All of those means except #3 can be avoided. Only #3 really applies, and that one would suck. If you're doing CL, you're doing Face to Face, meet up, and have them gift it to you, not payment. Payment would be stupid because it's not same as cash. The only way you get screwed in that is if like #3, they pay with a hacked account, but this could possibly be avoided by looking at their ID and paypal name. I also don't know why you'd use paypal over CL, just tell me cash or nothing. My policy on CL now is that I don't drive out of my way to meet with someone if im selling and they work mostly around my schedule. If im buying, ill meet up.
I don't mess with Ebay when it comes to selling items. I'd rather post items on craigslist and take cash. It might take a little longer to sell but it's just so much easier. IMO. Plus you get to keep all of your money.
I've sold a good bit of stuff on eBay and used PayPal for selling on and outside of eBay. Here's my experience with them (both good and bad). The good: Using PayPal to accept payments on eBay is the way to go. PayPal gets you (very slightly) discounted shipping rates if you buy and print the label online. You get some protection as a seller from both eBay and PayPal. PayPal won't charge you a fee to transfer money from your PayPal to another bank account or to get a paper check from them. Like others have said, they are another financial institution and are rather safe for connecting a personal bank account. The bad: PayPal has some of THE WORST customer service if you need to dispute a charge or have a problem with a bank account or a buyer, etc. My horror story: Back when I was young and stupid and lived paycheck to paycheck, I had a paypal account linked to my checking account. I was buying and selling things on eBay and things were fine. PayPal has this feature where you can link a second bank account as a "backup funding source" so if for whatever reason I made a purchase and my primary account didn't have enough funds, the backup source would be used. I set this up as a credit card just in case there was ever a problem with my checking account. Short version of this is that I went to buy something online and I specifically chose to buy with my secondary account but when the transaction went through, Paypal tried to withdraw funds from my checking account - which had about $10 in it. This shouldn't have happened in the first place but I figured it wouldn't be a problem since I had my "backup funding source" set as the credit card I wanted to use anyway. Couldn't have been more wrong. Apparently, Paypal had tried to withdraw funds from the empty bank account 4 times in one day meaning I got 4 overdraft fees applied to my checking account. When I called and tried to figure out what happened PayPal gave me the runaround, told me they couldn't help me at all and eventually said that "they only use the backup funding after 4 unsuccessful attempts to withdraw from a bank account". I could not believe what I was hearing. I eventually got the charges reversed by my bank and immediately unlinked my checking account from PayPal. So now I never use PayPal for purchases and I only have a savings account linked to it where I can send money - not withdraw it out. Last bit of info to remember: You will be charged listing and sale fees for listing and selling on eBay. Listings fees can be as low as $0.30 and sale fees are generally 8-10% of the sale price if I remember correctly. PayPal will charge you about 3% on incoming money transactions (so when someone pays you).
Thanks everyone for the great insight. My son is learning about the listing fee fee and the sellers fee. As far as anyone getting my account number by PayPal sending a check... How is that? Yes I am old and stuck in the 80s.
Not quite sure what you mean. I know someone said when you use a check, a normal paper check it has your account number and routing number. But nothing about paypal, I think you just got it confused. If someone ever wants paypal, either get their email and send them the bill, or give them your paypal email. Never allow someone to send you a bill in an email and click on a link via your email, more often than not, those will steal your login and password. Always log directly into paypal to fulfill those payment requests. Paypal will never ask for your username and password, if they do and want you to change stuff, log directly into paypal not through a link
I am just saying... as I understand it... if I request it... PayPal collects the money from the buyer, then mails me a check ($1.50 fee for each check.) No one gets my account information that way... right?
I guess I became a bit skeptical when I tried to sell a 1990 Chevy K Blazer a while back and a dude in Michigan wanted me to set up a PP account so he could buy the truck unseen. I got the Heeby Jeebies about that dude for some reason.
Why dont you just have them transfer it to your bank account? Otherwise, ive never done the check option but I assume it works the same and as you stated. No one will get your account information, the only thing he/she may get is your address you list on there. I know you will get his/hers if you sell it. I had a friend get scammed out of 5,000 of rent while she was coming back from Afghanistan. Simple flags should've told her no, like transferring money through the bank. No one does that. So when I was moving from Hawaii to Missouri, I was really skeptical about putting down a deposit on a house unseen. I did it as payment so that I'd theoretically have the credit card safety and paypal payment safety. Not sure either would've worked out if I had been scammed as i've heard credit card companies won't do anything if it's through paypal, and I saw on here that paypal won't do anything if its through CL. Anyways it all turned out A-OK, I also had less reason to worry because they were a verified paypal member AND they had listed on a military website which required authentication. Proceed with caution, but realize that most people are not scammers. Just make sure you exchange a couple of emails and maybe phone calls in the future with CL, you should be able to figure out if theyre legit or not.
