OT-Sort of- Alternatives to eBay

[Hagler]

Gents,

I have had an eBay account for a slew of years. It is extremely convenient for my wife, because she does not drive, and she can pick some good bargains by browsing eBay. I used to do a good little bit of business years ago, by selling second-hand items there. Now, they REQUIRE a seller to take a "safe" method of payment, in addition to any other way that a customer might pay me with. To eBay, "safe" = PayPal, or a "merchant account" for accepting credit cards. I realize that they are not a gun-friendly lot, but I do not know where else to go to sell my non-gun stuff. I use GunBroker a lot, and wish that they were as widely used to sell non-gun items. So, where can I go to sell non-gun things, with the popularity of eBay, but without all of the eBay shenanigans?

Shawn

[Borregos]

Try Craigslist, it is all over North America, it works for me very well.

[Lefty Dude]

Try Craigslist, it is all over North America, it works for me very well.

Craigslist is 51% owned by E-Bay. They may screw it up also.

[rjohns94]

I use Ebay and Paypal all the time. I have not had any problems with them. I still buy gun parts and accessories off ebay. Gunbroker I use a lot. I use paypal for all of my fun purcahases - or "goods" - as they are known.

[gunslinger598]

A couple of weeks ago my son sold an old car that had been sitting around here for about a year on Craig's List.

No title, the clutch was out and was pretty beat up. He sold it for as much as his g/f paid when she got it. the buyers drove 200 miles to get here.

The down side is he had no less than 35 scam offers that are commonly seen on horse sites.

but he got it sold.

[Hagler]

Thanks for the suggestions.

ISSUE#(1):
My problem with eBay is that they have changed the rules for SELLERS. Now, you MUST accept electronic payments (PayPal; credit cards-set up "merchant account"), or you cannot sell anything on eBay.

eBay is also restricting the SELLER from accepting any other form of payment. eBay will let the SELLER accept checks & money orders only for a handful of categories. ...and, in order for the SELLER to accept "paper" payments, like the checks & money orders, the SELLER has to always take the "paperless" payments as the primary payment method.

In summation:

If you do not take "paperless" payments, then you cannot SELL on eBay.
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ISSUE#(2):
eBay is capping shipping charges, and they force the SELLER to calculate shipping, so that the buyer knows up-front what he is being charged. My problem with this is that I always state the shipping charges in my auctions, and eBay uses some concocted formula for forcing the SELLER to use eBay's calculated shipping charges. The formula is partly based on package size & partly on its weight. The formula also includes the shipping method. eBay places tight constraints on the these factors, so that the SELLER has to choose an option that he may not / cannot use. The calculations can yield high shipping estimates that are nowhere near the figure that I want to charge. Some of this is done to prevent the SELLER from recouping his eBay fees through charging higher shipping costs.

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I realize that eBay is an anti-gun organization. I have discussed this with my wife. Because of her pyhsical conditon, though, I have not completely stopped an interaction with eBay. eBay is just plain convenient for her to shop for whatever she may want.

Also, my wife is after me to make some money! I have several things up on GunBroker. We have some things that might sell better on eBay. We now find that ebay would severely put a crimp in how we are accustomed to doing business. We are not prepared to incur the extra fees that eBay's new rules would force us to accept, as SELLERS.

Shawn

[Hagler]

...oh, if you want to see my GunBroker auctions, then take a look here:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Seller ... ser=455606

Thanks,
Shawn