On Sun, 24 Sep 2000, Jerome Fine wrote:
> I found an article on eBay that I bid on and rather than sending
> a Money Order, I thought I might try paypal? Can anyone
> please comment? It seems reasonable from the outside as
> compared to paying with a Money Order, but I thought that
> asking first might help. Note that I am not comparing with
> a process better than a Money Order since this vendor does
> not accept a cheque, MC or VISA.
I'll post the reply to the list since PayPal can be useful for classic
computer acquisitions over the web.
I started using PayPal to accept credit card payments for VCF registration
and it has served me well. I collected about $600 with it. I also got
several "sign-on" bonuses: people who used PayPal for the first time as a
result of wanting to register for the VCF earned me a $5 bonus.
It's real simple to use. You can tie your account to a credit card so
payments you send get debited directly to that. You can also tie it to a
bank account, so that you can "sweep" your incoming funds into that
account.
For the regular user, it's totally free. The way PayPal makes money is by
sticking the money you leave in your PayPal account into a mutual fund
that they manage. They basically use your money to invest and make money
themselves.
For business operators like myself, they take a small percentage of each
transaction (was 1.6%, changes as of Oct-1) and when you "sweep" funds
into your bank account they take another percentage (was 0.6%, also
changes as of Oct-1).
The changes taking place as of Oct-1 increase the rates a bit, but it is
still very reasonable for me, and the referral bonuses more than make up
for the fees, so my usage of PayPal is still effectively free.
I like it.
Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking for a six in a pile of nines...
VCF 4.0 is September 30-October 1
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California
See
http://www.vintage.org for details!
Received on Sun Sep 24 2000 - 12:50:34 BST