I have no involvement with managed payments yet and hope it's not something I'm forced to use.

Ebay has said by the end of this year all transactions will be through their managed payments system. I think they are realizing they have squeezed most of what there is to squeeze from sellers directly which is why their competition is taking market from them.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ebay-stock-falls-after-wells-fargo-turns-bearish-2020-01-17

It sucks I can't know if they have thrown me into it yet, as I have lots of stuff I can list, but without knowing if I'm eating the shipping up front have to dip in slowly with them. But better to proceed as though I do, lol.

No worries about loose lips here. I understand completely.

Will definitely let you know on Mercari. Will be setting up with them on Sunday and mass listing as I know the customer pays shipping there.

I took your advice and figured out how to turn off best offer (it comes preloaded in the listing and one has to search to turn it off). I will give it one more week and then try splitting the lot up as you suggested.

Thanks again. I feel optimistic, enough that I pushed to downgrade my hours at my very physical job to jump into this faster.