Attention UPDATED EXCHANGE RULES

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My first few sales threads had "PayPal only" in them as I did not know how any other options would work and at the time would rather not have to deal with anything else. Then I had a couple buyers ask to use a USPS money order instead and after I decided it was worth a shot I realized that I was sort of restricting the options of certain people potentially wanting to pay me money.

So, I just decided to write "PayPal preferred" and price every item as "$XXX Shipped" and assume the buyer will ask for any alternatives that may fit them better. Since then I've shipped a couple times overseas and even to an FPO, and accepted a couple more MOs as well, all requested by the buyers with compensations offered in case of inconvenience. Based on all my feedback it seems to have worked well for me to keep things simple and easy for the buyers and to keep an open mind for alternative ways to sell an item, the buyers with special requests seem to always be the nicest people so I have had no reasons to stop.

 

Yep.
I’ve shipped all around the globe. It doesn’t matter the distance, but some countries are way more expensive to ship to. Recently Australia was $15 but Canada was $26. And Asian countries are usually a bit more.

 

I just found this and will adjust accordingly.

There seems to be a weird positive feeling towards paypal here. People worrying about "cheating paypal out of their money" and so forth. To hell with paypal. They arbitrarily lock people's accounts if they think a transaction is related to a "weapon". I mostly hear about them doing it over guns but have heard of instances where they did it over a sword or other edged weapon. People don't often leave feedback here and I'd guess probably 8 out of 10 buyers you just never hear from after they get their item. So yeah, I get it if you want to write off my opinion as a 20-something feedback nobody but I've done a bit more than that here and quite a bit online in total with about 80 or so on my primary firearm site and another 60 on gunbroker. I always ask for a USPS MO but so many people are in a rush these days they always insist on paypal which I only grudgingly take because of their bullshit rules on "weapons". Well, I know it'll narrow my prospective buyers but I'm going to move to USPS MO only now. If it takes a year or more to sell some excess, so be it.

In general the transaction amounts here are so small (yes, I know some knives are 1,000 or more but most of what moves in the individual forums are 100-300 dollar folders) I'm surprised that there would be so many issues as the amount of money at stake is so unbelievably trivial. F&F transactions in the 2000-6000 range seem normal to me because I've taken that on numerous deals on rifles or night vision so a 180 dollar transaction on a knife seems extremely low risk.

I see a lot of sidebar conversations going around in this thread about insurance, erasing prices and replacing with SOLD, etc are now popping up. First, as only a seller here so far (well, a few trades too) I can't believe that so many people thought "the mailman lost it" could get them out of their responsibility. That's not how it works anywhere. I still don't recommend insurance though because like someone said on the first pages it is a waste of your money and as a seller you just need to prepare yourself for the risks you are taking. The last time I got screwed was here on this site---USPS delivered a knife I sold to the wrong address was unable to recover it. After about a dozen phone calls where I spent up to an hour on hold over the course of 10 days I refunded the guy his money and moved on. It stung to a lose a rare "LE" Busse that way but there was nothing I could do about it. I never saw a cent from the "insurance" and have never bought it again as that was the second time I got stiffed. Signature required is highly recommended.

I don't erase prices from ads either. I think doing so makes it hard for buyers and sellers to determine the value of something and that is annoying.

 

We are not saying we all love PP. All we are saying is that if you use them, use them properly and pay the appropriate fees. If that is not agreeable another form of payment should be used like USPS money orders that you mentioned. You can still make the sale if you use USPS money orders, but you limit the buyers some. Many are not familiar with them and think it is a scam, so it will take some walking through he process and assurances that you will be there if there is a problem. Then there is also the instant gratification to get by. It does take longer to complete the transaction.
I use USPS money orders frequently and if I take them the buyer will get every protection they would have with PP
This is my opinion-there is no forum rule about use of F&F just a recommendation not to.

 

USPS MOs are a lot better than people think. They are easy for anyone to verify whether or not they are legit (not easily faked, unlike Walmart/Western Union, etc) and most transactions cross state lines and if someone rips you off you have to deal with their local authorities and often that means nothing is done. The USPS is part of the Federal government. Their jurisdiction is in every state. I don't know what kind of backlog postal investigators have as I've never had to involve them in a rip-off situation but I've heard of people getting results from bad sellers by just telling them they are going to get them involved by reporting them for mail fraud.

 

I did not read through all 14 pages, so forgive me if this was posted already.

For those trying to figure out what the "Net to me" or "What am I going to get" amount is, just use this Free Paypal Calculator I found a while ago:

FREE Paypal Calculator Link

All you do is put in the dollar amount, and it will show you BOTH:

What you would get if somebody sent you that amount with the Goods and Services (US address) - Shown in RED circle,

AND

If you were looking for a certain dollar amount, it will show you what you should charge in order to get that amount - Shown in the Blue circle.

Here's a quick picture using $300 as an example...

 

This new rules will definitely result in smoother transactions. Excellent!

 

removed

 

I always purchase the USPS insurance for my packages, regardless of the selling price. It just makes sense. I have had three claims in five years and they did reimburse me for all three. You just need to keep all the info you get. I keep purchase proof, acceptance receipts, and I follow all tracking online. It's not that hard.

 

Looking in the exchange today seems like a lot of folks aren't getting the message .

 

LEGION 12 is right,some people don't get the message,or are deaf,dumb and blind!

 

Im fairly new to this forum but have bought a few knives here as well as bought and sold high dollar items on other forums.

Just a warning, as a seller you should always require a signature upon arrival from the buyer. My previous forum had multiple incidents where the buyer would recieve an item and file a paypal claim falsely reporting that the item did not arrive. They would later be caught using the item in a social media post etc or bragging to other forum menbers abour what happened.

Most of the time, paypal backs the buyer and the seller is out both his item and the cash. The only way to protect yourself as a seller is to get a signature.

 

I've been here for a long time and buying/selling for a long time. I just saw this and will update my FS post. The problem now is that the Sales forums has become somewhat of a "garage sale" buyers market... I'm constantly getting nagging prices down and down and down from already deeply discounted asking prices. I guess it is what it is. Thanks for the updates.

 

Lower than asking price offers aren't a new thing. Accept it if the price is acceptable, counter offer if you're willing to negotiate, or decline if your price is firm.

Stating in the ad that your price is firm and you dont want offers will help, but you still get the occasional person who shoots from the hip without reading the ad.

 

Are links to EBay auctions allowed to be posted in the Exchange?

 

No. Nor are auction type sales allowed.

You also cannot post active Ebay links elsewhere on the forums.

 

You can only like to supporting vendors of BF and sales cannot be auction type sales here so this effectively eliminates any linking to eBay.

 

It's been a while since I did any, but the fees have always been roughly the same either way for me in the past between the US, Canada, and the UK. If there was a difference it wasn't enough to notice in any of my sales, but I seldom go over $400 -$500 in sales

 

Actually they are different based on the country.

Here's a link to the Paypal fee schedule: PAYPAL FEES

If you scroll down to where it says, "Sending to other countries" it will show you the fee structure for each country

 

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Are those fees imposed on the sender or the recipient? I mostly reads like it is imposed on the recipient but just wondering if anyone can clarify.