How to sell properly through PayPal without eBay?

To point out I think this is ok to post, if not I will take it down.

I have a listing on eBay (a near complete 1st edition neo destiny set) and I have a buyer lined up willing to pay no problem.

Now he wants to do the deal directly through PayPal so he can save a few bucks with customs. Which is fair enough. However I have a few concerns which I could do with some advice about it as I haven’t done it before.

The sale would be $625 but he wants me to declare them as $100 and as a gift. Is this ok? He lives in Canada(I’m from The UK) and said he’s willing to take the risk if customs asks for an invoice. Which would read $625 and not $100.

Also quite recently I sold a team rocket set on eBay to someone else. The buyer said they were fake and made a claim through PayPal and not eBay. I provided all my evidence to show they were real but lost the claim and had to refund them.
Although a rare case I don’t like the idea of someone else doing the same thing and making a claim, especially through PayPal. I wouldn’t stand a chance. So I feel uncomfortable at the moment.

What im asking is, is this safe to do? And is there a proper way to do this? Any tips and advice would be appreciated.

Maybe if he sends the payment PayPal family/friends 624.00 then a separate 1.00 goods payment so you can print a shipping label.
How’s that sound?

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Ask him to pay $525 and $100 seperately. He can show the $100 transaction on further inspection of customs.

As for your lost Paypal claim, I would not give up that easily.
I would at least try to call Ebay and Paypal and explain what happend, altho most of the times they will side with the buyer.
Unfortunately it is the way it is and I honestly hate Ebay for almost always siding with buyers, that’s why I try to avoid Ebay as much as I can. I think you have a better chance winning the claim or getting the claim revised through Paypal.

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I feel you. If you don’t offer PayPal, your listing won’t show up on the US and other language-based eBay’s, thus losing out on a ton of customers. It’s risky to offer PayPal though, because claims are very rarely going to be in the favor of the seller. I, personally, would not send the cards as a gift and declare a value of 100$, just because on the off-chance the package gets lost, you’d want to have it insured.

Btw, isn’t 625$ for a near-complete 1st Edition Neo Destiny Set a little cheap? Depending on what cards are missing and how good the condition is.

Sound advice with the friends and family PayPal everyone. I might do that.
As for the price the set doesn’t include any shinings and is missing 7 holos. Id rather sell them as grading them would take too long and cost a bit. If you want to search and have a look then by all means do.

@joseph88

If you don’t feel safe shipping with lower declared values that’s totally fine, every seller has right to mark full value for insurance reasons if something goes sour during delivery. However @robbiegrass 's 525/100 split sounds like a good plan especially if you can get payments as f&f.

as much as the friends and family option is a thing, it’s also against paypal rules to do so for selling things and can get you fined up to 1000 dollars for evading fees…

$1000?! I couldn’t find that anywhere on PayPal terms and conditions, do you have a link on that?

I’ve seen a few people get caught for evading fees, but they have only gotten limitations on their account, no fine.

It’s something i heard in my time on deviantArt. I guess punishments depend on how much money is involved an wether it is a first or repeat offence.

Living in Canada I’ve never had customs ask for an invoice for an item when receiving. The most they would do is just slap a customs fee sticker on the package depending on the declared value of the item and he’ll have to pay for it at the door. I honestly think they’re way too busy to actually investigate a $100 package that says pokemon cards and see if it’s worth more or not. But like others have said just get him to send as f/f and do the $525/$100 split and you’ll both be safe and fine.

Final update. I refused to do it through PayPal as I plainly didn’t like the option.

I told him this and didn’t accept the deal. However 10 minutes later he bought it through eBay for more money. Good for me. And I saw how much he had to pay extra with eBay’s GSP, $30. Which included customs and postage.

He just wanted to save a bit with the excuse of customs, in the end he just wasted both our time.

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Have the whole payment sent friends and family mark on the customs form a $20 gift and they should not get any custom fees. Have a $1 sent goods if you want to print a label. This is the only way I will ship internationally now since my last transaction the package got lost according to the buyer even USPS said it was delivered but I had no choice to refund. Or I use GSP which a lot of people I know don’t like but it protects me and the buyer.

It would be easy to do:

Divide the value in two:

  • Amount paid by friends and family (Buyer would transfer first)
  • Amount remaining, bellow import limit for Canada (You would create a receipt through Paypal with detailed description of the item you are selling) - You would send this invoice for payment

If the package would stop in customs and they asked the buyer to provide the receipt, he would have one stating exactly what he had purchase and bellow the value limit.

With that amount maybe sending though a courrier, its safer, or at least more trackable when sending internationally.