Ok so my brain isn't as sharp as it used to be, my hair is more gray than blonde and my chest sits firmly on my knees.....

I just created a PayPal account but..................

I don't really quite grasp how PayPal works. Especially the mailing/label part. I understand I can give people my e-mail address and they can pay through PayPal. I understand I need to verify payment before shipping.

Any help/pointers would be appreciated.

Can't give you any pointers on PayPal, but we must be twins.....you described me to a tee.......

do a search here. this was discussed before and there were tips in there. i may set up an account one day if i ever decide to sell my quilts to buy groceries.

There are various ways people can send money through paypal to you. Some ways take longer for the funds to get in your account, some get posted immediately. You can sign in to your paypal account and see if a transaction is "pending" or "complete". You can also see your paypal balance. If the amount shows in your balance, and transaction shows "complete, you're safe to ship the item. Keep in mind that Paypal keeps a small portion of this transaction for a fee, I THINK it's like 2.9%. There's a lot more info on their site, but that's pretty much the basics.

When you ask for payment after receiving an e-mail purchase request, tell them to make payment to your Paypal account. Your e-mail address used with Paypal is your "account". You will then get an e-mail from Paypal telling you the money is in your account. You can print the shipping label through Paypal or use USPS.com. When you want to transfer money out of your Paypal account, it usually takes 2 days after you make the request for the $ to be in your bank account.

I think when they pay you through PayPal and specify that the payment is for goods received (not a personal transfer of money), then there is a click link to create the postage label for shipping (which is very easy to do).

You can also create shipping labels through PayPal for packages you want to send that have nothing to do with PayPal. In that case, after logging into your account, click on "Merchant Services" at the top of the screen and then on "Multi-Order Shipping" to get to the postage area. I often use this to print postage for a single package. When the package is not associated with PayPal, the only difference is that you have to manually enter the receiver's address information.

When you use Paypal to print the label, do you get "free" Delivery Confirmation tracking on "all" shipments? With USPS, you get "free" Delivery Confirmation with only Priority Mail shipments.

on Paypal DC is free on Priority packages. $.19 on all other packages. Please note you can only print postage for First Class Parcels, not FC envelopes or letters. The USPS website can tell you the difference. Of course you can also print postage for Media Mail, Parcel post, and Priority.

When you get a payment from someone, Paypal will tell you when it is "OK to ship". An E-check takes longer to clear.

Here's a shortcut for quick single shipments:
http://www.paypal.com/shipnow
It's only accessible via the URL link - there are no links to the shipnow page from within PayPal.

I've had trouble with paypal for so many years, but you've given me good information, perhaps I will try using them again.