stu352 Loc: MA/RI Border

I'm ready to part with some old photo gear. What's the preferred safe and fair payment method when you have to ship your items, as opposed to meeting in person? I don't have PayPal, Venmo, or any of those.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Depends how you're selling the equipment - in person, ebay, UHH, etc. If you have a bank account, you can open up a free PayPal account, but of course they take a percentage of the amount sent to you, so factor that into the pricing. Most buyers are more comfortable with PayPal, if you are dealing with them remotely. Even if you meet in person with a cash sale, you have to be careful they don't run away with the equipment without paying - I've heard those horror stories. If you sell on ebay, ebay holds the funds until you ship the item and it is received via the tracking number. There may be additional hold time for other reasons. But once the hold period is over, the money is direct deposited to your bank account - ebay takes a hefty 12-15% of the sale. If you are selling directly via Craigslist or UHH PayPal is usually preferred. You can accept money orders if you want, but I would avoid personal checks at all costs, otherwise you will have to wait for it to clear which could take up to a few days.Verify with your bank that the check did clear.

KenCan Loc: Allen, TX

Zelle -- quick, easy and no charge - all based on trust. Private message the buyer and make the arrangements

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Paypal. I use only Paypal. You should use Paypal too. Did I mention you should consider Paypal.

BebuLamar

I sold my X-Rite 810 densitometer to a fellow UHH. He just sent me a check. It's good. I don't have to lose 3% paypal fee. Trust is important. The gentleman sent me more money than my asking price.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Yes, PayPal, and pay the 3% because if you cheat and do the free “friends & family” mode you have no recourse if something’s not right, especially important if you’re the buyer.

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

I’ve never had a problem sending or receiving PayPal funds.

andesbill

My PayPal account was hacked a few days ago. They changed my password, got into my phone and hijacked my eSIM, so I couldn’t phone in or react to two factor authentication. My face let me get in, so Face ID is useless. My password was the huge strong one suggested by Apple- also useless, as of course was two factor authentication.

The thief created a debit and a credit card on PayPal. Using the debit card he/she transferred $1000 from my bank to PayPal. We caught this before any damage was done. Online, I notified PayPal that I was hacked, to stop transferring money from my bank, and to close down the card so that the thief couldn’t withdraw any money from the new PayPal account.
I was ignored. PayPal allowed the thief to try and withdraw $4000 from my bank, it didn’t happen, because we had already notified our bank about the hack.
The next day PayPal allowed the thief to use the unauthorized debit card to pay for a t-mobile bill (we use Verizon), and another purchase. PayPal also allowed the thief to use the unauthorized credit card to make a purchase at Walgreen’s in the Bronx (I live in Florida).
I of course disputed the purchases, but I was denied because they said that it was in line with my other uses of PayPal, it wasn’t.
I had to reach a supervisor for debit card at PayPal to get someone to listen to me. They are now taking me seriously (at least for the debit card- the credit bill is another hassle altogether).
So now they are checking my story with t-mobile and the other place.
PayPal cannot be trusted. This whole mess, including dealing with them, my password, Verizon, my bank, and the 3 credit exchanges has eaten up maybe 6 hours so far, with no end in sight.
I can’t close PayPal down until this is finished. Be very careful if you use PayPal.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

My town set up a spot in the police parking lot for exchanges for on line buying or selling. I'm assuming it's heavily photographed. Check around your area or suggest it at a town meeting

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

PayPal is the default payment method for online selling. It offers protections for both buyer and seller, although they're biased toward the buyer. If you're going to sell online, you have to have a PayPal account.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

So many scammer out there, protect yourself

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Yes PayPal is not foolproof, so hacks like this can occur, but they are usually done with weaknesses outside of PayPal - for example, using public WiFi (or other unsecured WiFi) is very dangerous especially without a VPN. In these cases, they intercept the session cookies (aka "persistent cookies" or cached session data) which allows them to gain access to your account on another device without even knowing a password or user id (with this hack 2FA, MFA and strong passwords are irrelevant). Once they gain access they can spend, transfer money, change passwords, add their own emails, etc. One way to avoid this hack is to avoid public or insecure WiFi like the plague. Many of these hacks happen at Starbucks, cafes, public libraries and airports. I am usually against VPNs on the PC at home, but on mobile devices they are more critical if you use public networks on mobile devices/laptops. Better to use your own portable WiFi device, with a VPN, and secure WiFi passwords. Also, never select "stay logged in" on mobile devices - that places a persistent cookie on your app that can last up to 30 days! Always completely log off when done using the app. These hacks happen with bank accounts too all the time.

What some folks do is have TWO mobile devices - one to connect to the net, and the other, usually a SIM-less smartphone, that connects via your own WiFi. This is a more secure setup, especially with a VPN which is recommended in these mobile cases. For voice calls they can use Skype or other similar messenger service (may cost a few bucks $$$).

andesbill

I did everything right (except 2 phones). If they want to, they’ll get you.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Yeah but hackers are lazy too and they rely more on the low hanging fruits first (don't be the low hanging fruit!) - it's very easy for them to intercept wifi data streams with a laptop and a network card on the USB port. Most people don't have secure connections and even though session data is encrypted at one level, it is used to directly access accounts which is the real problem - it's convenient not having to re-login every time but it's also like leaving the keys to your house on a Starbucks table with a note "come rob me at 123 Main St".

They also use social engineering and security weaknesses at the mobile companies for SIM swapping hacks - that is the other technique that is popular these days. They call the mobile company pretending to be you and enable a new SIM card on their device using YOUR number.

Rarely will they use the "brute force" code cracking as you see in the movie Swordfish (good one if you haven't). Most hackers don't have the computing resources to crack a 23+ character password, or even break into a bank's network. Even the NSA doesn't have those resources, but they use other means which are even easier if they want to but they usually exploit something that is "low hanging". You should still use super long passwords, 2FA/MFA, multiple back up emails, but just don't make the mistake of leaving your keys on the table, so to speak.

Some PayPal tips to prevent financial disaster - only link bank accounts that have low balances with NO OVERDRAFT to the PayPal account. Have two bank accounts (or more, at several banks) - one where you store the funds, and the other linked to PayPal. You never share the primary account with anyone, and don't write any checks against it, or have any debit cards. You use the secondary account to transfer funds to as needed, or transfer into the main account for a store of funds, or use a debit card with. For credit cards, don't link high balance credit cards to PP. These tips will also prevent PP from getting stupid with any "fines" or "penalties" as was talked about in the news last year. Even if a hacker cracks into your PP, they will have access to only limited funds.

Stan Fayer

I have made several purchases using a personal check, waiting for it to clear and then receiving my purchase. No problems