posted
I'm thinking of selling a limited edition of one of my paintings, I'm not set up with any credit card companies to accept charges, but I noticed on Ebay a majority of the sellers have Pay Pal. I remember talking with Mike Languein about this while at Ron Percells Micro Meet, well to be honest it's kind of hard to listen to every word because of all the things going on at a meet, sorry Mike. So if any of you are into this Pay Pal could you give an insite how it works?
-------------------- aka:Cisco the "Traveling Millennium Sign Artist" http://www.franciscovargas.com Fresno, CA 93703 559 252-0935 "to live life, is to love life, a sign of no life, is a sign of no love"...Cisco 12'98 Posts: 3576 | From: Fresno, Ca, the great USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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If you are using Dreamweaver for the HTML there is an extensions pallet in the program that will allow you to go to the Macromedia site and download/import the extensions. PayPal is one of them. When you get to this phase there should be instructions on how this works.
I believe there was an thread with this topic about a month ago with other options available. Hope this helps.
-------------------- Alan Ackerson LetterWorks Design and Graphics alan@ack2.com Posts: 776 | From: Oak Ridge, NJ | Registered: Aug 2002
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PayPal is great -- I've used it for over two years.
Basically, the buyer and the seller must "sign up" with Paypal (no charge - its just verfifying name, address and credit card info). then you can issue the invoice, through Paypal, and the buyer gets an email to go to the PayPal site and confirm that they want to pay it. Once they confirm, you get a confirming email right away. Paypal deducts the card processing fee.
It is similar to accepting credit card tranactions through your bank account, but wthout any monthy fees or setup costs. The only drawback is that your buyers have to sign up with Paypal, but i haven't found that to be an obstacle in any transactions.
You get the option of having the payment deposited to your bank account (takes two or three days), or they'll cut you a check (takes two weeks and costs a buck or two).
Since it doesn't cost you anything, there's no reason NOT to use PayPal, unless you already have a merchant Visa account.
-------------------- :: Scooter Marriner :: :: Coyote Signs :: :: Oakland, CA :: :: still a beginner :: :: Posts: 1356 | From: Oakland (and San Francisco) | Registered: Mar 2001
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I'm not familiar with the selling side of PayPal so I don't know what their fees are. I do know they are somewhat higher than a traditional merchant account but then you don't have any monthly fees. This makes good sence for accasional sales.
From the buying side I really like using PayPay. The person or company you are buying from never sees your private information, only PayPal sees it. I can specify that the money come from a checking account or go on a credit card.
A seller can send a "payment request" (like an invoice) to the buyer for approval or the buyer can just send the money to the seller. It's quite flexible and fast.
I believe that eBay now owns PayPal.
-------------------- David McDonald Palm Harbor Florida USA
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3723 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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It's pretty simple to use. You can sign up with them as a seller, it doesnt cost anything, then they have their transaction fees for businesses. If you don't plan on using it that often, you can sign up for personal use and then there isnt even a fee to sell anything.
The fees are still reasonable and it wont cost you anything when you don't use it, unlike the monthly service fees and equipment rental with a merchant account... a major plus if you dont do the volume.
I don't think buyers are even required to sign up with PayPal to use the service. They have a system setup where a random code is generated, presented to the buyer and they have to enter that back into the form along with their payment and shipping info. That code is how they track the transaction.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
My experience as a buyer with PayPal has been that you do have to sign-up. The whole info input and password stuff but no more than buying anything else online.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3723 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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Paypal is handy, but beware: "Your Paypal account can be frozen at any time, without advance notice leaving you without your money for weeks (if not forever), and there isn't much you can do about it. Paypal is currently being investigated by regulatory authorities in three states...Many Paypal accounts are frozen for almost anything and without warning until the owner faxes in lengthy and intrusive private information – several times over. Even then, the account may not be released. The account can usually receive money while it is frozen, but it certainly cannot withdraw money.
Merchants finding themselves on the wrong end of a frozen Paypal account will still have to find some way to pay their obligations and fill orders for the weeks and months while the account is restricted. A domino effect occurs when a merchant’s account is frozen, leaving them with no means to fill orders. Those orders are then disputed by customers, creating more chargebacks and the illusion of fraudulent activity on the part of the merchant." Read the whole scary story at paypalwarning.com
I have had to contact their customer service to track down a transfer that "vanished" and cannot say I received good service. Never keep more money in your PP acct than you must.
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I haven't had any problems with PayPal in the 2.5 years I've been using them, and have had countless transactions. I don't give them reason to freeze the account.
Those claims of lost sales because of frozen accounts are bogus. It's easy enough just to make a new account, and customers will find another way to pay for goods anyway.
One thing I do recommend though is opening a new bank account and dedicate it to Paypal transactions. This adds a bit more security in the case that someone does defeat PayPal's security measures. It keeps people out of your regular personal or business checking accounts. Since I have online banking through my bank, I can access all my accounts at once and I keep that account listed with PayPal empty!
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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Mike...ya made me do a doubletake...I didn't see the decimal point between the 2 and the 5. Thought maybe you started out buyin a bell for your tricycle. lol
posted
Hey Francisco! PayPal is owned by EBay now and I think that is good.
You will want to go to PayPal's site and do some serious reading. I was researching shopping carts (building them) over the holidays, and I like what PayPal offers, with the exception that their product limits you to PayPal payments. In your case that would not be a problem.
This may not be exactly correct, but you can setup with their cart, load your products and go. Or you can just add the buy now stuff at the back end of your site and go. PayPal makes it easy because they want the credit card fees.
I'm going another way because I want to take credit cards directly and have the ability to be more customizable. The cart I am setting up is similar to the PayPal cart, but more flexible (customizable) and not free.
If you want to see a broad range of what is available, just Google on line shopping carts. You will find any number of companies that will set you up in a day for a setup charge and a monthly fee. The gimmick with most of these is, they make their money by getting a slice of the percentage that you pay the credit cart company. The problem with the web is, you can't tell who is legit and who is shakey.
My credit card transactions go thru a large reputable company called Echo. http://www.echo-inc.com/ They are mainly a credit card processor. You still have to do the work to connect to them, and there is a monthly charge.
Shoot me an email if you want to talk about it more. Vic G
-------------------- Victor Georgiou Danville, CA , USA Posts: 1746 | From: Danville, CA , USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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There are some that never had a problem with paypal. But there are more than a small number that are in a multi million dollar law suit going against pay pal.. Lots of investigation going on.
However, it seems most of the problems have to do with systems overload about a year ago rather than any fraud. Yes, money did vanish and to much was asked in an effort to track down who was owed and how much. There seems to be no new problems since ebay bought paypal.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5278 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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