A lot of members of this forum want to buy or sell things like game dvds and videos and other items among members. A lot of you already know about Paypal but for those of you who don't here is how it works. First go to http://www.paypal.com and open up a free account online. Now say you have a dvd or a T shirt or whatever you want to sell and I want to buy one from you. You might live across town or across the ocean from me. If you live across town I could drive to your place and pay you cash for the item or you could drive to my place and deliver it and I would pay you for it. Even in the same town that is not always convienient for either party. If we live across town or across the country from each other I could mail you a check and then you could wait for it to clear your bank and then mail me the item. But if we both had Paypal accounts you could tell me the email address that is your only Paypal identifier and I could make a few mouse clicks and pay you instantly. You would have your payment in less than a second after I clicked on the submit button. If I didn't have any money in my Paypal account I could still use a credit card to fund the purchase instantly. That would give you the ability to take payments from purchasers wanting to pay by credit card even if you don't have a merchant account set up yourself to process credit card payments. To collect your payment from Paypal you can transfer the funds in your Paypal account to your bank. You don't know my credit card number and I don't know your banking info. After being a Paypal member for 6 months they will give you a Paypal Mastercard debit card so you can withdraw your funds in your Paypal account in cash from any ATM machine or even use it like any other debit or credit card to make purchases from stores, restaurants, bars or any other place that accepts Mastercard. It costs nothing to send money to another Paypal account and there is a very small fee to receive money from another Paypal account holder. I hope this helps.
Actually I was wondering about this myself but never checked up on it but I might have received the motivation now.
I've never used it, but I understand the concept. What security does the buyer have? What happens if the seller gets the $$ but does not send the goods, a la the Western Union Sugar Bowl ticket scam?
I was scammed on eBay buying an Xbox with about 100 or so other people. Asshole was selling Xboxes, PS2s Gamecubes, digital cameras etc for cheap but believable prices and then never shipped the stuff. All of us united and emailed eBay and Paypal (those that payed through Paypal). I got a full refund of about $170.00 as did other Paypal members but people that paid with check or money order got screwed by eBay as it cost like $100 to get them to send a refund. Of course all of this happened before eBay bought out Paypal so who knows now how they treat scams. Here is some info from their website on scams, etc. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_pbp-info
