All About Pocket Knives

hi all -

hoping for some help here as the 3% fee here, not to mention the ability sell autos, ROCKS!

i have experience selling on ebay, in fact, i have exceeded 10k of sales within the last 90 days, and have a 100% seller rating. that being said, i am not a business. its just little ole me and my lifetime of collecting that i'm trying to scale waaaaay back.

i signed up for paypal to use here, and they allowed me to process my first sale, buyer paid, i shipped and then i see a notice from paypal about they need more information. long story short, they thought i was a business. they denied me from using their service as "high risk" which to be fair, i understand as i didn't have receipts for my "inventory" dating back 20+ years that i have been collecting. i did attempt to explain this to them when i submitted what documentation i did have, but alas no luck.

now, it seems my $ is on hold for 180 days. that's not cool, but the main upset is how to continue to sell on this platform?

can i use other things such as authorize.net or square as a person not a business? what do other people selling here do? or is everyone selling here a business or set up as such?

i really hope to resolve this. i have sold close to 150 knives here (ebay not aapk) and have well more than 200 left to go. id just love to sell here as i really enjoy the whole community-like aspect and hey, that 3% doesn't hurt

thanks so much for any and all feedback
maryj1985

Hopefully PayPal will reinstate your account before the 180 days Have they gave any indication that the additional info you've provided will be further reviewed?

Square would be an option, but I think Authorize.net would be too costly for your situation as they charge monthly fees that would necessitate higher volume to make it cost effective.

If PayPal reinstates you &/or if you open a Square account, I'd advise not using their services for automatic knives. They've been known to close or restrict accounts of sellers who take payment for them.

Money orders are an option for some, but AAPK has a set of requirements that must be met before we can allow that form of payment...
https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/ca ... quirements

Also, in regards to selling Autos; please note that AAPK currently has a policy that sellers are responsible for adhering to all applicable State, Local & Federal laws.

A good resource for what is & is not legal in regards to selling autos is AKTI's website...

https://www.akti.org/state-laws-regarding-automatics/

https://www.akti.org/federal-switchblade-act/

Hey there,

Thanks so much for the response. I’m just gonna have to keep looking into my different options I guess. Or start a business to be fully compliant to the requirements. Just read about how the state of KY allows you to set up as an LLC for just $40. That seems like a whole lot off effort and time to do tho.

I did notice where they allow sellers to set up to accept money orders. Have you any experience with that? That’s what I’m planning to look into next.

As far as appealing to PayPal, I am pretty sure it’s a dead end. I’m just glad the day I posted I got sidetracked and only did one!

Mary

maryj1985 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 7:18 am hi all -

hoping for some help here...

can i use other things such as authorize.net or square as a person not a business? what do other people selling here do? or is everyone selling here a business or set up as such?

thanks so much for any and all feedback
maryj1985

I second what Brian mentioned...

Bryan wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:11 pm
Square would be an option, but.... if you open a Square account, I'd advise not using their services for automatic knives. They've been known to close or restrict accounts of sellers who take payment for them.

I came across this post and wanted to second what Bryan is telling you regarding Square. I have used Square instead of a credit card merchant service to accept payments from many of my automotive business' customers for several years without issue....until the pandemic struck. During which time I began to dabble in knives and was able to collect on several knife sales. Then one day my Square account was terminated without recourse, specifically for selling knives. Now I have their equipment that I bought which has been rendered useless.
I haven't sold any knives recently but plan to soon. I imagine having to still utilize my PayPal from time to time but going forward I plan to use "Zelle" (*without fees) whenever possible.
Here's the link to find out if your bank has partnered with Zelle to process P2P (peer-to-peer) transfers.
https://www.zellepay.com/get-started