Paypal Help

nds76,

When you set up your PayPal account, they verify that the address you provided also matches the address tied to the bank account and any credit card you submit to PayPal. So, if you wanted to use that PO box for PayPal purchases, you would first need to have your bank statments sent there as well as your credit cards statements.

There are also some sellers on ebay that won't ship to PO boxes. They usually make this clear in their listings.

We have TONS of customers whose address is like this....

Joe Customer
PO Box 1234
9876 Main Street
Anywhere, USA 12345

I think that might be the way around what you're asking since I see it so much. With the PO box first, the PO will put it in there, but PP still sees the same street address so all is good.

Check it out first though, as this entire post is an educated guess.

You use your own address.

I may be doing this real soon. Everyone else gets their mail in the morning and I get mine in the late afternoon.

Time to clear something up about the "nut sellers" who won't ship items to PO Boxes.

USPS is the only carrier which will deliver to a PO Box. USPS is prohibitively expensive for most items over about 3 pounds. Coins are a notable exception, because even in mass quantity (resulting in very heavy packages) you can still fit them into flat rate Priority Mail boxes. Most items, however, don't fit in flat rate boxes.

UPS, FedEx, and DHL all offer rates substantially lower than USPS for heavy packages. On packages under 10 pounds, the savings could be anywhere from $1 to $5 (which is very substantial to a seller). On heavier packages, the savings are significantly more dramatic. I can ship a 30-pound computer for $9 to $25 (depending on what part of the country it's being shipped to). Via USPS, the same shipment costs $30-$55 for Parcel Post. Parcel Post is also significantly slower deliver time than UPS Ground.

Unfortunately, none of these carriers will deliver to PO Boxes. The "nut sellers" have two options. They can either not deliver to PO Boxes, or they can raise their shipping rates significantly. The latter option will result in (1) lower sales prices (due to higher s/h), (2) an increase in emails from annoying bidders asking why s/h is so high (those email really tick me off...if you don't like my price, move along to another seller. Don't email me asking why. Just don't give me your business), (3) lower feedback ratings on the s/h section, and (4) lower feedback ratings in the delivery time section. Results (4) and (5) which will eventually lead to ebay "limiting" the seller's account.

So speaking on behalf of the "nut sellers" who won't ship heavy packages to a PO Box, there is a very good reason for it. Approximately 1 out of every 40 or so customers uses a PO Box. I don't mind losing their sales, since they are so few and far between. I handle the issue a bit differently than the sellers who say they won't ship to PO Boxes, but I have no problem with the sellers who prohibit it.

Here's how I handle shipping heavy items in my listings:

"S/H is $xx.xx via UPS to street addresses within the continental U.S.. Please contact me prior to bidding for USPS shipping quotes to AK, HI, P.O. Boxes, APO, FPO, and U.S. Territories. Please understand that the cost for USPS shipment may be substantially higher than the UPS rate."

Even doing it this way, I've still encountered problems from "nut buyers" who think they are entitled to pay the same rate for USPS service. On two separate occasions, military men tried to give me a "you are scum" sob story for charging higher shipping rates to the soldiers who are out there protecting me. Gimme a break. I support the soldiers, but I'm also a single mom who's eBaying to support my kids. I'm not going to take a loss on my sales to ship to a total stranger, just because he happens to be one of the millions of enlisted Americans fighting for our country. I send plenty of "goody bags" to the soldiers each year. I don't need their guilt trips over my shipping rates.

I don't bid on auctions that ship UPS. Often I am at work and either they deliver the next day if you miss it and sometimes they leave in in the door. And certain items such as coins I don't want left in the door, espcecially in the winter. Basically UPS is inconvenient for me. Brent-Kreuger gives you the option of USPS or UPS and I never select UPS.

Understood mahgobbi, and I have not read every topic that nds has posted about, just this thread. It seems the main concern was coins, and general mail. If there were other posts elsewhere concerning NON-coin related issues with USPS and ebay auctions, then your post would have been better used there was my point. I would guess it was in general discussion since it was NON-coin related.