CNN reported Friday that Mastercard may prohibit online retailers from accepting payments through third-party services such as BillPoint and PayPal. A knowledgeable source tells us that Mastercard may be posturing to increase rates, and that if it does prohibit third-party transactions, it will affect BillPoint far more than Paypal.
But concerns over poor customer service, security issues, online fraud and unjustified chargebacks have many wondering if using online payment services is worth the convenience. If you have been thinking about getting merchant status so you can accept credit card payments directly, read Izzy Goodman's article in this issue. He describes his experience in shopping for a merchant service, and shares some tips on what to look out for.
Also check out "This Week’s Haul," a new Forum located at http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewforum.php?forum=21&45. You can use the forum to boast about your discoveries, ask for help identifying yard sale finds, or even post a link to your auctions. Most of all, it’s a forum where you can have some fun!
I reported in Friday's AuctionBytes Newsflash newsletter that eBay users sold $3.11 billion in goods in the first 3 months of 2002 http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m04/i19/s01. A look at the top categories shows it isn't all coming from sales of Beanie Babies. The top ten eBay categories, according to eBay's first quarter 2002 financials, are: eBay Motors, Computers, Consumer Electronics, Book/Movies/Music, Collectibles, Sports, Toys, Clothing & Accessories, Jewelry & Gemstones and Antiques & Art. Expect the trend from online flea market to online mall to continue as eBay shows there's big money in "practicals" like computers and consumer electronics.
Thanks to everyone who registered and tried out Buyers Market, the new AuctionBytes classified ads. The response has been great, and we have almost 100 ads. A big thank you to those readers who have already plunked down $25 for a year's ad (your ads are in bold and appear before free ads).
Buyers Market has been mentioned in quite a few email newsletters for collectors as well as print publications including Antique Trader and AntiqueWeek. We’ve also extended the free 2-week trial indefinitely. Each person can try Buyers Market with one free 2-week ad. We feel it’s important for you to see how powerful the back end of this program is, and how easy it is to launch an ad and update it any time, as often as you like, throughout the year.
We’ll also be featuring paid Buyer’s Market advertisers in both of our email publications. We’ll be linking directly to 10 merchant listings in AuctionBytes-Update, and 2 selected merchants in our daily NewsFlash. This is a great way to drive traffic to your auctions, storefronts and Web site. Check out the Buyers Market listings in this issue and see what people are selling!
Thank you for supporting AuctionBytes! And thanks to the advertisers who help make AuctionBytes possible: Craters & Freighters, Vision-One, AuctionSniper, Bidfields, and TIAS (Advertisers' URLs are listed at the end of the newsletter).
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
