I think there is some misunderstanding here. The Seller is always the one paying the PayPal fees. What happens of ten on this site is that the seller charges a higher price for a straight commercial transaction than for one between “friends & family”. The Seller then nets the same amount, regardless of whether they sell “commercially” or to a friend.
Obviously, everyone can make their own choice. After all, this is America (mostly). Whether or not this is legal elsewhere I can’t say, but even though PayPal probably wouldn’t like it, they don’t get to define who I consider my “friends”. If a large commercial vendor was using this approach I suspect they would get in trouble, but for the individuals trading things on this site I doubt that PayPal is gonna get their Knickers in a twist.
What is worth asking is if it really is going to make any difference to us, the buyers and spellers on AGN. Given that PayPal policies seem to exclude the use of the service for selling “Guns”, and that there have been many people claiming that PayPal will not help you if you sell an Airgun even if You use the commercial (non F&F) route then it is reasonable to ask why one would ever pay the higher price for protection that might or might not exist. I have yet to see a definitive answer to this question, however there are some hints out there. A number of commercial sites, (just one example being SPAW - only because I purchased some stuff there last night) allow the use of PayPal in their checkout systems. They do not offer a F&F option, nor could they, since they are clearly operating businesses which sell airgun and related products. This they are obviously paying the fee to PayPal every time someone uses that method of payment. I also doubt they would do that if it was not allowed by PayPal due to the product category somehow being one related to firearms. Based on this, I think that for airgun related purchases it is probably safer to pay the fee and that PayPal will likely back you up (as specified in their policies) should there be an issue. Whether or not you choose to do it though is your prerogative.
I am sure there are people who will have examples where PayPal hasn’t helped, or has disallowed a claim because the product was a “gun”. I personally do not find such anecdotal evidence persuasive. There are always examples where something goes wrong, just like the fact that even with two doses of vaccine some people may still get Covid. For the extremely vast majority though PayPal works as it claims it does and the proof of that is just how big and important it has become as a payment processor. You don’t get that big by making it a policy to scam people, at least not in my experience.
The old saying “You pays your money and you makes your choices” applies here. I uses F&F with people I know or have done business with before, or who have a track record on the site. For the others, I’ll go the higher priced route.
Chris
