All About Pocket Knives

Hey,
I just had my PayPal account frozen for selling pocket knives on Ebay and receiving payment for them thru PP.

I read their policy and it says "certain" firearms or knives. Are pocket knives exempted from thieir restriction? What has been your experience?
I have emails into them and am waiting to hear back.

Thanks,
Jack

I just got this back from Paypal:

PayPal prohibits transactions for certain hand weapons or knives that
may be illegal or restricted in some jurisdictions.

Weapons ? PayPal generally prohibits transactions for these types of
weapons:
Nunchaku
Brass or other metal knuckles
Leaded canes, staffs, crutches, or sticks
Zip guns, shurikens or throwing stars
Hand grenades or metal replica hand grenades
Billyclubs or batons, sandclubs, sandbags, or slungshots (also known as
saps or blackjacks)
For other hand weapons, sellers must ensure the weapon is lawful in both
the buyer's and seller's jurisdiction before completing the sale.

Knives ? PayPal generally prohibits transactions for switchblade knives
and disguised knives. A switchblade is any knife resembling a
pocketknife with a blade that can be released automatically or by use of
a trigger. Other names for switchblades include spring-blade knives,
snap-blade knives, gravity knives, and butterfly knives.

A disguised knife is a knife designed to look like a harmless item.
Examples of disguised knives include belt buckle knives, cane swords,
shobi-zue, lipstick case knives, air gauge knives, and writing pen
knives.

Other Related Items ? PayPal prohibits transactions for destructive
devices and the sale of military equipment or supplies that violate laws
or regulations in the buyer's or seller's jurisdiction.

If you have any questions, please contact the PayPal Acceptable Use
Policy Department at [email protected].

Sincerely,
PayPal Acceptable Use Policy Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

Jack,
What did you sell that triggered this response?

Phil

One more reason I HATE PayPal!!!!!!!!! I believe it's illegal to ship a knife to the UK - now.

You know, I am with you on this, Hukk!!
They are ALWAYS adverse to the seller and their fees have become exorbitant. I guess these rules apply to our on-line stores, too. That would mean if I sell a flipper out of my store and they discover what it is, they would or could suspend my account. Does that mean they will confiscate my money?
I wish there was an alternative!!

Ray

Well, they are not a bank so banking laws, regulations, and rules do not apply to them. I'm opening a store but may cancel my PayPal account. Oversized and overbearing. I have knives with ivory and so forth - so - they gotta GO! Money Orders and Cashiers checks work just fine.

Phil, I was only selling ordinary folding pocket knives, nothing exotic. I think they just wanted me to jump through
their hoops and make sure i understood the restrictions. I agreed to comply with their acceptance policy and they
activated my account again.

They may just routinely do this with knifesellers to keep us on their short leash.

I used to buy and sell a lot of knives on E-Bay. Not any more. I always used USPS Money orders as a method of payment and never got any complaints from any of the sellers. Just another way that PayPal (e-Bay) uses to squeeze more money, out of the very people that made them successful in the first place!!

OK....I'm done now.

Griz

So far, I haven't had any problems accepting paypal payments for pocket knives so far. If the general public would quit demonizing pocket knives it would sure make it easier on the rest of us.

James

Problem isn't the general public demonizing knives, but the media doing their usual fear mongering for ratings and politicians eager to score easy points by "protecting" citizens.

The general public is simply too stupid to recognize this.

I haven't sold anything on ebay as of this time, but have made a few buys (so far they've been satisfactory). They keep wanting me to register and let them blindly access my checking account, NO WAY ebay.

I've never had them freeze my account for selling knives but thier restrictions make no sense. Ebay/paypal are as communist as it gets. I pay by money order whenever I can, and prefer to be paid by money order. I have had my bouts with them over various transactions. I sold a bow, and the guy claimed it was damaged, they froze my account immediately. I bought a knife, waited 4 weeks no knife, filed a dispute and they didn't do a thing to the seller. As I was saying, communism at its best.

There is a HUGE conflict of interest here. eBay owns PayPal or vice versa. When you list an item on eBay you MUST agree to take PayPal. If you put anything in your description about preferring checks or Money Orders, they will take it out or take your listing down. I have over 1500 positive eBay feedbacks from mostly selling paper items like photos & postcards and of course I have sold and bought knives there, some from our AAPK members. In the past you could tell who you were bidding against. Now with the coded system only the seller knows who everyone is. Lately I've not used eBay to sell. It IS a huge venue. Too bad it has deteriorated like it has. Like the man said, "it's too bad there isn't a better alternative."

I like PayPal as a buyer because it's easy (no trips to the Post Office) and I can get frequent flyer miles from the charges on my Alaska Airlines Visa Card. I don't let them take money directly out of my bank account! I change the charge to my credit card. I DON"T like Pay Pal as a seller because of the 3% commission they charge. I can't blame my buyers for liking it for the same reason I do.

Don Franklin

I started selling on e-bay in 98. I sold some I wish I had not. Getting back to e-bay and pay pal their fees just keep on getting higher. I still buy an occasional knife,but do not sell any more. I had to remove one that had tortise shell handles. Good place to buy if you're careful. Bad place to sell. JMO

I just closed my LAST two Ebay auctions. Neither went for as much as I think they should have and the fees are too high. 7% for Ebay and 4% for Pay Pal takes a lot of profit even if you get a good final auction price. Not as many folks looking at AAPK stores but I like a fixed price sale rather than an auction. I'll never sell on Ebay again.

DF

With all the hacking and stuff going on, I am wondering if it is safe to use PayPal? For a couple of months, everytime I logged onto eBay I got a page that needed all my personal info like social security number, date of birth, credit card numbers, etc. and it looked like it was from eBay. I could not get past the page so I started asking questions at eBay's Safe Harbor and the techs could not give me an answer. I did not give out my info instead I downloaded a antispyware program and ran it on my pc. That took away the fake eBay page. I can get on the real eBay now but what a hassle that was. I don't go onto any online banking nor PayPal now. I don't think I want to chance it anymore.

I sent 2 emails that were phishers to [email protected] and BOTH were confirmed. They sent an email about my account being closed and to please click a link and fill out a form. DON'T fall for this because you would have just given a phisher (a form of hacker) your personal ID to fill out new credit cards in your name. The url was wrong AND they did not know my full name - SO I knew that these were fakes and were shut down after I sent them to the above address.

A phisher - they are sending out fake emails that look like paypal and ebay and are fishing for information. - They hope you fall for it and give them your personal information.

pointythings wrote:Problem isn't the general public demonizing knives, but the media doing their usual fear mongering for ratings and politicians eager to score easy points by "protecting" citizens.
The general public is simply too stupid to recognize this.

This stood out to me reading your post. "protecting" citizens

I hear cops saying this all the time. They are PROTECTING US.... or B.S. They will not do any thing untill after a grime has happened. But yet they make you think they protect by ridding around in those cop car is pertecting us. They know where all the drug houses are but still can't shut them down or won't.

OOPS sorry I stop bad mouthing cops for now...

It's not true that Ebay forces you to take Paypal, this is a common misunderstanding. What they are doing is forcing you to take (or say you take ) some form of credit card. You can select seller credit cards and not list Paypal at all. I have found that if you do not have an upgraded Paypal account that odd things will keep happening to you until you upgrade, then weird things happen only occasionally. I used to hate Paypal/Ebay until I started using their Mailing service and checkout system. I really like the way it keeps track of your transactions, it automatically puts peoples addresses on the shipping labels, I get tracking for 18cents instead of 65 and the shipping rates are cheaper. plus I can ship first class mail online which you can't do even at the post office website. priority is the lowest rate you can go at USPS.com.

I held out on upgrading my Paypal account for 2 years because I didn't want to give them that 4 %. They make all of their $$ on bank transfers and paypal account transfers. If people use credit cards, Paypal's profit goes way down because they have to pay the credit companies a few percent.

I think that ebay in many cases is a fantastic place to sell things but they are Commies and could really improve things, Paypal was way better when they were independent but I love that Paypal shipping. take care, ch

Ebay doesn't appeal to me anymore. It has become a regulated monster of its own making.

Jingler wrote:Ebay doesn't appeal to me anymore. It has become a regulated monster of its own making.

Even to me. A few weeks lately my credit card had consumed some credits that I was not supposed to be used. That Ebay site has lots of victim now a days and its gonna be more if its not prosecuted with the laws.

Jingler wrote:Ebay doesn't appeal to me anymore. It has become a regulated monster of its own making.

15 little words tells the Whole Story...... I could never disagree with the above quote...

BH

Guess I better be careful.......that's where I do all my knife sales.

Not taking up for Ebay at all, I too agree that it has many problems. To that point, the 7% from ebay and 4% from paypal are not that unreasonable when compared to any local auction (usally 20% of sell price). Plus you reach many more potential buyers through Ebay than your local auction. Many local auction houses charge a 10% premium to the buyer. I sell on Ebay for Items I want a larger audience for or want to generate some quick cash to buy other things. I sell alot of my knives and other stuff at Flea Markets but it takes alot longer to move the product.

I buy but have never sold on EBAY but the 11% EBAY and Pay Pal fee is much less than live auctions or even other online auction sites that I've checked into