Does anyone here have the ability to take credit cards like a store/retailer does? If so, perhaps they could share the costs to be able to do this. It costs money to be able to process credit card payments, but in turn you are opening your business to a much wider base of customers. Cash customers are a dying breed. In comparison, paypal may be close in that cost category, but it's a heck of a lot more convenient.
Is not having to wait for a mailed payment, not risking that bounced check, not having to cash checks/MOs or other payment issues of the past worth the fees? Sure, electronic payments have their own issues and risks as well, but imagine the drop in sales if you are one of the few that doesn't use paypal these days.
theplasticman hit it on the head. It seems many collector/sellers are kinda cheap when it comes to things like fees, mailing costs, etc when selling. They want to do business, but they want the buyer to cover all of their costs! I have found this especially true on ebay quite a bit. Sellers will explain their fee schedules, citing the need to cover their costs for fees, mailers, postage and even things like time to stand at the post office and gas to drive there! If it is that bad...STOP selling! If selling was an exercise in pure profit, then why would any businesses fail? Duh..they fail because there ARE costs involved in business!!
People on both sides of the transaction are cheap. That's a big part of the 'problem'. The sellers are trying to get as much as they can, the buyers are trying to get it for as little as possible. Sellers are trying to get back some of what they feel they are losing in the ebay/paypal setup.
http://cgi.ebay.com/1990-LEAF-25-GR...ZViewItemQQptZUS_Baseball?hash=item439c260dbd
Look at the auction here. If this is a part time seller, look at the costs. 15 cent listing fee, 11 cents final value fee, 34 cents paypal fees is 60 cents. Last card I mailed in a PWE was 88 cents, that's $1.48 in expenses to sell a card for $1.24. A few years ago I paid $9.59 shipped for the same card. You can't really build those costs into your price like you can in a store. Starting it at $1.99 to give you a 51 cent profit adds another 20 cents to the expenses, making it a 31 cent profit if it even would have gotten a bid at that level.