eBay sellers may be restricted to cheaper items

Yet another problem has emerged with eBay’s decision to force customers to use its wholly-owned payments subsidiary, PayPal.

John Dunlop, CEO of eCommerce company InterNetLC.com (based in the San Diego) says Australian sellers that try to sell an item worth more than $US10,000 will run into PayPal’s own $10,000 limit per transaction on funds transferred from abroad.

This may mean Australian eBay sellers are restricted from offering expensive items internationally, which is important for sellers than want to maximise their price by appealing to a bigger pool of buyers. Dunlop argues trading on eBay in Australia could be restricted to relatively cheap items and says eBay Australia’s growth may be inhibited if it cannot expand into the B2B market.

He has urged Australian banks to confront eBay over its changes. “eAuctions frequently offer automobiles, boats, planes, machinery, earth moving and farm equipment, which people would export for more money if the payment options were available,” he says. “Commercial banks have successfully completed global transactions like this for hundreds of years, and they are experts at avoiding fraud, so eAuction traders should use their services with confidence.”

eBay did not respond to calls.