how does selling through Paypal work ?

[DigDog]

Im a nab at Paypal, ive had an account since forever but only bought stuff. Now im looking at the likelyhood that ill sell some stuff through r/mechmarket, but i have zero idea how that actually works. Anyone have some experience in this ?
(Also, Realforce TKL EU going cheap)

 

[ultimatebob]

That's easy, the process works like this:

You sell the item on eBay
The buyer pays with PayPal. They pay PayPal a transaction fee for this.
You ship the item
The buyer receives the item
The buyer files a phony fraud claim saying that you shipped them a brick
PayPal does a chargeback on your account, gives the scammer their money back, and probably suspends your PayPal account.

Congratulations, you just gave a scammer a free item plus shipping fees.

You also just learned the hard way why you should probably stick with cash sales transactions next time.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I've never had issues selling over paypal, but yes, it is as easy as what ultimatebob says.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

That's easy, the process works like this:

You sell the item on eBay
The seller pays with PayPal. They pay PayPal a transaction fee for this.
You ship the item
The seller receives the item
The seller files a phony fraud claim saying that you shipped them a brick
PayPal does a chargeback on your account, gives the scammer their money back, and probably suspends your PayPal account.

Congratulations, you just gave a scammer a free item plus shipping fees.

You also just learned the hard way why you should probably stick with cash sales transactions next time.

You might want to learn the difference between "seller" and "buyer" and re-write that.

But yeah, PayPal favors the BUYER and it''s easy for a SELLER to be scammed. You need to deal through an outlet that weeds out scammers as much as possible. ie, like here where thieves get outed and lose their accounts. I'm leery about selling online through PayPal because the system is rigged against the seller and will only deal with people with a long history of being an honest buyer.

 

[IronWing]

Web sales are pretty simple. Create an order form that sends the customer to PayPal's website with the pertinent sales info. This is an older form but I think it still works.

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="your_paypal_email_address@gmail.com">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.yourwebsite.com/return_page.html">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Cool Crap You're Selling">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="60.00">
<input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="300.00">
<input type="image" src="http://images.paypal.com/images/x-click-but3.gif" name="submit" alt="Make payment with PayPal">
</form>

You can also get a card reader for onsite sales. I haven't tried one.

Fees explained:

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees

 

[ultimatebob]

You might want to learn the difference between "seller" and "buyer" and re-write that.

But yeah, PayPal favors the BUYER and it''s easy for a SELLER to be scammed. You need to deal through an outlet that weeds out scammers as much as possible. ie, like here where thieves get outed and lose their accounts. I'm leery about selling online through PayPal because the system is rigged against the seller and will only deal with people with a long history of being an honest buyer.

Thanks... I corrected my rant accordingly

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Thanks... I corrected my rant accordingly

Go back and correct your rant a little bit more.

"The buyer pays with PayPal. They pay PayPal a transaction fee for this. "

The seller eats the PayPal fees, so that needs to get factored into the price. Speaking of fees, I charge a $0.10 fee for each proofreading. How would you like to pay for this?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Look into Paypal IPN (I think that's what its called). It's basically a way to make your own code talk to Paypal and confirm a transaction. You can send custom data and it returns if the payment goes through then your code can action it (setup shipping etc).

I did this for my game server's donation page, so that people can get an item in game as a thanks for donating, and it's automated. Downside is that it's very limited, the IPN thing applies to ALL transactions to your account, so like even when people use the donate button on my other sites it still initiates the code for the game server, but it my code handles it and basically does nothing.

 

[DigDog]

So r/mechamarket is basically a eBay page :/

 

[IronWing]

So r/mechamarket is basically a eBay page :/

Not sure what you mean here.

 

[DigDog]

When i look at mechmarket, the vendors simply announce the product, post on imgur, and that's it - the sale is resolved through pm and .. i guess, ebay later on.

Not sure what you mean here.

Or not?
Do they post on ebay, and then add it to m.m., or is there some no-ebay-posting way to use paypalto sell?

I got a few goodies that i have to let go; two mechs, a monitor, maybe more.

 

[IronWing]

When i look at mechmarket, the vendors simply announce the product, post on imgur, and that's it - the sale is resolved through pm and .. i guess, ebay later on.

Or not?
Do they post on ebay, and then add it to m.m., or is there some no-ebay-posting way to use paypalto sell?

I got a few goodies that i have to let go; two mechs, a monitor, maybe more.

You don't need to use eBay to use PayPal as the payment method. Going through eBay would add an additional layer of fees onto the transaction.

The simplest way to use PayPal would be to agree to a sale via PM and have the seller provide the email address they use for PayPal to the buyer. The buyer sends the money to that address via PayPal and the deal is done. Once the seller confirms receipt of the funds in their PayPal account, they send the goods.

 

[BurnItDwn]

What is Anandtech For Sale/For Trade? Chopped Liver?

 

[DigDog]

What is Anandtech For Sale/For Trade? Chopped Liver?

Almost exclusively US. Being me in EU, it's not terribly practical.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Almost exclusively US. Being me in EU, it's not terribly practical.

Ahh, sorry, i figured it might be worth a shot, but, yea, international shipping makes things more complicated.