I sold an auto part cpl months ago and the guy talked me into using paypal (first time selling through paypal). It did not go good. Only $300 and cost me several fees that wasn't supposed to and getting the $ was ridiculous with many phone calls so I said never paypal again.
PayPal is usually a safe payment method, and is essentially the default when selling things on Ebay. They do charge a 2.9%+30 cents seller fee, but that's about average for any payment service. Even credit card transactions have this fee, the company just absorbs it into the cost of the product so you don't see it. That's why some places have minimum purchases when using a credit card.
I try not to keep any money in my PayPal account. Once a sale is complete, I transfer the money to my checking account. If someone should hack into my PayPal account, they won't get much.
I don't understand the part about many phone calls. You post an item for sale, someone says they'll buy it, you ship it once payment arrives. No payment, no sale. Whoever pays first gets it. If a buyer is slow to pay, I just assume they don't want the item and move on. I'm not going to waste my time calling people back. If they want it, they'll pay for it.
You do have to be consider the various fees when selling on Ebay though. There is a seller fee for selling on Ebay, then they take a percentage of the sale, then PayPal has their seller fee, then you have shipping costs. I usually don't bother unless an item is worth at least $50 or so.
I've never used them, but there are other payment methods like Venmo or Zelle that might work better for you.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/faq-send-money-individual/
So I'm selling another auto part today $2000 and everyone told me to just have the individual wire the $ into my account which I gave him my info it's supposed to happen this morn. I called my bank just to let them know and dang, you'd thought I committed a national crime! After being whipped for 15min I told them to transfer the bulk $ out of the account into another acct, where I then received another 30 lashes from DW because she has $ going into and out of that account for bills.
I would never give out my bank account information to anyone. If I was even going to consider that I would open a dedicated checking account that was only used for that purpose, then immediately transfer any money that comes in to my main account.
Such a pia. I rarely sell things but on the verge of just throwing it in the trash in the future.
Yeah, selling used items can be a pain. I don't do it a lot, but occasionally sell items in person using Craigslist (Cash only, no exceptions), or on Ebay (if the value minus fees is worth it). If I can't earn a profit of at least $25 or so after fees, I just donate it (or throw it out if it's worn out or of little use to anyone else).
COVID is complicating things right now. I have boxes of stuff to take to Goodwill, but their donation centers are currently closed due to COVID. I have some larger items to sell that would cost too much to ship, but don't want to do in person right now. So, I just need to hang on to this stuff until the crisis is over.