In a message dated 2/10/05 1:04:37 PM, chuckphoto@EARTHLINK.NET writes:

<< Would you purchase from an individual that:

Does not accept Pay-pal, credit cards, or personal checks....   ...
and...will only accepts money orders..... >>

By far the worst way to submit payment to an unknown is by way of a personal
check.  The individual might be in business solely to harvest your all
important bank account number.

In my experience, PayPal is fine as long as you do not have any problems with
the execution of the transaction, but to look to PayPal for assistance is
like pissing in the wind.  While I won't mention any names here, a list parts
dealer recently told me that his bank account number had been gleaned from PayPal
creating such a fiscal morass that it has taken him weeks to straighten it
out and cost him more than a little lost revenue.

For at-distance transactions with private individuals (eBay, etc.) I think
the best vehicle for the payment is a USPS money order, not just any money
order, a USPS money order.  Postal inspectors really do take mail fraud seriously
and they have to do something to while away their time.  Also, the parties on
both ends of the transaction are protected.  In the worst case, should the deal
get queered you will get your money back minus a very reasonable processing
fee of a couple bucks.

Money order anecdotes:

My Sweetheart and I wanted to surprise our son with a Batboy T-shirt.  That's
the Batboy who was found living in a cave in West Virginia and who was
featured on the cover of Weekly World News at the checkout counter of your friendly
neighborhood supermarket, not the prepubescent Batman.  Since the tabloid did
not take Am Ex, we dutifully sent off a money order, purchased at a
convenience store, in the amount of $19.99.  After weeks of waiting, we learned that the
Batboy publishing house was in the same building in Florida as the weekly rag
which had suffered an anthrax scare and that our order was lost.  When we
went to file a claim, the issuer wanted a $15 filing fee -- we didn't even bother
to go through the process.  Lesson learned.

My son (again, my son) sent away for an obscure, industrial rock CD
collection, real "classic" stuff.  The merchant accepted no charge cards, so the tab of
about $80 was paid with a USPS money order.  After more than a few weeks and
after leaving several messages on an answering machine in North Jersey which
had a thick Russian accent, my wife filed a claim with the Post Office.  She
had to fill out a one page form and pay a fee of a couple of bucks.  The day the
claim check arrived so did the original money order from the guy to whom we
had sent it.

George