De Vine

It was a glorious day to ride a horse. Out on the trail in Queeny Park, I looked up to see a thick vine hanging down almost within reach. One part of the vine was attached to a tree on one side of the trail, another part to one on the other side. Perhaps I should stand on my saddle and grab it. I could swing into the woods like Tarzan of old. Then, of course, the vine could be rotten and I would fall. Or it could be poison ivy. Then, again, I could swing into the woods and have nowhere to go except down. I checked my imagination and just rode on.

Pay, pal or eBay at the moon

Ebay owns PayPal. Until not long ago, you could sell stuff on Ebay and collect funds on PayPal via direct bank transfers with no fees. Then they tightened it so that you could not sell more than $1,000 in any month without incurring fees. Then it was $500. Mind you, this was for a Personal account, the casual seller, not the big boys and girls who make a living on Ebay. So, I always listed my stuff for sale that I would take PayPal (but only a direct transfer and no credit cards) since I did not want a business account nor did I want to incur fees.

Over the last two months, I have sold all my model railroad stuff. My first shock was to find out that there was a limit to how much I could collect in a month without being forced to upgrade to a Premier or Business account or having buyers' payments refused. I do not remember getting any notice from PayPal that they were going to a $500 limit. Well, I had no choice but to upgrade my account since I had lots of sales. This means that PayPal collects $0.30 per transaction and 2.9% on all funds paid (which include payments for shipping) regardless if the funds come from a direct bank transfer or from a credit card. I was told I could downgrade my account once and only once back to individual and had planned to do this since I only sell a minor amount of stuff normally and would not hit the $500 monthly limit.

About three weeks ago, I listed another model railroad item with the standard language I have been using regarding accepting PayPal, but no credit card payments. Ebay sent me an automated message letting me know they could not list my item since that if I accepted PayPal, I had to accept all forms of PayPal payments. Here is part of their email response:

"Effective August 19th, 2005, sellers who offer PayPal as a payment option on eBay (either via logos or through text in the item description) must accept *all forms* of PayPal payment including account balance, bank transfer, e-checks and credit cards.

"For example, it is *not* permitted to state the following:

""I only accept cash transfer via PayPal (no credit cards or echecks)."

""My Paypal account is not set up to accept payments funded by credit cards or debit cards."

"Sellers must have a Premier or Business PayPal Account or be willing to upgrade from a Personal PayPal Account to a Premier or Business Account if sellers receive a credit card payment. Sellers may not communicate to buyers that they accept, or will not accept, specific forms of PayPal payment."

So, here is the Catch 22: You can have a Personal account (no fees for direct transfers of funds of $500 or less in a month), BUT when anyone who is a buyer charges a purchase on a credit card, you are forced to upgrade to a Premier account and must accept this form of payment----and be charged fees on any and all transactions from that time forward and forever more.

So:
1. Ebay gets to collect from you twice (listing and sales fees and then payment percentage).
2. No one seems to notify members about changes in policy
3. The Personal account at PayPal is a sham

Ah, well.

Paying for Katrina

I wrote the following to NPR today:

I was so shocked by what the Congressman from North Carolina had to say on TOTN this afternoon, that I turned the radio off rather than hear more. He was billed by the host as fiscally conservative. What I heard, however, was a very right-wing social conservative who branded the Davis-Bacon legislation as a "sop to the unions" and who wants to cut funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. What I see here is a ruse: the right-wing folks using the screen of paying for the war and Katrina by trying to attack programs and legislation that they want out of the way anyway. What's next for these folks? Cuts to programs for the poor unless they are through faith-based organizations?

There is no problem with being fiscally conservative and looking to see what the country can afford rather than continuing to run up the deficit as this Congress has done. But don't hide behind that to foment your social goals.