PayPal Questions

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Posted By: T206Collector

I am considering accepting PayPal as a form of payment for my ebay auctions. I have seen a number of posts and heard a number of complaints about PayPal, so I just want to consolidate and get a couple of answers to a couple of questions.

1) Are there any fees for selling an item via PayPal on ebay?
2) Why do some people require that buyers be "verified"?
3) Can I accept credit card payments from a personal account, and if not, how does the buyer know I have a personal account when I list in my auction that I accept PayPal?
4) What's the catch, i.e., why do so many sellers dislike PayPal?

Thanks for your help!

Paul

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Posted By: hankron

You are charged a fee when someone pays you (a small and not unreasonable percentage, much like if you accepted credit cards).

'Verified' means that the person is fully signed up and there is full proof of the validity of the address. Most unverfified people are okay and there are no problems shipping to them. Paypay's insurance only applies when the buyer is verified. It's safest to shipped to the verified address only.

3) Not sure what you mean by personal account-- as opposed to what other type of account? In an eBay auction, there will be an automatic button for the person to pay. Also, one only needs to know the seller's PayPal email address to pay.

Paypal is very convenient for buyer and seller, the seller can accept credit cards from anyone in the world, payment is instantanious, PayPal keeps good records of all your payments and is easy to use and access (ala look up an old buyer's address). You can receive money as easily money from someone in London as you can from someone in Chicago. When it works well, you will receive an email saying just paid you $XX, what for and the address for shipping.

There has been a problem where some buyers receive the item and say they never got it-- so PayPal returns the money. If the item is shipped to a verified memember and signed for as required by PayPal, this won't happen. Otherwise, you should think over what you want to do beforehand. These cases are rare, but are pain when they happen. I have used PayPal for a long time and this has not happened, but it has happened to a few board memebers.

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Posted By: hankron

I should add that, irrelevant to being a seller, PayPal is convenient, especially on eBay, if you are a buyer. It's more of a convenience for the buyers that it is for the sellers.

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Posted By: jay behrens

There are very servere restrictions on personal account being able to accepts payments now. Check PayPal's rules, otherwise, you may have to switch to premium account to be able to accept PayPal payments. You will also need to check your profile settings in PayPal to see if the PayPal payment option is going to be inserted into your auctions.

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Josh K.

I have a personal paypal account that I use for both selling and buying. Other than not being able to accept credit cards, I am unaware of any restrictions on accepting payment. In addition:

1. There are no fees charged for accepting payments when you have a personal account - however, as mentioned, you cant accept credit cards.

2. There is not way to designate your account as personal when you state that you accept paypal. What I have done (and most people with personal accounts) is state in the auction description and/or payment/shipping instructions is that I do not accept credit card payments through paypal, only transfers from a bank account (put it in bold or all caps). Every once and a while, s/o still makes a payment with a credit card. You will be asked to either (1) upgrade your account to accept the payment (and the fee that paypal charges); or (2) deny the payment. I usually email the buyer and explain that I dont take cc's and ask that they either send a check or make a bank transfer via paypal. I also tell them that once I hear back from them, I will cancel their payment. This has always worked out fine for me.

As far as the other problems with paypal, Ive been lucky and havent had a problem so far.

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Posted By: T206Collector

for all the input. I upgraded to a premier account so I could accept credit cards with a moderate fee.

All of your advice has been very helpful.