Paypal friends and family and does paypal cover knives if lost or scammed

shinyedges

shinyedges

Unfaltering Love & Undeviating Will
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I'm seeing more people demanding friends and family as their only forms of payment. As absolutely asinine as it is, people send the money as a gift.

In the past PayPal g&s has protected buyers from being scammed. Is that still they case? What other more secure options are there?

PayPal no longer covers any knives. Just called them.

I recently purchased a knife from a member here on forums and he informed me that PayPal no longer gives seller protection on knives. I kind of thought he might not be exactly right about that. Today I called PayPal because I have someone wanting a couple very expensive knives I have for sale. I...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com


Any word on this?
 
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If I’m PayPal, and someone calls me to complain about someone stealing money that was sent through f&f, I’m hanging up the phone. Sorry, not sorry.. that 3% is their overhead for insuring your loss. Using f&f for a g&s transaction is a risk for us, a scam technically for PayPal… as it’s an intentional bypass of their procedures to save 3%.

It would be nice to hear from a few people that have used g&s for knives, had their money stolen, and what the experience with PayPal was like.
 
I’ll post the same thing I posted in the last thread.

PayPal no longer covers any knives. Just called them.

I recently purchased a knife from a member here on forums and he informed me that PayPal no longer gives seller protection on knives. I kind of thought he might not be exactly right about that. Today I called PayPal because I have someone wanting a couple very expensive knives I have for sale. I...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
mthdwr said:
I’ll post the same thing I posted in the last thread.

PayPal no longer covers any knives. Just called them.

I recently purchased a knife from a member here on forums and he informed me that PayPal no longer gives seller protection on knives. I kind of thought he might not be exactly right about that. Today I called PayPal because I have someone wanting a couple very expensive knives I have for sale. I...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
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Couldn’t you call it a “camping tool”, which it technically is?

I’ve had transactions held up for key words and when I put “camping tool” they cleared it within a few hours. Maybe that would work in the claims process.
 
mthdwr said:
I’ll post the same thing I posted in the last thread.

PayPal no longer covers any knives. Just called them.

I recently purchased a knife from a member here on forums and he informed me that PayPal no longer gives seller protection on knives. I kind of thought he might not be exactly right about that. Today I called PayPal because I have someone wanting a couple very expensive knives I have for sale. I...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
Click to expand...
I can't recall anyone since I've been here who was scammed and PayPal g&s denied them. Now that may have changed, if that's the case I'd like to hear first hand of it happening.
 
Paratrooper06 said:
Couldn’t you call it a “camping tool”, which it technically is?

I’ve had transactions held up for key words and when I put “camping tool” they cleared it within a few hours. Maybe that would work in the claims process.
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Sure you can. But that isn’t really the point.
There is no guarantee they will, or won’t, cover a knife transaction. These stories of PayPal denying claims, or even locking accounts are endless for stuff that technically wasn’t Even against their TOS.

With that said, I’m not anti PP. I’ll use G/S, as there is a way less change a scammer will use G/S. I just don’t expect to be covered should something go wrong.. aka lost in mail. I insure for that reason.
 
I'll agree, PayPal is anti gun and anti knife. I wish we had a better option. I don't know of any alternatives and I'm damn sure not sending payments as gift to someone.

Maybe long time friends here are the exception.
 
mthdwr said:
Sure you can. But that isn’t really the point.
There is no guarantee they will, or won’t, cover a knife transaction. These stories of PayPal denying claims, or even locking accounts are endless for stuff that technically wasn’t Even against their TOS.

With that said, I’m not anti PP. I’ll use G/S, as there is a way less change a scammer will use G/S. I just don’t expect to be covered should something go wrong.. aka lost in mail. I insure for that reason.
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Well g&s seems to be scammer-repellent, so I’ll just keep using g&s. If that ever fails, I’ll figure out something else.
 
Until Paypal G&S adds tax for the buyer to pay, like they do on eBay, my listings will be F&F, Venmo, Zelle or Money Order.

If you don't like that, don’t buy my knife. Not paying tax twice. This is not a business for me.
 
bax229 said:
Until Paypal G&S adds tax for the buyer to pay, like they do on eBay, my listings will be F&F, Venmo, Zelle or Money Order.

If you don't like that, don’t buy my knife. Not paying tax twice. This is not a business for me.
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Thanks for letting us know. Will take your advice and not buy from you 👍

Scammers all have one thing in common here, friends and family payments.
 
bax229 said:
Until Paypal G&S adds tax for the buyer to pay, like they do on eBay, my listings will be F&F, Venmo, Zelle or Money Order.

If you don't like that, don’t buy my knife. Not paying tax twice. This is not a business for me.
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As is now, you need to hit 20k in sales before it’s reported to IRS. Im not sure what’s happening next year but i know they are trying to change that.

And if you are worried about paying tax on it, why don’t you add that into your sale price?

You also won’t pay tax on something even if you hit the reporting threshold, assuming there was no profit involved. It does add another level of difficulty when filing taxes though.
 
bax229 said:
Are you calling me a scammer?
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You might be. I don't know you. But you asking for friends and family payment which offers the buyer no protection from thieves and scammers, has proven time and time again right here on bladeforums to be a common tactic of thieves and scammer.
 
I may be wrong but when you use f&f it’s on the sender to cover the 3% PayPal fee whereas when using g&s the seller covers the charge. I agree you should use the proper payment method but PayPal is getting their cut regardless.
 
bax229 said:
Until Paypal G&S adds tax for the buyer to pay, like they do on eBay, my listings will be F&F, Venmo, Zelle or Money Order.

If you don't like that, don’t buy my knife. Not paying tax twice. This is not a business for me.
Click to expand...


I don't use eBay, so I apologize if this question is more evident than it seems to me.

Why would PayPal do that?

Fees and other cost of doing business items are the sellers responsibility. It makes sense that the G&S fee is placed on the sellers end.
 
benchwarmer380 said:
I don't use eBay, so I apologize if this question is more evident than it seems to me.

Why would PayPal do that?

Fees and other cost of doing business items are the sellers responsibility. It makes sense that the G&S fee is placed on the sellers end.
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IF you hit IRS reporting threshold, you have to include this money when you file. It is 20k as of now (probably changing tomorrow) or xxx amount of transactions (it’s a lot).

If you aren’t actually turning a profit, you won’t pay taxes but it makes it more difficult when you file.
 
shinyedges said:
Thanks for letting us know. Will take your advice and not buy from you 👍

Scammers all have one thing in common here, friends and family payments.
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The problem is that not all scammers use F&F and if you're honest with yourself, you know that not everyone who uses F&F is a scammer either. In fact, the whole issue is "almost" moot if you can trust the other party. I say "almost" bc there IS still the issue of relieving PP of their fees for a service they render, which really isn't cool IMHO. But, if I trust someone else, I am happy to send the money via Zelle, or personal check or MO. And trust is not a given, but has to be earned. Can you still be taken for a ride? Absolutely. Is establishing trust easy? No. But things will never be perfect.

You can do a face to face on a firearm transaction to "be sure", but be sure of what? The buyer is not a convicted felon? It's not a straw purchase? Good luck with that. There is no perfect solution, be it with knives, guns, cars, etc. etc.

ETA: Actually, as I think about it, maybe there IS a perfect solution. Do not buy or sell.
 
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