How do you purchase credits through PayPal?

I have never ordered credits through anything but the PBS kiosk and see some great deals from members.  I was just wondering what the process is and if it's too risky to order that way.

It works as follows:

• The person that is selling the credits gives you her email address
• You go to Paypal and transfer the money to this email (I believe you must choose it as gift so the other person doesn't get charged a fee but somebody who has done it through this method can confirm.)
• Once the seller receives the money, they buddy you the credits.

Regarding safety, just make sure that the seller is somebody active on PBS (which you can see by the number of posts, whether they have a profile, etc.) Most PBS users are honest people and they won't swindle you although I wouldn't try to buy 100 credits at once. :)

BTW...if you need credits, I'm selling some but I only take Amazon Gift Cards. It works pretty much the same as Paypal, but you just buy a gift card for the amount and send it to the seller's email address.

(I believe you must choose it as gift so the other person doesn't get charged a fee but somebody who has done it through this method can confirm.)

I haven't bought or sold credits, but this is not a "must."

Most if not all sellers request that you do this in order to avoid fees which eat into their earnings. However, it's not really a gift, and is technically against the PayPal User Agreement

4.1 Receiving Personal Payments. If you are selling goods or services, you may not ask the buyer to send you a Personal Payment for the purchase. If you do so, PayPal may remove your ability to accept Personal Payments.

When I used to sell credits, I asked for an Amazon gift card. No fees.  You would just use the email they have tied to their Amazon account (like you do with Paypal) and then Amazon sends the seller an email with a code to put into their account. Super easy. 

I've bought and sold credits, and D.G. explained the process well.  I'd just like to reiterate the importance of checking out the seller.  My personal guidelines are:

1.  Seller must be a member for a year or more.

2.  Seller must have a public profile showing number of books received and sent, and the numbers of each must be 25 or more.

3.  Seller must have at least 20 posts other than those in the book bazaar.

I believe on paypal if you list it as a purchase, there won't be fees.

Good point, Sophia. I know most people that use PayPal do this but it's good to point out that they probably shouldn't.

That's why I use Gift Cards too, Mary. It's really less hassle and anyways, I use the money to get more books.

The Amazon gift card is a great idea, didn't even consider that as an option or realize it was so simple.

Marsha, really like your criteria for checking out a seller and appreciate the heads up on members who have a 'public profile' but their number of transactions are private. It always made us curious why someone would do that. We hope you don't mind but we are curious why the number of non book baazar posts, or any posts, is a deciding factor? The reason for our question is that we are not very active on the boards, over the course of almost three years we still do not have 20 posts. We never realized that this could possibly be a problem and make us look risky. Do most people consider forumn posts when deciding on member's trustworthiness?

Apologies to Courtney for going a bit off-topic here.

I look at the forum posts to give me an idea of how often a member is on PBS.   Personally, I'm less concerned about the number of posts than I am about the number of books, both coming and going. 

I know that many folks keep the book numbers private due to past occasions where people were harassed when their numbers are unequal.  But I do want to know that about someone I'm trusting to give me credits after I've paid them. 

I do expect members to make book numbers public while offering to sell credits.  I'm fine with them changing it back to private afterwards.

When I was a new member, I purchased from individuals a few times. It always went smoothly. Recently I sold some for the first time, and that went smoothly too. We both happened to be online early in the a.m., and the whole transaction was concluded within 5 minutes. :-)

The Amazon GC in exchange for credits idea is a good one, avoid fees and use it to buy more books to post into the system!

Thank you all for the information - these are things I wouldn't have thought to look at and will do so more carefully.  I don't mind buying credits through the kiosk, but when you can get a deal like many post, it's always nice!!

Ron & Dawn--

I don't know what criteria other people have.  I like to look at several posts that the seller has written to get a little flavor of his or her personality.  I guess it's a way to measure whether or not a member has a good PBS reputation that they wouldn't want to tarnish by ripping me off.  I've only bought credits 3 or 4 times, but each time there were several sellers to choose from.  I don't necessarily buy the lowest priced credits--I consider both price and the seller's reputation.

While I do judge a member based partly on what they've written, I don't have to agree with their political, religious, moral views.  I'm just looking for someone who can express themselves rationally and politely.

I've purchased credits about three times and have always had good luck with people. I've never had anybody rip me off.  I have a good stock of credits built up now  so maybe I won't need to buy any more.  For a while there books where coming available to me faster than I could get my current books out of the house.  I haven't had any books coming to me for a while even though I am number one on several.

>>>I've never had anybody rip me off<<<

Neither have I.  I have needed to buy credits, as well as send some.

How does Amazon gift card work?  I just purchase it and put the recipient's email in?  Are there any fees?

And vice-versa, if someone wants to pay me with Amazon gift card, do they just need my email addrress?

How does Amazon gift card work?  I just purchase it and put the recipient's email in?  Are there any fees?

It works exactly as you described. There are no fees.

And vice-versa, if someone wants to pay me with Amazon gift card, do they just need my email addrress?

All they need is the email associated with your Amazon account. Then they send you the gift card and then you redeem it.