Re: Participation and PayPal

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

We DEFINITELY want to have PayPal as an option this year.  After going 
through the pain to send money to other countries, it's clear that the 
upcharge of 5-10% is miniscule compared to the $1+ international money 
order charges.  At worst, we could up it to $5.50 for Paypal, but I'd 
suggest just eating the 50 cents.

David Lass, AGA treasurer, was going to look into this.  It will be very 
easy for him to communicate back to me/us that payments were received 
(essentially I am already using this sort of "method" to find out when 
people ordered videotapes from Jack O'Leary by mistake -- he mails me and 
tells me who bought them).

If David doesn't have the time, Dave V, me, or someone else on the contest
list could easily set up a business account to accept payments just for 
the contest.

  - Erik

On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, Dave VanderWall wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm just proof-reading the brochure and got to the part about "credit
> card payments cannot be accepted," which made me think of the PayPal
> discussions, some of which I believe occurred off-list (probably my
> fault).

> 
> Is PayPal not going to be accepted this year?  Someone should just say
> so, rather than quietly ignoring it.  I have a PayPal account and would
> be willing to test things out with the party receiving the funds, which
> probably isn't even an issue.
> 
> Maybe one of the problems here is that Erik is expected to do almost
> everything.  I think he enjoys it, don't get me wrong.  But Erik is
> doing all of the scanning, receiving all of the checks and postal money
> orders, doing all of the web programming/re-programming, testing,
> shepherding, graphics, etc., etc., etc.  No offense to James (or myself)
> here, just that we all know and accept that Erik is a busy man who still
> finds time to make it all happen.
> 
> I would be willing to accept the PayPal payments, but I'm not sure how
> comfortable that would be for all parties involved.  I would not take
> any offense if I was rejected in favor of someone closer to the
> organization.  Who, though?
> 
> Participation should go up somewhat proportional to the ease of access,
> and PayPal is one of those little details that might get someone to
> participate who wouldn't ordinarily go down to the post office to get a
> money order.  PayPal is international.  Since cost would probably go
> down as participation goes up (at the $5 US charge), things like the 1%
> fee that PayPal collects for international users should be negligible.
> Here's how it breaks down:
> 
> $5 to start
> 2.9% + 30¢ PayPal fee (US/Canadian) = 45¢
> + 1% for international users = 50¢
> 
> So the $5 turns into $4.50 at the worst.  Someone correct me that looks
> wrong.  I'm basing this off of having a Premier or Business account, not
> a personal account.  A personal account would be free (or just the 1%
> fee for international users), but I'm not sure it would be entirely
> ethical since this isn't really a "personal" thing we're doing here.  I
> suppose one could argue either way.
> 
> So is it worth 50 cents per entry for more participation, or is there
> something to be said for quality versus quantity?  I trust we are no
> longer fearful of exceeding the 300 entry limit, but we should really be
> shooting for it all the same.  I know everyone is busy, but can't we
> find some time to make this happen?  If the AGA (or even just the
> contest) was set up with PayPal we could start accepting credit cards,
> which makes things easier and gives even more access to folks.  Perhaps
> the real issue here is that Erik would be the most logical choice to be
> the payee, and I know Erik is very busy and already responsible for a
> boatload of other things.
> 
> Sorry for talking about you in the third person, Erik. :-)  I just
> wanted to re-state my point here along with some of the details.  Tell
> me to shut up any time, because I'm probably just making more work for
> you. :-)
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dave VanderWall
> 
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-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

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