Sellers, please expand buying options

[fflutedude]

Hi. I am an avid collector of knives and I love this site, but I get cut off at the knees quite often, when I am ready to buy a knife. I find that so many sellers allow only money orders or Pay Pal purchases. I personally do not trust the idea of mailing a money order to someone, with hundreds of Dollars on it and no way to know who is actually receiving it. As far as Pay Pal, I have used them in the past and have been cheated by them twice. I lost a lot of money and their bizarre rules make it nearly impossible to get your money back, when their system glitches and they keep money that was supposed to go to you. Please consider allowing Money gram, Western Union and debit purchases. they are all a lot more secure. I have a lot of $$ burning a hole in my pocket, but I need more purchasing options!

[orvet]

As a store owner I accept personal checks, money orders and PayPal. I can accept a credit card if it is linked to your PayPal Account!

Too many guys have lost money just by taking a card.

[bestgear]

I find that so many sellers allow only money orders or Pay Pal purchases

if you open a dialogue with the seller expressing your interest in transacting in an alternate method than those posted, I suspect most would be willing to find a way to help you with that hole being burned in your pocket.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

I agree with Tom, I have accepted checks from trusted buyers. If you are willing to wait for your check to clear before the knives are shipped, I have no problem with that. I haven’t been asked about Western Union or Money Grams. I was asked for the first time this week about zelle, whatever that is? There are so many payment options out there it’s hard for a small seller to make them all available. Many of us maintains stores on Ebay and Ebay is allowing a whole host of payment options whether you are set up for them or not as a seller. You could also find a lot of us there and use one of those options. We can all be pretty creative in helping you to put out that fire.

[Steve Warden]

Another agreement with Tom.
Although I've made only a couple of purchases here on AAPK, working with the sellers has allowed me to send personal checks.
Never have I run into, "Weeeeelllll, if that's all you can do, I gueeeessss a check will be ok, just this once."

[Railsplitter]

We have a store here who accepts "well disguised cash" if that's any consolation.

[XX Case XX]

I personally do not trust the idea of mailing a money order to someone, with hundreds of Dollars on it and no way to know who is actually receiving it.

This statement puzzles me. If you're mailing a MO to the seller, and he gives you his name and address, then you know exactly who's supposed to receive it.

I would think you'd be more afraid of electronic payments that travel through the air or broadband cables like a rocket flying through cyberspace. When you send money electronically, do you know exactly what happens and where it goes? I don't. I just know the seller ultimately receives the payment.

I would think that "Moneygram, Western Union" or debit purchases would work just like any electronic payment would, albeit a bit more user friendly than Pay-Pal, but's still the same principle.

The bottom line here is, there is basically two ways to pay for something: Mail or electronic. Take your pick.

___________
Mike

[Cokerclan]

Good point. Regarding my store, I will check into your recommendations.

[dlr110]

My personal experiences is on PayPal I've never had a problem. Two clicks and the transaction is finished. And I've even sent money to individuals without a PayPal account.

For almost 20 years now I have been doing all of my banking and paying bills from my computer using Bank of America's online banking. I've only had one issue that the bank fixed within 48 hours. From my computer I can send bank drafts, electronic transfer of funds to anybody anywhere. So the ability to pay and send money in many different ways is at your fingertips, you just have to be willing to set it up and use it.

[orvet]

I find that so many sellers allow only money orders or Pay Pal purchases. I personally do not trust the idea of mailing a money order to someone, with hundreds of Dollars on it and no way to know who is actually receiving it.

The only way I know of to overcome that objection of sending money without knowing who is receiving it his to get to know the person. There are a couple different ways to do this; you can interact with them here on AAPK in the forums and get to know them, you can establish a relationship with them via email or private messaging. The third option I suppose would be to travel to where that person lives or to meet them at a Knife Show or face-to-face, if that is an option agree to both parties. I have done all the above meeting members here, and mostly just for the pleasure of knowing them, knives are just part of out friendship. I do prefer to do business with friends if they have what I want, but I didn't come in to this forum knowing everyone, it took time and interaction with people before I was dealing with friends. I started out dealing with strangers and got to know them as friends.

I do business all the time with people on eBay that I have no idea what their real name is, and with the protection eBay has built-in it has not been a problem. So I usually don't buy thousands of dollars of knives from one seller.

I guess I'm really trying to wrap my head around what your objection is to doing business with strangers and sending them a money order or PayPal. Both are two of the most secure methods of transferring money.
Personally oh, speaking only for myself, I would not take a payment from Western Union because they seem to be used so often in fraudulent schemes, I don't trust them. Maybe that is my own experience with dealing with them but that is my level of discomfort. I also don't use wire transfers as I don't know exactly how they work. We had several of our store members get hit by fraudulent credit card users also and I often get requests from people in the Far East promising to spend lots of money with me if I will take their credit card. The money doesn't tempt me, if they want the knife they can use one of the methods did I accept.

These are my opinions and not this is not necessarily reflective of the opinion of AAPK staff or management or our members.

[XX Case XX]

I personally do not trust the idea of mailing a money order to someone, with hundreds of Dollars on it and no way to know who is actually receiving it.

Okay, now I think I know what you mean. You mean sending a MO to a complete stranger in order to buy a knife from them for the first time. In that case, I feel an electronic form of payment would be in order because now you have a digital record of that transaction.

I, as several here feel, that Pay-Pal is a safe way to go. I understand though, your reluctance to use them given your past experiences.

_________
Mike

[Sharpnshinyknives]

One option I would never consider is receiving a wire transfer or an ACH transfer. I have dealt with both over my 26 year career in Finance and I would not give out my account number or routing number to anyone. In order to receive either an ACH or a wire transfer you would need the account number and routing numbers on both ends of the transaction. Never ever give your information to anyone or institution you don’t know and trust, period!
If anyone is in need of more information on how both of these work I can explain, but don’t want to bore folks with information that they aren’t interested in.

[orvet]

Mark, where does Western Union fit into that?
Is Western Union considered a wire transfer?

[TPK]

I don't like or use PayPal, I don't have checks, I won't mail cash, so my vote is for Visa Card payments. That's all that works for me & from here. Just my 2¢.

[Paladin]

PayPal has never been a problem for me. I not only accept cash in my store, I prefer it.

Ray

[peanut740]

I am wondering how PayPal cheated you.I have made probably a couple thousand PayPal transactions.The only issue I ever had was sending payment to the wrong address(had fat fingers syndrome)and I went in and canceled the transaction.
I do also like the"green salad of salvation" method of payment(cash).

[Xyphos]

What would be great is if more sellers did what many do: the option of using at least two different payment methods. Paypal sucks big donkey balls, it's filled with pitfalls, is hard to deal with directly, too complicated, and flags accounts for dumb reasons. But many people like it. I use M.O.s and send with the US Post Office because if anything goes wrong you're at least partly covered by the Postal Inspector. You may never see your money or products, but at least the thief on the other end will be in potentially serious trouble from a government agency. Keep stubs, receipts, emails, and you can make a good case that a felony has been committed through interstate mail.

[peanut740]

M.O.are ok until some dumbass sends you a a M.O.with only your first name on it,and it is even spelled wrong.Nothing else and also not signed.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

Mark, where does Western Union fit into that?
Is Western Union considered a wire transfer?

Dale, I believe they have their own system for moving funds around that is outside of the banking system. A wire transfer goes through the Federal Reserve. They usually charge 25 dollars, at least that is what we were assessed from them when we wired money. That requires an account on the other end of the transaction. Whereas Western Union will give cash to the person that presents the control number along with ID. It’s a whole separate system of transfers that is internal to WU. But they charge a lot for that, usually 10% of the amount.

[orvet]

Neither system sounds viable for the usual knife sale. Or wire transfer may work if you were buying a $10,000 collection, but it would be prohibitively expensive on a $50 to $100 knife.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

Yes it would Dale, but an ACH is usually free and the preferred way of moving funds. That goes through the Automated Clearing House, which is an internal banking transfer system that all banks are a part of and use. Usually it is moved in about 48 hours so it’s not instant like a wire transfer, but it is free. My problem with doing an ACH is that you have to give the party on the other end your routing number, which is not a big deal, that’s simply a number that identifies the financial institution. But you also have to provide your account number. I’ve seen people get conned into giving someone both numbers and then all a fraudster has to do is forge your name if a signature is required. Problem is a lot these transfers can be done without a signature required and if it is, a criminal isn’t deterred by a forgery charge on their criminal record. That’s why I hold onto that information with a tight grip, I’ve seen what criminals do. In my office no money could be moved without my knowing about it. Me and my staff knew our customers and prevented a lot of them from being ripped off. That kind of personal relationship is missing at the banks now a days. So they don’t know you or your habits or signatures. You need that kind of attention to detail in this day and age. We did that in spades in my brokerage office.

[Lansky1]

My personal experiences is on PayPal I've never had a problem. Two clicks and the transaction is finished. And I've even sent money to individuals without a PayPal account.

sme exact deal here ... never had a problem with PayPal

[Jeffinn]

I like Paypal of course but I also accept personal checks, bank checks and money orders. I even made arrangements for a cash sale (not recommended but sometimes necessary)
So far I have not had a problem.
I'm pretty flexible. It would be nice if our stores could offer a few other credit card options but there's nothing in the current system that prevents anyone from buying a knife if they really want it.
Jeff

[TripleF]

I accept anything you can think of....even booze!!! Buy it at a liquor store near me and I'll pick it up!!

[TPK]

I accept anything you can think of....even booze!!! Buy it at a liquor store near me and I'll pick it up!!