Just to get your thoughts, I posted about this on RS just now as I am a little fed up of always sending gifts all the time these days.

I don't mind for friends as I know most of the time we do each other deals and get things under market value or we just want to save each other fees, thats no problem, but its getting to a point where most people are asking for full shipping paid by you, full item price paid by you and now full fees paid by you, on top of it all if it goes tits up gift option doesn't seem to offer much help to the buyer..

Not to mention Joe they there is usually a surcharge for using that service but yeh there not much in the way of returns if something goes wrong.

Not to mention the whole point of the fee is really just for the convenience of having INSTANT payment.

I buy a figure at 7PM and you have my money five minutes later and it didn't cost you a thing ! lol

Yep its not looking like I will be using it much longer if I am honest.

I just had a case where I sent $350 USD as gift and paid the fee, now..I still have money to pay on that deal and will be paying when I can so each time I am expected to add some more on for fees...so ultimately I might as well just give the guy 60 more bucks just for accepting my money

The only time I had to add fees was for international deals. Anything in the states I never paid. But I do agree about the deal gone wrong part. Your just plan ol' screwed if you don't get your items in.

I agree Joe. There sure are a lot of sellers now saying they will only accept gift payment and really I only feel comfortable with it if it is someone well known with a good track record or I have dealt with them before. As a seller myself, I don't expect a gift payment but always appreciate it when someone does pay me that way. There is a lot of trust involved with a gift payment and basically as a buyer you have no protection whatsoever with paypal if something goes wrong.

Like i said on Rs paypal gift doesn't bother me.

It used to bug me, but then i thought what the hell and started to do the same.
As someone who buys and sells about the same amounts of stuff its all swings and roundabouts for me.

Its risky sending gifts, so if it was someone i didn't know i would just offer to add 4% to cover fees rather than send a gift.

In the past 2 weeks i have sold 2 items for £325 each, both were up at £350 & £375.
The one guy i didn't know i took an offer of £300 on the condition he paid for Airsure and covered the paypal fee's, he still had a good deal and unless he agreed to those 2 things there is no way i would of accepted his offer.

The other guy i know well, so i took £25 off the asking price and chucked in free airsure shipping (£11), he covered the paypal fee's.

both items i sold for a bit less than i really wanted, so if i had to bite the fees too i would of been well down.
If you are doing a deal for someone then it doesn't hurt if they cover fees.

Paypal is just as convenient for buyers as it is sellers. In the old days i used to get fed up waiting for my cheques to clear before i got my items. Paypal sorted that so buyers get their items much much quicker.

Also paypal gifts offer a bit of security to honest sellers.

How many times have you read horror stories where people have had paypal refund the money to the buyer who claims the item never arrived?
Paypal gift just gives you that bit of security.

The guy that bought my sears 4 pk was completely unknown to me, i just had a message saying he wanted to buy it.
He said he was a member of scum, but didn't seem to want to give me his ID.

Now if i had took a normal payment off him he could of easily claimed the money back, leaving me well out of pocket.
from experience paypal tend to side with buyers more than sellers.

anyway, i told the guy i would sell the item to him at a cheaper price as long as he sent the money as a gift.

He was happy as he obviously knew i could be trusted, and i was happy as i knew he couldn't try to scam me (not saying he would of just didn't know him from adam).

I really like the gift option for a few reasons. These are all based on the knowledge that I as a seller would always A) Ship out what I sell B) Offer refunds if someone wasn't happy and C) Act like a professional

1) True Seller Protection - I have sold a number of items to people I don't know and the fear is there. I do alot of overseas sales via 1st class to save money and frankly it's totally up to the honesty of the buyer to tell me if it made it. This is a good way to protect myself.

2) Cost reduction as seller and buyer - I can offer lower prices since I am not concerned with Paypal fees. When negotiating, it's nice to be able to know that a $50 sale means $50. As a buyer I can pay less for an item by pointing this out to sellers that I am comfortable.

Overall I think it's a great tool. All this said, if someone wants to pay the fees because they are not easy with it I'm always okay with it. It's there dime.

I will say I didnt know until recently that international gift payments had a fee.

I think if you send payment through checking account, there's no fees for gifts anywhere. I believe its only when you use a credit card you have to pay fees for gifts.

"I will say I didnt know until recently that international gift payments had a fee." it's Paypal, they don't do anything for free

LordGanja wrote:

I think if you send payment through checking account, there's no fees for gifts anywhere. I believe its only when you use a credit card you have to pay fees for gifts.

This is not true for me. Even if I pay using my Paypal balance I'm paying a (small) fee.

I am in part probably guilty for promoting the PP Gifts on RS LOL

There is a fee to send an international PP Gift of 1% (instead of the normal 4%) but you need to send in less than 30gbp 50$ increments or the fee jumps above 1%.

The best think to do is play about with paypal

Jay

yup all true ,, dont think ineed to add anything to joe's statement, and i have to tell ya, when you have to waith a long time for the seller to ship it and you did pay gift , and no communication , your really would start to think by youyrself , this is the last time i send it as a gift

except for friends and raffles off course , just dont ad raffle in your payment people

jimmymindtricks wrote:

just dont ad raffle in your payment people

Yeah Mark!! LOL

Capetown wrote:

LordGanja wrote:

I think if you send payment through checking account, there's no fees for gifts anywhere. I believe its only when you use a credit card you have to pay fees for gifts.

This is not true for me. Even if I pay using my Paypal balance I'm paying a (small) fee.

I have to agree with Emiel on this one. When I paid Joe, I had a small fee to tack on and I used my checking account for the funds.

Darthberizing wrote:

jimmymindtricks wrote:

just dont ad raffle in your payment people

Yeah Mark!! LOL

Lesson learned!

Chris_J wrote:

Capetown wrote:

LordGanja wrote:

I think if you send payment through checking account, there's no fees for gifts anywhere. I believe its only when you use a credit card you have to pay fees for gifts.

This is not true for me. Even if I pay using my Paypal balance I'm paying a (small) fee.

I have to agree with Emiel on this one. When I paid Joe, I had a small fee to tack on and I used my checking account for the funds.

When I used the gift payment last, I went with payment out of my checking account. I did notice that it totally waived the fees, but it sent an e-check which still had to clear the bank.

I think the gift payment used to be a cool thing. But like many have said, I'm not really willing to do it anymore for anyone other than friends. They still charge you a small fee, so I'm not really seeing the point anymore.

Indeed. PayPal caught on and found a way to nickel and dime us yet again. Afterall, PayPal is an eBay company.