How safe is paypal for selling outside ebay

Kate1

Need some advice. I have an item on ebay at the moment which ends next week. I have someone wanting to purchase it now for £500 inc postage which is a reasonable price and has offered to transfer the money through paypal. Has asked for more photos which i've sent to an email address. Obviously leaving it on ebay I may get more then this for it but the fees would cancel it out anyway. The buyer has a feedback score of 28 and had the account since 2003, last purchase a couple of months ago. I had suggested a bank transfer (thought safer for me as money can't be re-tracted?)but he wants paypal. Should I just leave it or am I safe to accept paypal in this situation. Due to the size it would be posted using citylink or parcelforce and would be tracked.

Thanks for advice.

theonlywayisup

Paypal now gives almost identical protection to buyers on ebay as it does off.

For you, you will need to ensure that you meet the requirements for Seller Protection. Mostly, these are:

1. Post within 7 days of payment.
2. Post to the address on the transaction in the Paypal payment. It usually gives a green OK TO SEND notice, so check that is there.
3. It must be an eligible item.
4. You must sent it via an online trackable method to the address with a signature (viewable online) for anything over £150.
5. Keep your certificate of posting for 180 days in case of unauthorised chargeback.

Is she/he too far away to meet and do a cash purchase?

Make sure that the courier covers the particular item (some don't do cameras and the like) and that the insurance value is enough.

GregtheHammer

What is the item? This sounds a bit iffy to me wanting to go outside of ebay.

Crowqueen

I wouldn't do a bank transfer for that amount as a buyer, even off-eBay, you wouldn't get me surrendering my protections from paying by card to a private seller, sorry.

I don't know what eBay offers more than Paypal on seller protection, perhaps better buyer scrutiny (and certainly for your buyer there would be better protection with actual examination of claims), but since they found you your buyer, I think it should probably go through them - if you want to gamble then fine, but I think on that value of item you would be acting really badly, given they paid to host your item and you might not get £500 elsewhere where fees are cheaper.