories. Unfortunatley there isn't another 'ebay' out there right now. I use it to try to get rid of stuff from my hobbies here and there and other odds and ends. The hobby stuff I have been able to use the hobby related websites but not the other 'junk'.

I have never accepted anything but checks or money orders and I haven't had a problem but I am also small time in that I only have about 100 sales transactions.

No, they were sued by the AG's in multiple states!


ebay is essentially a monopolist - and thinks they have us all by the nuts, so can force us into paypal

I would rather throw away things than use paypal again.

When you select to pay with a credit card it tries to talk you out of it...if you aren't paying close attention you will notice that the site will change back your payment option to your bank account. It even says that paying with your bank is a better and more secure method...

A bit inconvenient if you're buying an expensive item and get over drafted.

All to save CC fees...screw paypal.