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Posted by D. Sherman on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 14:24:22 :
In Reply to: PayPal question for the experts posted by Clint Dixon on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 10:31:50 :
I've been using paypal since before ebay bought them, and like you I've heard the horror stories (as with ebay) but have not had any problem myself. You must assume that they will not settle disputes, just as ebay won't, despite what they say about it. They also take an additional fee for international payments. Nevertheless, I don't know of any other practical way to sell low-value items to foreigners. For serious deals (thousands of dollars), bank transfers seem to be the norm, but it's not worth the hassle on either end for something small.
Others also mentioned not leaving much money in a paypal account, which is something I also do. Whenever my paypal balance gets about $300 I transfer it to my bank account.
One thing you might also keep in mind is that you generally need an export license to export anything. There's probably some dollar threshold below which you don't need it or they won't likely come after you, but if something bad happens, you could be in a heap of trouble. Some innocent American surplus dealer sold some gas masks to some guy in Japan a while ago. You wouldn't think it would be any big deal since gas masks aren't weapons and they're legal to sell to anybody in the US. It turns out the guy he sold them to was in with that religious cult that did the gas attack on the Tokyo subway. They investigated that crime in every direction they could and they came down on the US surplus dealer like a ton of bricks. I seem to remember hearing something about a felony conviction and a $100,000 fine for not getting an export license. Just something to keep in mind. You never know who you're selling to or what mischief they might get into that might splatter back on you when the "stuff" hits the fan.