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never pay a buying fee to use paypal

re-sticky!

I'm not sure if this was stickied when it was originally made, but it is now Good stuff, even if it is a year old

Noticed that paypal is now charging a 4% fee on anything. So in order to get your price your asking and/or the S&H then you might want to include 4% on anything you sell.

but just remember that if you do that, the markup needs to be consistent no matter what form of payment you're using/requesting, as otherwise it violates Paypal's rules, and thus violates ours as well.

Yup, thanks for the clarification Dj, you might want to make an example of what u mean by 'markup'.


Yes I mean for me

See the highlighted portion of your earlier post. If you plan to markup (increase) the asking price of your item to 4% more than the minimum you'd be willing to receive for it in order to still get your required amount after Paypal fees have been taken out, then in order to stay within Paypal's terms of service, this markup (increase in price) must exist even if a different payment method is being used.

In simple terms, you can't charge more for an item that's being paid via Paypal as opposed to via some other payment method. So charging additional "paypal fees" is against their policy, and thus against our FS forum rules.

example:
Say I wanted to sell my notebook and I wanted to get a minimum of $500. In order to still get $500 if someone paid via Paypal, I'd need to charge 104% of my desired price, or $521. However, since Paypal says that my asking price needs to be the same no matter the payment method, then my overall asking price must go up from $500 to $521.

Thanks for the clarification Dj

I'm not certain of this, but can't you offer a "cash" discount if the buyer pays with check or money order? I know at a lot of computer shows I've been at vendors often sell their items for a certain price, but offer a discount if you pay with cash/check (so they can avoid credit card fees).

You raise a good question, so here's how the Paypal rules phrase it:
From their wording, even though you're working from the idea of a "discount" and they're working from the idea of a "surcharge", I don't think the "cash discount" idea would fly.

So I have a question, lets say hypothetically someone wants to buy my laptop for $1,000 and I receive the payment in my paypal account. I transfer all the money to my bank account, and then withdraw that money so that I physically have it in my hand. I send the laptop, but then I'm notified that the buyer is claiming that it never arrived or its not as described. Paypal has the power to go into my bank account and take that money back even if its not there? Or if there is insufficient funds they post the negative balace on my paypal account?

Is there anyway to beat a potential scammer at his own game in this case?

They cannot take the money out of your bank account once it's in there.
You account will just be suspended and you can never use Paypal under your name forever, or until the dispute is solved.
Just use the "Print label" shipping options provided by Paypal, when they send you the payment.
Also, check if their address is confirmed, and that there is an address on their payment, if there isn't one, refund it and tell them to resend the payment.

Not true. If there is money in your bank account they can dip into it and take what they want. I know people who have had this done to them.

Solution: Always use a tracking number when sending expensive items, and get the insurance. Then you'll never have to worry about that problem.

When buying, I always ask for tracking numbers. Not everybody sends them still, but that was reason enough to get me a refund when someone didn't send me a laptop. Even though I contacted the seller using the ask the seller a question, he never replied. Left me some negative feedback but was removed.

Besides that small incident once, I've successfully purchased about 6 laptops from eBay aside from other stuff.

i got lucky so far with paypal payments and receiving (confirmed and no confirmed), my personal rules:
. get buyers to pay paypal with bank transfer (not credit cards) lower my transaction fees, especially with international buyers
. a simple 6% handling with paypal transactions when the paypal payment is credit card based
. i will not ship out any items until the $ is in my bank account, not paypal account
. only shipped with insurance

sticking to confirmed paypal accounts only blocking out many good potential buyers/sellers. For professional sellers, it is probably making sense. No payment type is safe, even with cash in hand.

cheers ...