Need a little Paypal help

[Eyeball]

Hello I am planning on trying to sell some of my excess decks in the future but I've never sold anything online. I was thinking about throwing up some Ebay auctions but I was wondering how exactly paypal works with all of this. I refuse to attach my bank account to paypal so if I were to make a sale, how do I get a hold of the funds? I read that they can send you a check in the mail, can anyone verify this? Additionally does anyone know of other ways to receive payments that might be easier? Any advice/help is appreciated!

[KPopFever605]

As far as I know, Ebay only works through Paypal. For as long as I have been using the service, there has not been a problem. When you sell an item on Ebay, Ebay and Paypal together holds your money until a certain date to make sure you have sent out the item. For example, if someone buys in item on January 11th, you might not be able to have your funds until maybe January 21st. Don't worry, eventually you will be able to get your money. For a Paypal account, they require you to attach a bank account, or else, how else are you going to get the money. Once you receive the money on a certain date, that money is now in your Paypal account. You can now transfer that money into your regular bank account and withdraw that to use in real life. If you do happen to have trouble, both Ebay and Paypal have had excellent costumer service reps, so everything should work flawlessly. Have anymore questions? If you want to test it out, put up an item or super cheap, maybe like something $ 0.01, and see how Ebay works from there one. You get to see the inside works of Ebay, and maybe, it'll work out for you.

[digipunk]

@Eyeball, I don't attach my bank account to PayPal either because I often buy items and holding the received payment in my Paypal account as Balance is more convenient for me.

[munro159]

I don't think you should have any problem not attaching your bank account to your paypal account.  If you were to sell something....the money cleared on your paypal account...and then the buyer wanted their money back, It would just drive your paypal account in the negative if you didn't have the funds to cover it in your paypal balance. As someone who occasionally sells on ebay, the only headache in not attaching your bank account is when you purchase something with a credit card through paypal sometimes they wait for the money to clear before giving it to the seller. In other words it might delay the seller shipping your item by a few days by not attaching your bank account.

[Eyeball]

Thanks all for the responses, but one thing that I'm not sure of is how can you turn your paypal balance into cash or something of that nature so that I can use it to buy other things? If i were to sell a couple things I would have the money in my paypal balance but how can I go about getting that money so I can use it to pay for other things (not via paypal)? I understand how this would work if I attached a bank account but I'm not going to do that, so how else can I get ahold of the funds?

[digipunk]

I know a good guy who is enthusiastic about helping people, someone even called him Don the Sheriff. Maybe you can try to ask for his help : you send money to him via PayPal and he sends cash to you. (I am joking here, but you may ask your friends to help you in this way)

[KPopFever605]

Thanks all for the responses, but one thing that I'm not sure of is how can you turn your paypal balance into cash or something of that nature so that I can use it to buy other things? If i were to sell a couple things I would have the money in my paypal balance but how can I go about getting that money so I can use it to pay for other things (not via paypal)? I understand how this would work if I attached a bank account but I'm not going to do that, so how else can I get ahold of the funds?

There is really no other way to handle your funds unless you attach a bank account. How else would imagine it possible? Are you just going to send your "Paypal Bucks" to an imaginary account, close your eyes, and have the Franklins appear right beside you? When you have money in your Paypal account, you can then use the Paypal account to pay for other things, or you can deposit the money into your bank account once you have attached it. Those are the only two options I can imagine. Or! You can send me the money, and I'll mail you cash? Although it'll take a while, that's the only loophole I can think of. Either use Paypal, Attach a Bank Account, or Use a Third Part to retrieve you funds. Good Luck!

[jmrock]

Don't be paranoid... Unless you have an extremely substantial amount of money in your account you have nothing to worry about... I always use an account with paypal that if something went wrong I could handle it... Personally I know where you're coming from and I don't use my main account with paypal... I have a smaller account linked that I keep a certain amount of money in...  You may want to look into this... Also, I would suggest posting on the Discourse  in the classified section before eBaying because eBay will just manhandle you with fees... It doesn't ever seem like a lot $.30 here... $1.40 there... but it all adds  up and at the end of the month they send you a bill and you're like, "Why the F#@! did I even bother selling anything on here? They just took it all back in fees."  I mean really, when you add up the time packing, driving to the Post office, time taking pics, on the computer waiting for the funds to trickle in... It's really ridiculous... Post fair pricing here and if you feel like you can do far better online then post it on eBay, but remember... What you would sell to someone on the forum for say $80, you'd have to sell on eBay for around $95 to cover the fees, shipping, etc...

[Don Boyer]

Thanks all for the responses, but one thing that I'm not sure of is how can you turn your paypal balance into cash or something of that nature so that I can use it to buy other things? If i were to sell a couple things I would have the money in my paypal balance but how can I go about getting that money so I can use it to pay for other things (not via paypal)? I understand how this would work if I attached a bank account but I'm not going to do that, so how else can I get ahold of the funds?

If you don't have a bank account attached to a PayPal account, you'd get your money by simply using the PayPal account to buy other stuff you want on the Internet, consuming the balance.  When you're down to just a few bucks, send to money to a friend's account in exchange for cash.  (Or do that in the first place, as has been suggested already.)  If you plan on spending it, though, and there's things you want from eBay or other retailers that accept PayPal, just spend it straight from there.

Don't be paranoid... Unless you have an extremely substantial amount of money in your account you have nothing to worry about... I always use an account with paypal that if something went wrong I could handle it... Personally I know where you're coming from and I don't use my main account with paypal... I have a smaller account linked that I keep a certain amount of money in...  You may want to look into this... Also, I would suggest posting on the Discourse  in the classified section before eBaying because eBay will just manhandle you with fees... It doesn't ever seem like a lot $.30 here... $1.40 there... but it all adds  up and at the end of the month they send you a bill and you're like, "Why the F#@! did I even bother selling anything on here? They just took it all back in fees."  I mean really, when you add up the time packing, driving to the Post office, time taking pics, on the computer waiting for the funds to trickle in... It's really ridiculous... Post fair pricing here and if you feel like you can do far better online then post it on eBay, but remember... What you would sell to someone on the forum for say $80, you'd have to sell on eBay for around $95 to cover the fees, shipping, etc...

Well, he still has to pay shipping no matter who he sells to, but he will save on those pesky eBay fees, for sure, and the people who are active on this forum are generally "known quantities" rather than complete and total strangers.  Another consideration would be that if he plans to obtain, say, some other decks or an uncut sheet, he could arrange trades instead of dealing in cash or PayPal.

[Eyeball]

@jmrock I know it might be a little paranoid but I've had issues in the past with my bank account information being stolen, so I don't want to risk it. Thank you for the advice on ebay as well, I haven't ever used ebay to sell anything but I could see how those little charges can add up.


Thanks for the help everyone, I suppose I will just get to selling those decks (firstly through the forums) and use my paypal balance to pay for some of the new releases coming out soon.

[John B.]

If I were going to sell things on ebay i would make a small account only for paypal. I would sell things and have them go to that account, then take the money out and do whatever, that way nothing to bad can happen.

[Cosmo Solano]

I've been making a living using paypal as one of my primary sources of income, the majority of my sales come through paypal.
I've had my account linked to it for a long time many, many years and years ago I was carrying a large balance there, I was marketing some very expensive office funiture there. The balance was in the 10's of thousands and never had an issue.
I will say that just like any personal and financial accounts it's always possible to worry about identity theft, and it has happened to me, (actually it was my fault as I logged into paypal once, directlly from an email, something I knew better about, but just was being careless) It was involving over $5,000 dollars and paypal handled it beautifully. 

So I wouldn't be worried about the bank account thing.

There is also the paypal debit card, any of you who aren't familiar with it, it's AWESOME.  You can use your funds immediately and not have to wait for the 3-5 day transfer to your account.  I use it all the time.  I almost never transfer the funds anymore.

You can pull money from ATMS as soon as you get them.  Also, they do a cash back bonus when you use your account, and every expense I have I try and use my pp debit card, I usually can count on $50.00-150 extra bucks at the end of the month just from using the debit card for purchases.

ATM use costs like a buck and doesn't have cashback, only purchases.  So I also do cashback at the checkout, this racks up the bonuses too.

Hope that helps!

Don't be afraid to connect your account, paypal is as big or bigger than most banks out there, it's as safe as anything.