How should I skim money off a transaction between 2 people on my site?

Question

This is sort of not relevant to programming but I think it also is:

MY site is being built around people selling products through the site and customers buying the product through it. I'll then shave a % off the top of the sale.

As far as skimming a % of the sale off the top, what is the order of events that should take place to do that?

Should the customer pay me then I pay the seller the remaining amount? or Should I let the customer pay the seller directly, then I charge the seller? or...?

I know paypal blows hard, but what other choices are there? I'm NOT setup to store CC info on my server.

The site is built around php if it's relevant.

Answer 1

Handling the transaction yourself will probably get you all sorts of attention from the tax authorities - usually not a good idea, as it tends to generate tons of paperwork and liabilities (like warranty claims) for little gain.

The usual way is to charge either buyer, seller, or both a fee. Which way is best totally depends on the market you're serving, and your position in that market.

Credit card merchant accounts are a (often cheaper) alternative to PayPal, but most are very expensive.

Other alternatives:

• Micropayment processing using Paypal or other payment processing service?

• Which should I implement first, PayPal or Google Checkout, on my eCommerce website

• How to pay your users? (alternatives to PayPal)