Anybody use Paypal ?

[k0ua]

James - back in the day - early to mid 60's - my QSL card and a "green stamp" in an envelope with the exotic ham managers call sign on the outside. Take it to the local QSL manager in Anchorage. Then wait ................ some would take five to seven months.

I still keep all those old card. A few from countries that no longer exists. I even have one from a political faction that eventually overthrew the government of Burma. To think - that transaction may have helped in their quest. Yes - lots of "green stamps" in those days. My novice call sign from Alaska was a hot item. Many cards from DXpeditions.

Getting closer to 5 "green stamps" now, at least for some. Some try to finance their whole station operation on QSL monies. It just depends on the guy. Some play fairly and some do not. I do not like sending actual "green stamps" thru the mail as that is a lot of extra work on my part AND so many of the these 3rd world post offices are savvy to what Amateur radio is and any incoming mail to the local Amateur is routinely opened looking for money by the post office officials themselves. Far better to use PayPal so the local vultures don't get the money instead of the intended recipient. I don't mind giving to the DXpeditions as a donation to help finance the Dxpedition in the first place. These are increasingly costing exponentially more and more money. Electronic confirmation via Logbook Of The World (LOTW) has solved a lot of these problems, but as you know many amateurs are traditionalist, and want a paper card. Me, I am happy to see the electronic confirmation. But as you may have surmised by now, I am not a traditionalist.

 

[oosik]

I guess it's a sign of the times. I never worked a station that requested more than one. I wasn't going for Ham Radio - Work the World award. Now my friend - Les, KL7J - I think he, long ago, ran out of wall space to post all his awards. He worked with me at the Health Dept in Anchorage.

 

[k0ua]

I guess it's a sign of the times. I never worked a station that requested more than one. I wasn't going for Ham Radio - Work the World award. Now my friend - Les, KL7J - I think he, long ago, ran out of wall space to post all his awards. He worked with me at the Health Dept in Anchorage.

Les, KL7J is still pretty active. I see him all the time. I have worked him many times.

 

[Oaktree]

Selling is a larger issue.

You and someone else mentioned this but gave no details. Why is using PP as a seller a bad thing?

I have never dealt with a company that will only accept PP. I see no reason to get a third party( PP ) involved in monetary transactions. I really don't do that much buying over the internet. Internet is for research - then I buy locally.

Maybe you're fortunate enough to have everything you could possibly want available locally, not a luxury many of us have. While I've never used the TBN classifieds, I have bought vintage car parts advertised thru the classifieds on a forum dedicated to that vehicle. Many of the sellers only accept PP (well, I suppose if you lived locally they'd take cash, but none of the ones I bought from were anywhere near me). I've run into that with other small-time dealers of other specialty items as well. Even though I rarely use Ebay, I'd guess that would apply to a lot of sellers there too.

PP isn't something I'd probably use often, but it does seem handy to have for on-line transactions with private parties.

James - back in the day - early to mid 60's - my QSL card and a "green stamp" in an envelope with the exotic ham managers call sign on the outside. Take it to the local QSL manager in Anchorage. Then wait ................ some would take five to seven months.

I still keep all those old card. A few from countries that no longer exists. I even have one from a political faction that eventually overthrew the government of Burma. To think - that transaction may have helped in their quest. Yes - lots of "green stamps" in those days. My novice call sign from Alaska was a hot item. Many cards from DXpeditions.

I never was a ham, but when I was in high school I used to DX broadcast stations, both domestic AM stations and some shortwave. Somewhere I have a scrapbook of all the old QSLs I got from them. Nothing especially rare (especially shortwave), but there were some good domestic catches of stations not regularly heard in northern N.H.
No fancy communications receiver, mostly just a table radio with an outside antenna. I did get a Knight kit SW radio for Christmas in 1965. Deaf as a stump, but still could pick up the biggies.

 

[PILOON]

I also use PP for the majority of my online purchases but do so with a dedicated CC.
That gives me double protection should the PP way not pan out I still can resort to a CC reversal.
While reversals could be denied, the seller most often won't do so, especially if he accepts fault.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I quit eBay because of pay pal.

 

[Cycledude]

I have bought and sold over 2,000 items using paypal , one item bought from eBay was never delivered, the seller claimed a death in the family caused him to forget to mail the item but he would mail it the next day, well it still never arrived so I contacted paypal and they refunded all my money.
Another time I bought a motorcycle windshield that the seller claimed was in good condition, well when it arrived it was in terrible condition and belonged in the junk, the seller had asked me to pay using paypal friends and family to avoid any fees but thankfully I just added a couple dollars and used regular paypal which he accepted so I still had the paypal warranty. I wound up having to pay $20 to ship the garbage windshield back to the seller but thankfully paypal refunded the rest of my money.
Another time there was a $180 charge on my account that I had no idea what it was for so I called paypal and they instantly refunded my money.
Overall I have been well satisfied with Paypal.

 

[ljjhouser]

Selling is a larger issue.

Yes it is. I used to sell there several years ago, but not recently. Selling is different. I cannot comment about that since it has been so long.

I have pretty much stopped using eBay entirely. Amazon has shorter delivery times and seems more efficient. I also think PayPal and eBay are now one in the same. I think PayPal bought eBay many years ago.

 

[ljjhouser]

I find it difficult to imagine a situation when I'd send money to a questionable account.

In my opinion, every transaction in eBay is to a questionable account. That is because you are always sending or receiving money to/from an unknown account/person. That is how PayPal came into being. They gave the buyer recourse.

Years ago, you were really dealing with an individual on eBay. Shipping occurred when the seller had time, usually about 2 weeks. Sometimes not at all. The honor system was based on reviews. But, if a buyer completed his part (ordered and paid) and then left a positive review, so many times the seller would not reciprocate with a review. The result of this was many buyers would not give sellers positive reviews until after receiving products - forgetting to return to send a positive review to the seller. At one point, you could have eBay hold your in escrow until the transaction was completed. Then came Paypal. An independent service - not part of eBay.

I have always believed these online rules - never purchase from a company that does not give you a valid address and phone number - NOT an email contact. - never purchase from anyone online if that do not have a shipping estimate - Remember, you cannot estimate a shipping estimate with UPS or Fedex without the shippers location. Try NOT to do business with a company which ONLY ships USPS.

 

[Root Cause]

In 15 years? I used it one time to send money to a family member in need. It was sent in less than 5 minutes at 11 on a Saturday night. No idea how long it took for them to transfer it out into their hands but it moved a lot faster and easier for me.