I have been doing a lot of eBay business lately...mostly selling this last year...but a little buying.  Right now I am PayPal verified, which doesn't mean much for advertising when I sell something.  The symbol above is something I drop into my selling page on eBay by using an HTML format. It is pretty cool otherwise...but they can hold my money for up to 21 days, even if the buyers pay right away.  They usually wait till the product is delivered or wait for eBay's feedback, good or bad rating before they release the money to me (usually 6-12 days right now) which is a long time holding my money.

You and I know that PayPal can virtually have that money right away from anyone paying by a credit card, eCheck or normal PayPal direct bank payment.  You know how fast retail stores can pull money you spend right out of your bank account or credit card...instantly (almost).  For example, if you go to Safeway and buy groceries, it shows up as a debit from that store by the time you get home (if you bank on line).  So what are they doing holding our money.  If eBay guarantees that a buyer is protected from losing their money on a product, or it is never delivered, PayPal holds that money for eBay insurance or insurance for themselves.  Pretty cheap insurance on their part with my money.

Just a little trivia to show you how PayPal makes their money.  They hold my money and earn interest on that held money.  They are a lot like an insurance company. They holding back with payments to make money on that cash while they are holding it.  Insurance companies even have the gaul (gall?) of sending you a request for more information, even if they know the answers to those questions.  These are just delays of your payment to make money from interest through time.

Sellers on eBay get the shaft so to speak excluding the % they make on my product.  I have had over 100 selling transactions and 58 positive feedbacks and 1 negative feedback, which was due to misunderstanding.  It messed up my 100% rating, which is now 95.5%...a heavy hit for just a misunderstanding that I was willing to give the buyers their money back...but no...he didn't want to do that.  The other 42 lazy people, who never took a few minutes to rate my good service, reduced my 99% rating to 95.5%, which in my books looks bad.  But, I guess, that is part of selling and dealing with people.  I have to slowly build that back up over time to 99%.

Do I sound a little negative about eBay business...yes?  Is there another way to have such a good market...no.  So I will probably continue to sell on eBay.