[AT] eBay forbidding paper payment in USA

[Bill Brueck]

Well, they tried it on our Australian friends, now they are forcing it on
the US market as well.

Effective some time in October eBay will no longer allow cash, checks, or
money orders for most categories of purchases unless it's a local pickup.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/Overview/

I recall that in Australia the government stepped in and put a delay on this
deal until they sorted out if it was legal, maybe restraint of trade or
monopoly issues, I forget.  What has become of that over on your side of the
pond?  I wonder if a similar action will take place in the States?

I expect this will result in "local pickup" deals where the seller will do
the local pickup and ship outside of eBay.

When I buy and sell with the engine and tractor crowd, there are a lot who
don't use PayPal.  I just did a spot check of 100 recent sales and only 57
were settled via PayPal.

Cripes, the Feds shut down my business when we couldn't shoulder the
$225,000 every year in attorney and accounting fees to keep us in
compliance.  (We took the business public just before the Enron deal.  Talk
about bad timing.)  Now eBay wants to tell me who I can and can't sell to.  

I don't like the direction this is heading...

B²

Bill Brueck
   Chatfield, Minnesota, USA

Confusion is a higher state of knowledge than ignorance.