whatever you do, do not gift payment of any kind.

that includes Venmo, Zelle, whatever. If someone wants you to pay them without transaction fees, you're exposed for the amount should anything go wrong.

As someone who pretty frequently sells and buys used stuff, I am still hesitant to use paypal. I once had a seller damage goods while unboxing them, told me about it, and provided pictures and details about how it happened. He then opened a paypal dispute about it, saying the items were damaged due to poor packaging. Luckily for me, I had screenshots of the messages he sent me about it. I provided those to paypal for my half of the dispute. Well, after I replied, I was still at a negative account balance with paypal, since he just let the dispute timeout (90 days, or something I think).

So, for that reason alone, I would much rather do an e-transfer, or friends and family. I have tons of feedback via different platforms, so if a buyer isn't comfortable with that, they can find someone else to buy from.

I always take pictures of the item before packaging, in the box with packing around it, and with the box closed up. I also make sure to have my watch in the picture as it displays the date. Have never lost a dispute :party0030:

Paypal took my side in the dispute, but it's just the fact that I was at a -$1000 or so balance for much longer than I'd have liked, simply because the buyer was a piece of garbage.

the world would be a lot nicer place if i didn't have to deal with the people in it.

I've had two sellers screw me out of funds on Paypal back in the day, haven't trusted it since. If I'm selling I request a Zelle as there can be no funny games. I let a buyer have plenty of other online classified feedbacks I have from other sites I frequent. I will even go as far as to give my business listing on Google which pretty much determines if I make money or not. I am handing them over the keys to my way to make a living when I do that so if they don't feel comfortable with that then they can move on. If somebody is deeply embedded into a community then I will give more leeway but if they just joined recently and/or you can tell by their older posts that they have nothing to lose if they plan on scamming, it's Zelle(basically cash) or nothing.

Truth. :D Everything I am planning going forward is to get away deeply into the forest so I can get away from all these jerks.