Apeneck Sweeney

The seller’s price was in pounds. I did consider sending the fees as a friends payment but I worked out the fees in advance and just added it to the price to try to make it easier for the seller. Anyway, lesson learnt.

I haven't quite got to the bottom of this. I've had two replies from PayPal this morning, the 2nd within 30mins of me replying to the first which is encouraging. It seems the problem comes when converting the money within PayPal. They charge 2.5% if you convert all or part of your balance. What I can't quite understand is whether you can just withdraw it to you payment method automatically converted without the fee. I'm wondering if the seller and I had arranged for him to invoice me in Euros if the fees conversion fees would have been less (the 20p mentioned in the post above). If i get a clear 3rd reply from PayPal I'll update this. I'm working all weekend so I probably won't have time until early next week.

Today I persuaded a seller to use PayPal instead of bank transfer. I rung up Paypal and got a full breakdown of the fees (3.4% + 0.5% for cross border transaction + £0.20 for currency conversion...this last bit is important) and added this to the very fair, in fact very generous price he was selling his bass for. He'd had a less than great experience with them in the past but kindly tried them once more to make me happy. Apart from the rookie error of working out the fees on the original amount and not the larger amount Paypal paid him within a pound of the agreed price. All well and good so far. Paypal then asked if he wanted the money in stirling or euros. Euros he said. At this point Paypal paid him about 20eros below the conversion rate on all the sites we both checked. He was very good about it and didn't blame me at all but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I couldn't in good conscience recommend them in similar situations (cross border/currency). Basically I paid him £26 more in order for him to get nearly £20 less. I have written to them and asked for an explanation and will report back if I hear from them. I do use them a lot when paying for things online...maybe they'll see me as a valued customer...well a customer at least.

pmed

PMed

pm sent

Ignore PM. Have got a gig bag now.

PM'd

Well. well, well. I've finally sold it. Many thanks to Sarah for her suggestion of Musical Chairs. I had 3 replies in the first 10 days, one very serious and it's now gone. My room looks a little odd without it leaning in the corner.

[quote name='sarah thomas' timestamp='1394142164' post='2388487'] Have you tried putting it on musical chairs? [/quote] I haven't. I should have another look at their site. I've not exactly been proactive about this. .................... Hopefully this will be the year I finally sell it but if not, see you in 2015 Phil.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1388678046' post='2324710'] Is there some sort of prize for the longest-running Sale advert on Basschat? If not, I reckon there should be ... [/quote] If the prize is a sale then sign me up. This ad did disappear into the underbelly of the forums for quite a while as I didn't remember to bump it. I've not actually had anyone come and look at it, so it's not that it's being rejected after being played. I'm sure once someone finds their way to Manchester to try it it'll make room for the next longest running ad to get the record.