08-01-2009, 12:46 PM
Seems like most willfull fraud would occur whether there is a contract or not. Ebay set-up to be a contract, and so is paypal. Send an invoice through Paypal, (or receive one) and you've got the same protection that a contract would offer.The only truly safe way to do it is in-person, or thru escrow.A "small claims" type escrow service would be awesome. If I'm buying a mask, I could pay the escrow service, and the seller won't get money until their item is received in escrow. Of course for many mask makers sellers, they're using the money you send to actually make the product, so escrow (or in-person cash transactions) wouldn work for them if they need that money up-front.The problem with Paypal is that it doesn't truly document shipping.. there's no way to know if an item is truly in a package or not, but as long as it's used correctly.. (ie- ship only to a registered address, get tracking, get insurance, and use within their time constraints) you are about as safe as you're going to get with a long distance transaction.Paypal is safe as hell for the buyer, but less so for the seller. A buyer may claim that something arrived damaged, or a box arrived empty, and there's little you can do to fight that except in small claims, and even there, it's a risk that you won't be able to prove the item changed hands because it turns into a he-said,she-said argument.However, Paypal WILL stick up for the seller if they get "paypal protection" on their sales, and follow the guidelines they stipulate.. At that point, your reputation of good business through PayPal will help you. That's another reason I wont deal out-of-country unless I have great trust in the receiving party; it's too easy to file a weird unenforceable claim that will not only rip you off, but stays on record as YOU performing a bad trade, which can look bad for your case when a dispute arises.