New York OA Trader

eBay has announced a change in its acceptable payment methods. Beginning sometime in

October 2008, checks and money orders will no longer be acceptable payment methods.

Paper payments end this October

Beginning late October 2008, all items listed on eBay.com must be paid for using one of the following approved payment options:

• Direct credit or debit card payment via a merchant credit card account
• PayPal
• ProPay
• Payment on pick-up

Paper payment methods such as checks and money orders will no longer be accepted on eBay.com.

By January 2009, all approved electronic payment methods will be integrated into eBay checkout. For example, buyers will be able to enter their credit card number directly into eBay checkout, and the payment will be routed to the seller’s Internet merchant account or to their PayPal account.

This will be a big change for a lot of sellers. Of course it means more fees for eBay, since they will collect another fee on each PayPal payment.

As a buyer, it makes things easier to pay your seller and you should get your patch qa few days sooner.

As a seller, it squeezes your margins a bit more. For the big boys who have merchant accounts with the credit card companies, they won’t need to accept PayPal, but everyone else will need a PayPal account or will need to stop selling on eBay.

What if I only accept checks, money orders or other payment methods that will be prohibited?
By late October you’ll need to do at least one of the following:

• Add PayPal as a payment method to your listings. This can be done through your seller preferences page in My eBay.
• Sign up with ProPay to offer this electronic payment option to your customers. We are also working closely with additional electronic payment providers to add them to our approved payment providers list. Learn more.
• Accept credit or debit cards through your Internet merchant account.

What if I don’t take at least one of these steps by late October, 2008?
You will not be able to list new items or relist using the same templates. Your current listings will remain on eBay.com until they end. Good ’til Canceled listings will be displayed on eBay until they come up for relisting at the end of 30 days.

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I can’t understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.

Fred Allen
US radio comedian (1894 - 1956)

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I had previously written on the Silver Fawn and the small numbers issued. The previous auction is no longer visible, but there is another one on eBay now. As of this writing, it is over $500 with about 6 hours to go. Wonder where it will end up?

Update: 10:52 PM. The auction just ended at $626.00 Keep an eye out for this one.

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For those of us who sell on eBay, or otherwise send out oversized envelopes or other packages regularly know the hassles that can be involved in shipping you items.  What service to use, is first class more or less expensive than priority? Maybe I should use UPS?

Well now there is a web-based service called ShipTool that allows you to input the ship from and ship to addresses, the size and weight of the items and several other options and will calculate the cost of various shipping methods and display them on a single screen.

Check it out.

Hat Tip: Lifehacker

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For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.

Alice Kahn

Updated to add Neckerchief Photo: An auction just ended on eBay, for a previously unlisted neckerchief from Aheka Lodge #359.

photo credit: sunshinecity
The seller described the neckerchief as:

The gentleman I purchased this neckerchief from was inducted in 1952. He indicated that he had been given this NC by his Lodge Advisor. The NC had been issued prior to 1952 and was no longer available. Not listed in BLUE BOOK. Previously unknown issue.

There were 29 separate bids in this auction, which started at $ 499.99. While there were 5 separate bidders, three bidders chased this up to near five figures.

With less than 20 minutes two go, the bidding was over $ 5,000. From there is was quickly driven up to $ 10,000.

A bidder in the last 10 seconds drove the price up another $ 4,000.

When the hammer finally came down, it was over $ 14,650.

Photo courtesy merck22

Makes you want to find some 50+ year old unlisted item from your lodge doesn’t it?

Does anyone know an OA neckerchief which went for more?

Here is the latest installment in the series Knowledge is Power. Many of you know that Philmont Scout Ranch is a popular area of collecting. One of the key pieces in any Philmont collection is the Philmont Arrowhead which can only be earned for completing a trek. A person can only get a single Arrowhead upon completion of a trek. In addition to the ‘regular’ trek arrowhead, there are also five other arrowheads issued for Ranch Hand, Cavalcade, Mountain Trek, R.O.C.S., and Trail Crew. These programs are much smaller and have fewer participants than the regular treks and are tougher to get and more valuable.

In 2000 only, Philmont changed the arrowheads, by making the borders red and changing the Philmont brand to read P2K. Since these were only used for a single season, this is an exceptionally tough set to complete.

One just recently finished on eBay, a set of all 6 P2K Arrowheads with a Buy it now of $ 5,000.00 lasted less than 8 hours before it was snapped up.

Here is an example of a Philmont P2K Cavalcade Patch.  A Cavalcade is a Trek on Horseback.

It seems that eBay has listened to some of its users at least in the media category and has amended its previously announced pricing changes.

1. To make immediate changes where we believe it benefits the health of our marketplace: We heard your comments about the need for media and category-specific pricing. Today, I am pleased to announce we are accelerating our plan to phase-in category-specific pricing for media. This fee cut will coincide with the site-wide pricing changes previously announced to take effect on February 20. In the Books, Music, Movies and Video Game software categories, we will be offering even lower insertion fees for the first three insertion tiers as follows:

$0.01 – 0.99 (auction-style only)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .20
New Media fee: $ .10

$1.00 - 9.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .40
New Media fee: $ .25

$10.00 – 24.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .60
New Media fee: $ .35

These were the sort of reductions I thought eBay would announce for all categories rather than the $0.05 reduction that would apply for most lower priced Scouting collectibles.

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Well that will teach me to believe headlines in the press.  I posted the earlier pieces on eBay during my lunch hour.  When I got home, I was able to read the information on eBay itself.

It appears that the reduction in fees for listing an auction is $0.05.

  Basic Fees

Insertion Fees
The insertion fee for Auction-style and Fixed Price listings will be reduced as indicated in the chart below. Also, all listings will now include the Gallery picture feature for free!
Starting or Reserve Price Current Insertion Fee Insertion Fee (effective 02/20/2008)

Insertion Fees for Auction-style listings
Starting or Reserve Price Current Insertion Fee Insertion Fee (effective 02/20/2008)
$0.01 - $0.99 $0.20 $0.15 Lower fee!
$1.00 - $9.99 $0.40 $0.35 Lower fee!
$10.00 - $24.99 $0.60 $0.55 Lower fee!
$25.00 - $49.99 $1.20 $1.00 Lower fee!
$50.00 - $199.99 $2.40 $2.00 Lower fee!
$200.00 - $499.99 $3.60 $3.00 Lower fee!
$500.00 or more $4.80 $4.00 Lower fee!

The 50% reduction appears to be derived from the elimination of Gallery Fees.  Formerly an extra $0.35

The Gallery picture feature fee for all listings will be free

On lower price items, the reduction of $0.05 on the listing and the elimination of the gallery fee would reduce the current combined fee by 50%.  But of course not all of us used the gallery on every listing.

Bottom Line - I don’t think this will lead to a significant long term increase in listings.  What do yoy think?