forms of payment for selling items

[Night Elf]

I haven't sold curriculum since 2012 or so. Maybe earlier. I'm noticing a popular source of payment is paypal. I do still have an account but have no idea how to use it. Do people use it to be able to get money back if return doesn't go well? 

[Wheres Toto]

Paypal does have a dispute option where you can get your money back, as long as you don't use the no fee/friends and family option. 

Venmo is very popular around here.

[kirstenhill]

I'd say the buyer protection is why PayPal is popular for online buying from unknown people. I've never thought of it in terms of returns, but there is always the possibility of a scammer who never intended to send the item (maybe less likely here with many long term members, but I buy and sell in Facebook groups and on the  Homeschool Classifieds site where people are essentially anonymous or unknown). 

It can also serve as a stopgap against losses in case of postal service issues.  In FB groups that I frequent, insurance is the discretion of the seller, but they are also responsible for it getting there. If I buy a book and it never arrives, the seller needs to refund me and it's on them if they bought insurance or not to cover that potential loss.  When I sell, I insure if the value is more than I would want to just refund out of pocket.  If it's a $5 book, I'm willing to eat that loss.  I haven't been personally involved in any lost packages from this type of buy/sell/trade but I've done quite a bit so I feel lucky that nothing has ever gone seriously wrong. 

[Night Elf]

Thanks ladies, I bypassed the issue by just returning the items for a refund. It's the History text from Year 1 of BiblioPlan called Remember the Days. It's a $50 book! I'm using the program for my self-education and it was just too simplistic. I wanted more, so I bought their high school text called Consider the Years. It's a beautiful textbook. I don't know if I'll sell it when I'm finished with it! 

[gardenmom5]

Last year I used paypal for an item that wasn't ebay.  It was supposedly a company - but . . . I never received my item, the company never responded to my enquiries . . . When I filed a claim with paypal, I was *finally* sent a tracking number that claimed it had been delivered.   The Hive suggested I track down that tracking number . . . It came from Amazon and was delivered to a different person in my city.  Since it was clearly fraud - I thought paypal would be quick to refund me.  They kept dragging their feet. . . I filed with my CC company (I don't use cash/bank account via paypal, it's always a credit card.)  I had my refund within 24 hours.