Nova Express's Journal: eBay Forcing Sellers to Upgrade Paypal Accounts

I don't know why Slashdot rejected this submission, so here it is:

Paypal (which is owned by eBay) is now forcing all eBay sellers to accept credit cards through Paypal. "Beginning August 19, 2005, if you sell on eBay and offer PayPal, your PayPal account must accept all forms of payment including payments made via credit card, regardless of whether you display the PayPal logo with credit card icons. You 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 you receive a credit card payment. You may not communicate to eBay buyers (e.g. via your eBay item description) that you only accept, or will not accept, specific forms of PayPal payment." Because Business and Premier accounts charge a fee to receive any funds, this means eBay/Paypal will receive a chunk of every Paypal transaction payment you receive going forward, no matter whether it was for eBay or a credit card, and no matter whether the seller already had another (possibly cheaper) way to process credit cards. Frankly, eBay sales have been on such a steady decline over the last two years, a lot of sellers have been considering switching to selling through Amazon or using using Google adwords. I susect this will make the choice to leave eBay a lot easier for many people.

And of course, I continue to sell books directly through Lame Excuse Books.