kk7cox wrote:PayPal adds no security to any transaction. PayPal does add a middleman who takes a cut and keeps your money until they find it convenient to release it to you. PayPal has used some pretty rancid tactics in shutting out firearms and firearms accessories manufacturers and dealers including putting holds on their linked bank accounts when they were accused of selling things that aren't even age specific by law nor were they BATF controlled parts.
I decided to do a Ron Paul and say I'm against them but use them anyway.
Respectfully I must take issue to your statement about Paypal offering no security. Paypal does offer security, and here is a personal example; twice in 10 years I have had issues with a seller... One just took my money and never said another word, and never sent the product. He did not respond to many emails, nor did he respond to many phone calls, in short he took my payment, then dropped off the face of the planet. I later discovered several threads on QRZ.COM, where he had done the same thing to many others... After three weeks of attempting to contact him, in many ways, and allowing for ample time for return communications I involved Paypal. My several hundred dollars were returned within a month, and I am happy to say the Paypal logo was removed from his web site shortly thereafter. Paypal does in fact provide security, so your blanket statement is untrue.
As a seller you always have the right to not use Paypal, and as a buyer I have the right to keep my cash if I feel I need the level of security I perceive Paypal provides, which I do. As I said upthread, I simply have much less trust in a seller if he does not offer Paypal as an option. I simply don't care what his reasons are... Overall it is my perception that sellers using Paypal are less likely to "over describe" a products condition if they are using Paypal. Why? Because they are worried they might have their feet held to the fire for what they said. I am sure you can find cases where the buyer was an ass and just took a seller, but for every case of a buyer taking a seller, I would bet a lot of money there are ten times that many buyers getting taken by subtle description errors, which are always in the sellers favor... Things like an item being called mint, when it is not. Or very good, when it is just good, or poor photos, which accidentally don't show that scratch. We all know most seller put their product(s) in the best possible light, highlighting the best, and suppressing the worst points, both in words and in photos. Paypal keeps that type of seller in check. That is why, when I sell an item, I always take very sharp, very close up photos, so the buyer(s) can judge for themselves the condition of what I am selling. I highlight the flaws if possible, or mention them, or both.
The issue here is that there are going to be bad sellers, and there are going to be bad buyers, I believe the bad sellers outnumber the bad buyers by around 10:1, this is a feeling, and I have no data other than my observations over the past ten or so years of selling/buying, but I don't need to prove anything to anyone but me, so again, I don't care if a seller thinks I am wrong, It's my cash, and I get to spend it as I see fit. Each side is going to get screwed now and then. As a buyer Paypal reduces that risk for me, as a seller, I am willing to trust that same system in reverse. I have never had an issue in a sale-- ever. I have literately sold several hundred items using Paypal, (many big ticket items like telescopes, and accessories selling for thousands of dollars, just sold an Icom 756 PRO III for top dollar using Paypal), over the years, my eBay feedback is 100%, not a single negative comment ever, over ten years. I am very, very careful to describe my items as objectively as possible, and as correctly as possible, highlighting every fault I can find. I know from experience that most sellers do not take that level of care in their descriptions, (that is what I meant by the term "over describing", above), I also note that the vast majority of sellers who "over describe" an item, (and we both know most do), have some, (or lots), of negative feedback. If Paypal ever nicks me, I will defend my position as vigorously as possible, and if I lose, that is the cost of doing business if I use Paypal, which I always offer on all sales.
The first argument I always see in a Paypal discussion is how Paypal takes a cut... We all know the seller increases the price to cover his/her costs, (no matter what Paypal says), so that argument is porous at best, and in my mind a total waste of time and space to even bring up. The counter-argument that Paypal does not allow that is simply a sham, people simply increase the price of the item to cover costs, and never say a word about it. Paypal knows this, the seller knows this, and the buyer should know this. It is simple marketing for Paypal to say the seller can't do that.... "Wink, wink, nudge nudge" style marketing. The second argument is that paypal can lock a bank account... Easily fixed, get a second account... So all three of your arguments to me, appear to be fallacious.
