# eBay, once wonderful, now, not so much **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294 "2019-05-01T01:22:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/61 "2019-05-09T13:16:51Z")
Who knew knickers would get so knit over this nit… > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > How long has Samsung Pay been around? No idea. I did misspeak, though, I meant Samsung Pass. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > What did you do before then? I keyed my full CC number, name as it appears on card, expiration date and CCV each time I ordered something online. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And it’s something that lives on a phone and only some people will take it? No, this app simply stores my various payment info. When it comes time to enter payment information the app, after proper verification (in my case a fingerprint), pre-fills all of the data except the three digit CCV. PCI compliance rules do not allow the CCV to be stored anywhere. Google serves a similar function on my laptop. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Boy, talk about a solution to something that’s not a problem. Old way - key all 4 full lines of data each and every time. New Way - key only the CCV. Not too difficult to see the advantage to me. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And what do you mean by “pay for the privilege”? There are no fees for a buyer to use PayPal. And on this you may be correct, I haven’t begun the sign up process in years. Still doesn’t make it advantageous for me, as a buyer, to use. **In My Humble Opinion**. I also think raw tomatoes taste like crap, I’m sure others here will disagree with that opinion as well. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/62 "2019-05-09T16:01:37Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Old way - key all 4 full lines of data each and every time. New Way - key only the CCV. Not too difficult to see the advantage to me. PayPal. Old way - click on Paypal link, enter nothing. New way - click on Paypal link, enter nothing. Not too difficult to see the advantage to me. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/63 "2019-05-09T17:07:16Z")
EBay has been a godsend since I got back into building and modifying RC cars this year. I can buy new upgrade parts from Japanese sellers via eBay for a fraction of what Tamiya’s official US importer charges for them (even with international shipping), and perhaps more importantly I can but a much broader range of parts than I can from Tamiya America. I can also buy an even larger range of third-party upgrade parts (mostly from manufacturers in Hong Kong) that aren’t sold through any official channels in the US. I have an Amazon rewards credit card and usually have hundreds of dollars worth of “points,” so I’ll buy stuff from Amazon when I can, but Amazon’s RC parts section is full of no-brand Chinese crap with barely-literate product descriptions now. I always hated the auction model just because I was too busy to compete with snipers, and I have zero problem with eBay going to a majority-buy-it-now model. That’s particularly true now that it’s been around long enough for prices to be well-established. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/64 "2019-05-09T17:56:05Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I put in my CC info once and Samsung Pay remembers it. I don’t have to ever key it again or pay for the privilege. That is literally how PayPal works. And guess what? You can have two apps on your phone that do the same convenient thing. > [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > And on this you may be correct, I haven’t begun the sign up process in years. Still doesn’t make it advantageous for me, as a buyer, to use. **In My Humble Opinion**. The advantage to you as a buyer is that if you use PayPal you can make a transaction with anyone selling on eBay. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/65 "2019-06-12T23:30:50Z")
I just looked and it appears that just to sell something there is a total fee of 10% and no paypal fee. Is that correct or are there more fees beyond that if you don’t have a store? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/66 "2019-06-12T23:54:34Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I have a question about eBay being “good”. Since the format seems to be bidding for items, aren’t you actually going to end up paying the HIGHEST price they can possibly get instead of getting, in what would be in economic terms, a “good deal”? Sort of. Auctions are good for low-information sellers because they result in high prices without having to do a lot of work to find the best price. An auction is a price-discovery mechanism that elicits true valuations from buyers by making a commitment to sell. You won’t get the highest price you can possibly get, you’ll get the second-highest. What you’re asking about (in economic terms) is how the consumer surplus is split. In (almost) any transaction, there’s an economic gain called “surplus”. The buyer wants the thing more than what he’s paying for it, and the seller wants the money more than he wants the thing, so they’re both better off afterward. Getting a “good deal” means that the surplus is large and that you got most (or at least a lot) of it. If you’re willing to pay $100 for something and a seller is willing to sell it for $50, then any price between those two is an acceptable one. At $50, you capture an additional $50 worth of surplus “value”. At $75, you’re splitting it. So, in an auction, assuming rational bidding (not always a given, but let’s pretend for now), the second-to-last bidder should drop out as soon as the price goes above their valuation. That means the winner is the person who values the thing the most, and their price is whatever the person who values it second-most values it as. That price will give most of the surplus to the seller if most buyers value something similarly. But if there’s an item that you personally value much higher than other possible buyers, an auction is great for you. For example, if you have a sentimental attachment to something, you may be willing to pay much more than other buyers. In an auction, you’ll only have to pay as much as the next bidder would pay. That’s why auctions are good for unique items. Those items are hard to price, and there’s often different ways that different people value them. You can get higher prices than auctions will bring, but you have to go out and do a lot of work to figure out what someone is willing to pay. You can’t just ask them, because they’ll lie to you and say less (obviously they’d like to pay less). But if you set a particular time and agree to sell to the person who names the highest price, you get honest answers from buyers because they know they’ll get to actually buy it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/67 "2019-06-13T01:52:53Z")
I have never successfully sold on E bay, & gave up on it. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/68 "2019-06-13T03:03:45Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I just looked and it appears that just to sell something there is a total fee of 10% and no paypal fee. Is that correct or are there more fees beyond that if you don’t have a store? You pay a fee right away to PayPal on the total amount charged to the buyer (sale + shipping). I don’t know what that fee structure is, but I paid $1.30 on my last $34.45 sale (inc shipping). Then at the end of the month you’ll get an invoice (automatically paid from your PayPal account) for the 10% of each sale plus 10% on the shipping cost. So for the $25 item I sold, the buyer paid $34.45 ($9.45 in shipping). I paid only $7.88 to ship because eBay has some USPS deals and I paid $4.75 ($1.30+2.50+.95) in fees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294.md?page=3)