Selling Items on Etsy?

The 20 cents comes from your paypal account which comes from your credit card.

They will not take it from the selling price because the majority of the items on etsy never sell. That is, if they did what you suggest there would be the chance that it would not sell and it would be a lost revenue stream for etsy.

So - they charge you the 20 cents when you list a product. If it never sells as many never do - they still get paid.

Paypal is essentially a bank. I don't see why you could not get a paypal account and wire some money in to your paypal account. That was the 20 cent would come from there.

The $0.20 will be added to your account and billed to you at the end of each month, just like the 3.5% final value fees are. In other words, you don't pay as you go, you only pay monthly. Etsy does NOT withhold that 3.5% - you'll get the full price and then you will pay Etsy later. So for example, I will receive a bill from Etsy on August 1st for all the listing fees and final value fees that I accrued in the month of July. I can choose to pay this with the credit/debit card I put on file when I opened my seller's account, or I can choose to pay it with Paypal. Personally, I always pay with Paypal because that's where the money is from the sales I've made this month. So in summary, Etsy's not taking the $0.20 from anywhere (nor the 3.5%), they are simply billing you for it and if you don't want it taken from your card, just use your Paypal account instead.