buyer is asking to pay cash

[rio1953]

This buyer emailed me asking if i would take cash, because paypal is not accepting his credit card.

How do i deal with this. What is the best thing to do?

Any input or suggestion is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[pierrelebel]

Way back in 2004 and 2005 when my tax returns were audited by CRA, the auditor was surprised to see the large amounts of cash deposited to my bank accounts (about $6,000 to $8,000 a year; about half Cdn$, half US$ with a bit of euro and Sterling) considering I was exclusively in the mail order business.

In nearly thirty years in this business, never lost a dollar in the incoming mail.

Back in the 80's and early 90's, I had a regular customer purchasing $500 to $1,000 every month.  He would typically send me a cheque for $100 or $200 and the rest in cash.  Why?  He did not want his wife to know how much he was investing (spending) on stamps!

[rose-dee]

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@rio1953 wrote:

This buyer emailed me asking if i would take cash, because paypal is not accepting his credit card.

How do i deal with this. What is the best thing to do?

Any input or suggestion is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

---

I think 'rockp' is correct (post above) in saying that a credit card is not a sine qua non for a Paypal account.  

Something tells me your buyer is either deeply confused, has a very bizarre sort of credit card, or is not planning to pay and hoping you'll send the item once he says the cash is on the way. 

I agree with 'reallynicestamps', unless you have a very reliable demographic of buyers, having a buyer send cash through the mail is not a good idea.  My suggestion would be to ask the buyer to contact Paypal by phone and ask them to help him get set up if he's having problems.  You can even give him the phone #.  

Frankly, the buyer should have organized his Paypal account and known that he was able to pay before he committed to the purchase, so I think the ball is in his court at the moment. 

By the way, what sort of item/value are we talking about here?  If you feel this is a sketchy situation, you can always tell the buyer you unfortunately can't accept cash and cancel the transaction on the basis that the "buyer is asking to pay in a method I don't accept" (or whatever the eBay wording is).  Then decide whether to block this buyer or tell him to come back and try buying the item again when he has a Paypal account. 

[pierrelebel]

"I don't like to disagree with anyone here"

So, please do not.

Believe it or not, those of us accepting cash know what we are doing.  Of course you do not have to do it if you do not want it.

[momcqueen]

On the page linked to this thread by Pierre, under the Red-Dot Headline Not Allowed, the first thing is Sending Cash by Mail. 

[momcqueen]

So, I'm just going to back away from this thread slowly now.... from a safety point-of-view, as well, you have to consider who might be coming to get what from you with or without wads of cash in tow. I sell toys so I'm reasonably certain I won't get stabbed in a Cash on Pickup scenario and you sell stamps so I don't think anyone would be coming after you with a gunny sack and cement shoes but if the listing were for iPhones or big screen TVs, how would you even ascertain whether or not the crispy new fifty dollar bills in your hand were real and not counterfeit? 

[rose-dee]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

In nearly thirty years in this business, never lost a dollar in the incoming mail.

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Pierre, I think you are blessed with a golden buyer demographic for the most part.  The salient words in your post are "this business" (i.e. the philatelic business).  

I don't doubt that this is a good thing for you in dealing with your buyers, but I think there are very few of us who would feel the same about our own cross-section of buyers.  The younger they are, the less so.  I can't imagine selling electronics or clothing/fashion accessories on a cash basis on eBay. 

In fact, I'd be surprised if most young people these days even have any cash around or on them anymore.  It's a lot simpler to use electronic means of funds transfer than to actually have to make a trip to the bank or ATM to get cash to pay for an eBay purchase.  Now, older people, many of whom probably have hundreds, if not thousands of dollars stashed under mattresses around the house, may feel differently about paying in cash. 

And then there's the whole issue of buyer protection on eBay.  I really think cash is, by and large, a thing of the past on eBay. 

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

On the page linked to this thread by Pierre, under the Red-Dot Headline Not Allowed, the first thing is Sending Cash by Mail.

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'mj', I think this is intended as the Accepted Payments Policy for eBay listings, in other words, the verboten payment types are not allowed to be shown or offered in listings, but some (such as cash) can still be requested by buyers, as long as the seller doesn't actually solicitor such method(s). 

This isn't to say that taking cash is a good idea, for many of the reasons presented by posters here (Pierre's experience being unusual in contrast to the majority of eBay sellers, but probably not unusual for stamp sellers).  I think for certain limited categories, if you know your buyer demographic well through experience and have utter faith in the postal systems of the world, it can work, but there are good reasons eBay is discouraging it.  By and large I see it as just more trouble than it's worth. 

[pierrelebel]

The "official" reply from Raphael today:

"As with most eBay policies, our jurisdiction doesn't extend beyond the confines of the site, so if a seller was to get paid that way there isn't much we could do about it, also it would most likely already be over with once we could ever know about it."

[rose-dee]

Pardon my adding this, but I think it's very important for newer sellers to understand (per Raphael today), before they agree to such arrangements: 

"The thing to tell buyers who ask is that it's super risky to send cash in the mail. It's 100% untraceable and it's unlikely that eBay would be able to cover the buyer in case anything bad happened."

...which I think is basically what I said in previous posts here.