There are at least two vendors selling merchant accounts on
ebay.

Seller "merchantgm" is MerchantUSA, a part of Acies:
stores.ebay.com/Merchant-USA...-Card-Terminals
merchantusa.net
aciesinc.com/solutions_online.asp
They offer 1.98% key-in (internet) and $6.99/month statement.
No indication of gateway. $50 rebate for application.
No minimum.

Seller "merchantservicesinc" is also there:
stores.ebay.com/Merchant-Services
Just judging by the name, this may be the same as
Merchant Services Inc.:
merchantservices.com
msihq.com
They offer %1.99 + $.19, $9.99/month statement, $50 rebate,
no termination fees, no minimum, $14.99/month authorize.net

Has anyone used them or have other knowledge of them?
Does anyone know if mechantservicesinc is the same as MSI
(or just a coincidental name)?

These rates are substantially better than I've seen elsewhere.
I assume there is a catch, I just wonder what it is....

Its ebay...i wouldnt touch. These people proberly end up running out of business and...oh wheres all your money now?

yeah.. can NOT trust.

I work for a merchant services provider (and I am also a sales agent myself) and I stumbled upon this thread while doing some research. Since the original poster only got two responses and neither of them were from knowledgeable sources (sorry guys) I wanted to chime in and let you know more about merchant providers who advertise on ebay.

Believe it or not, the vast majority of them are 100% legit. We've done the research on them and they can be traced back to larger reputable companies all of which are registered with Visa and MasterCard. If they were doing anything illegal or "wrong" they would have been shut down by their providers a long time ago (and by ebay, too).

As for the rates they are all offering they are legit as well. The rates are extremely low but they are viable (they're in the same ballpark that very large corporations get). There doesn't seem to be much markup in them but they certainly aren't losing money. How rates can be calculated gets complex and the smart ones know how to offer low rates and still make a profit. Basically, the fierce competition has driven down rates and the winner is the consumer.

As always on ebay you should read a seller's feedback and see what others have had to say. If someone is screwing the merchants they sign up you can be sure they will leave negative feedback. Also, look for providers that publish phone numbers. There's nothing like calling a live human being and asking them all of the questions that you have.

I looked at the auctions run by the two mentioned above. MerchantServicesInc seems to be the bigger player as they are running a ton of auctions. They also put quite a bit into writing in their auction and store listings which should be reassuring. They do have a published phone number so contacting them is easy. They seem to be the biggest player on ebay as they receive the most feedback each month.

MerchantGM is easy to explain. They came into the market and copied MerchantServicesInc! They mimic them fairly closely and even stole their images but have changed over time. Combined with the fact that they've disappeared a few times and have had auctions removed by ebay I'm willing to bet MerchantServiceInc reported them to ebay. A shady tactic but I guess not bad enough to turn off ebay.

There are other providers soliciting on ebay as well. Anyone interested in in getting good rates should not ignore ebay and check out all of the providers currently solciting on there. The rates are excellent and difficult to beat by any ordinary sales agent. Trust me on that one. ;)

I took a quick peek at the first one... I am suprised that they do not disclose their sponsoring bank on their Web site. That could bring quite a bit of heat on their bank with Visa and MasterCard including some pretty stiff financial penalties.

It is definitely worth asking any merchant processor that you interview who their sponsoring bank is (they are supposed to disclose this on their Web site) and what ISO/MSP they represent - if they are not a registered ISO/MSP themselves.

As with anything else, it is always good to investigate a prospective merchant processor careful. Ask for references and find out what others have said about their experiences with each company.

There are lots of other things to ask about. I'd suggest doing a search here on the forums about "merchant account" to get a full list of questions to ask any prospective merchant processor that you speak with for some good info to point you in the right direction.

stymiee is correct. They have excellent rates and are able to offer great prices which means the only one that wins is the merchant. I would check into the providers and see if they have hidden fees, that they are not disclosing in their promo.

Ahh wow thanks stymiee you cleared everything up. Why wouldn't I believe you since this is your first post in this thread and all? I will stick with CDG thank you very much.

Cutting corners with things like credit cards will come back to bite you in the end. Is a $25/mo fee really that hard to cover? Accepting credit cards is a necessity in this business. When you try to look to this company for support see how long it takes them to get back to you. If ever!