The exact wording about these changes taken directly off of the eBay website are as follows:

Safe Payments Requirements
Last January, Bill announced that all new sellers would be required to offer PayPal or a merchant credit card as a safe payment option. This requirement gives buyers a higher degree of protection when transacting with sellers who have little or no track record.

This year we're expanding this requirement to the following sellers:

• a small number of sellers who have the worst buyer dissatisfaction rates
• sellers with less than 100 feedback
• sellers who list in certain categories with higher rates of buyer complaints.

Also, for a small number of these transactions paid with PayPal, when eBay suspects the transaction may result in a dissatisfied customer, PayPal will delay release of the payment funds to the seller until the buyer has left a positive feedback or 21 days have passed without a dispute.

I'd like to put context around this last detail for our good sellers: Sellers with an established track record and more than 95 percent satisfied buyers in the last 30 days will not have funds held. And, sellers on eBay will continue to receive the vast majority of payment funds much faster than other marketplaces.

It is true that these new requirements will effect a small number of  members. However, just how few that will end up being is one of several very important questions to be answered later when these changes take place. There has been much concern surrounding this situation amoung both new and well-established sellers. Most members are assuming that after 21 days they will automatically be able to count on getting these funds. This is not a clear picture of the actual facts. Consider the following:

~Remember that eBay and PayPal have decided they have the right to implement this decision as a solution for certain high-risk transactions
~PayPal has complete power to decide when to put this option into effect
~PayPal will hold these funds interest free
~The seller is still expected to ship or otherwise deliver the items associated w/the transaction to the buyer in a timely manner.
~The seller need to clearly grasp the fact that these situations will occur in cases that have a high probability of a negative outcome.
~The buyer who pays with a credit card may choose to do a charge back.
~The seller needs to be fully aware that there is no guarantee they will ever receive any part of these funds.
~It is quite possible that a buyer could end up with the item, and the funds, leaving no recourse open for the seller.
~In all probability the seller has a very high risk of receiving both negative feedback and lower DSRs in the transaction.
~One last point to consider. As every seller knows very well, PayPal strongly advises against shipping an item until funds have clear from an e-check payment. Yet PayPal would be forcing the seller to ship an item even though the funds are held in a way as to be completely beyond the seller's control. And so it is that we have yet another incident in which a seller has no voice, no control and no protection.

This is no small development. Each seller and each buyer should carefully consider how these changes might impact them personally. If eBay and PayPal persists in moving forward with this, many sellers will feel they have no choice but to seek alternative collections options. Many buyers may be faced with payment choices that are more time consuming, slower and less reliable. This is not a win/win solution for anyone except perhaps PayPal who stands to, at the very least, gain interest from funds that are held. Nothing was said about these funds being placed in an escrow account which by definition would be a safe, interest free holding account.

Consider all these facts very careful. High volume sellers may want to seek financial and legal advice about these up-coming changes.

It has become very clear that the best interests of the sellers is not only a very low priority to eBay, but in truth, of very little concern at all.