7 Stringer":ecizvt56 said:
The thing that frustrates me is we all get ripped off in the end, buyer and seller. We should all be able to sell our gear within ourselves and not being charged for it. Fuck, i can feel my money being pulled out of my pockets daily.
Well, we didn't used to have this problem as all transactions were done locally in cash. You can still do this via craigslist. In fact, it's better than the old days, as then you frequently had to pay for an ad in the local paper and it'd take months to sell something. Craigslist is free, thought it still will probably take months. I bought and sold plenty this way in the early days.
Around here we get to advertise to the entire world for free. The problem is getting cash. In the US, it's still pretty easy to send a check which costs nothing. Now, it only takes a couple of days to clear, so that is an option. Money orders still exist and are far cheaper than paypal. There are alternatives, but exchanging money long distance is something that is going to require either some inherent risk for both buyer and seller and it's going to cost something to move the money. It always has cost something to send money. It's just that it's been something most of us haven't had to deal with.
Heck, if you want to cut out paypal, then what you really need is to make bank-to-bank transfers more common/easier in the US. It's done throughout most of the developed world. We have an archaic banking system. Hence, why we have to pay a third party to easily move money around. (It can be done, but we don't very often for various reasons.)