whigers

[quote user="ebaynut"][quote user="whigers"] As far as charges go - bear in mind that you will have eBay fees to pay as well as (possibly) Paypal fees too (once you have received a certain amount of money - the first few hundred is free I think). [/quote]   Not sure that this is quite correct I'm afraid. You will always be charged if you accept Paypal (this can be greedy, because they also charge for the added shipping costs!) Paypal fees Which roughly means approx 20p (UK) per transaction, plus 4% of total amount, which includes any other total invoice costs (ie Shipping). We generally add approx 5% to item start price to cover Paypal costs, plus listing & FVF fees. Ebay listing & FVF fees Bear in mind that you are no longer permitted by Ebay to add any charges to your invoice after the sale to cover these fees (you are only allowed to add 'reasonable' shipping & packaging costs), they have to be incorporated into the initial listing price.    [/quote] As far as I am aware - when you first open a Paypal account you have a limited amount of money recieved without paying fees as long as: 1) It is a personnal account not a professional 2) The money is sent from another Paypal account (rather than funded by a card payment) 3) The buyer and seller are in the same country As we have obviously not had this kind of account status for some time things could have changed by now - but I am fairly sure that for someone starting out with a new PayPal account to sell for the first time on Ebay you should find this is still the case. Equally the more you turnover as a professional the lower you rates become so that the charges drop to 1/2 what you are paying at the start. The real scam comes from the money-go-round at PayPal: You sell some stuff and PayPal charge you a fee for receiving the money into your Paypal account. You buy some stuff from someone else and fund it from your PayPal balance AND.... Paypal charge the seller a fee....on the same money, which has only moved on paper - and is still in the PayPal coffers earning them interest on their investments or whatever they do with the millions of £ (billions?) at any one time. Nice work if you can get it. Between listing fees, FVF (Final Value Fees for the unitiated - commision on sale value) and Paypal fees you can approximately deduct 9% of the total value of your sale inc shipping costs - all of which goes to Ebay/Paypal (they are one company) - Just watch one catagory of one country on Ebay for 10 Minutes and do the sums. But it IS STILL WORTH IT - compare the exposure to Google adwords costs, or print, or direct marketing and its is still very good value and often the first people look for Cheap (good value) or hard to find items Good luck in your sales and purchases (and always read the feedback) as from the end of next month sellers will no longer be able to give negative feedback for buyers and, with the threat of retaliatory feedback a thing of the past, buyers will feel freer to speak their mind - and evualtions will become a truer test of a sellers quality. Jim

I agree - you should definitely give it a go. Whilst the French eBay is nowhere near as active as the UK site YET it is steadily growing and good stuff will always sell at the right price. There is no question that whilst La Poste are pretty reasonably priced for objects sent within France, Monaco and Andorra - as soon as you want to send stuff abroad it becomes way too expensive for most foreign buyers. We have both a website (www.ballesdegolf.fr) and an eBay.fr Boutique selling Lakeballs (balles-de-golf) and other related equipment and we have had to move to using a private courier for our national and international deliveries as the costs were too dissuasive with La Poste - remember if you are registered for TVA (VAT) in France then you have to add it to the postage costs (There is no TVA charged by La Poste to you so this is all extra costs) whereas private firms charge you TVA so this at least is offset. Depending on the volume of sales it might be worth considering approaching one - we use GLS Group (www.gls-groupe.eu) - they offer us next day in France and 48hr in Europe. They prices in France are very competitive (when you have to take into account TVA) and in Europe they progressively cheaper the heavier the item. We still do only a fraction of our business through EBay - but it serves as a valuable shop window and it can only get better as the numbers grow! As far as charges go - bear in mind that you will have eBay fees to pay as well as (possibly) Paypal fees too (once you have received a certain amount of money - the first few hundred is free I think). I have made a number of XL spreadsheets that allow me to see Fees, profit, TVA etc dependant on the cost, sale price etc of the object which helps from making a mistakes! Always answer questions and send thinks quickly and well packaged (another cost to consider) Good luck with your selling (and buying) Jim

We are looking for a long term rental nr Chalais 16210. Ideals are: 3/4 beds garden - any size! single/double garage or similar size dependance. We are are ready now but are looking to move no later than the end of May and are based in the area so can visit within a few hours normally. Whilst we would prefer a long term solution we would obviously consider a shorter term arrangement if suitable. Many thanks Emma