Online sellers lost yet another online-payment alternative when BidPay abruptly announced on December 23 it would cease operations on December 31, 2005. There was much speculation about why BidPay decided to close. A spokesperson from First Data, which owns BidPay, said it was a strategic decision. Sherry Johnson said BidPay was outside the scope of First Data's core business, and said there are no plans to introduce a similar service in the future.
eBay had recently introduced a Safe Payments policy that specifies which payment methods sellers can accept for eBay transactions http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m10/i17/s01, and eBay allowed BidPay in the policy.
eBay-owned PayPal dominates online payments for auction transactions, and no major competitor remains. c2it, a service of Citibank, ceased operations 2 years ago, and CheckFree stopped taking payments for auctions in October 2005 (CheckFree's regular service remains). Yahoo also shuttered its service, Yahoo PayDirect, in May 2005.
ProPay, which allows users to send money to and from checking accounts and accept credit cards from members and non-members, is still operating, as is a payment service called Certapay. Both ProPay and CertaPay are accepted by eBay's Safe Payments policy. And Eddie St Clare wrote me to tell me his service in the UK, AuctionChex.com, exchanges US dollar money orders into Great British pounds to save recipients hefty bank fees. AuctionChex also services UK buyers by accepting payment in pounds to generate payments in US dollars in the form of a regular check from a US bank.
We'd like to know more about what payment services you accept as sellers. Please take a few moments to fill out our survey. We respect your privacy and will publish results in the aggregate in a future issue of AuctionBytes-Update:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=100061653472
Adding to online seller's challenges in 2006 are the US postal rate increases, going into effect today, January 8, 2006. Remember to adjust your shipping fees accordingly. Unfortunately, third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace have to eat the increase http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m01/i05/s01.
I'm looking forward to seeing what 2006 will bring in terms of new tools and services for online sellers. eBay did away with developer fees in November, which will allow vendors to put more money into the development of new features and tools.
I'm sorry to report that Mark O'Neill's column is going on hiatus. Mark has taken on commercial writing assignments and I will miss his perspective and wit. You can contact Mark through his website http://www.camelotonline.net/aboutus.html.
And now for some shameless self-promotion:
My book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, and will be in bookstores by the end of January. I've created a special page to describe the book http://www.TurnEbayDataIntoDollars.com. Thanks to everyone who helped me with this project (and helped me get through this project!). If you like the book, please consider adding a link to your website or About Me page.
David and I will continue to introduce new programming on AuctionBytes.TV in 2006. Our latest program features Gary Sohmers, the "King of Pop Culture" (http://www.allcollectors.com), who gives a brief history of Walt Disney and explains how to date a Disney item by its markings. This is Gary's second AuctionBytes.TV production. In the first, he took a look at a special 1960's Beatles album cover commonly referred to as the "Butcher" cover http://auctionbytes.tv/education.
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.
