Paypal is a merchant account with some added features I guess. I have a business account (as you would need to I think to use their payment buttons.) I have verified my email account with them and then a bank account. I had once upon a time added a credit card as well but at this point I don't have any card at all except for the one from paypal - I have a mastercard that works just like any other except that it spends funds available in my paypal account. As an example I enjoy reciting: I get in line at Walmart with my cart full of stuff and the kids in tow. I quickly add up the goods and realize I don't have enough money available use my cell phone to call a friend to ask him to paypal me some money. He does so by going to their web site and transferring money from either his paypal balance or a credit card. A moment later I'm at the cash register, check out, and my card goes through just fine. I can also at that point get on a web browser and see the transactions posted to my account already. It is quick and easy and about the same price as any more cumbersome service -- and if you don't use it it costs nothing at all. Open a paypal account: https://www.paypal.com/us/mrb/pal=JH8SW6VM5LN8W Look at their merchant tools. They provide a wide range of options for getting payments (or requesting or making payments) and in many cases generate code for you to paste into your web site. They handle all the security and details - I never see or hear a credit card number or name or anything, just get the cash. It removes a great many sticky issues from my court entirely. Your customer clicks your pay now button. It send them to paypal with some added info detailing the transaction. If they are a paypal user and their password is saved by their browser, often the transaction amounts to no more than hitting enter twice. If not, they are given a number of options to pay, again configurable by yourself if you wish. You may not want to take echecks for ebay auctions you'd like to be finished with quickly. If left open, your customer can provide bank info or credit card info (or whatever other options are possible I guess?) and complete the transaction without any paypal account. By the same token, eBay preferences may be set to automatically pay any auctions you win. I sold a light meter last fall and the auction ended at 4pm. I had the box to the post office to ship out before they closed at 4:30, paying for postage from the delivered proceeds of the same auction. I invoice some of my clients using paypal request money. No more "well, I mailed it last week" stories. Anyhow, pp alone is a fine lightweight package. Go in there and create a pay-now button for your course or pdf and a minute later paste the code into your web page and you're done. I haven't tried it yet but did see a shopping cart module for WordPress which I believe can handle paypal configuration. Or other merchant accounts if you wish. I've used OSCommerce to provide a single item, once upon a time, also, it doesn't need to be complicated. Just free... ;) -m On Jan 27, 2006, at 2:54 PM, Bob Meetin wrote: > Gambling is not my interest. I guess I probably don't understand > paypal > (have never used it). What do you mean by a bunch of credit cards > in a > bunch of currencies? How would a customer who wants to register for a > class and not use a CC do this? > > I'm also looking into some light PHP e-Commerce packages. Phpshop, > agora cart, oscommerce are way overkill. Do we have any > recommendations > of lighter packages that I can modify to fit a site? PHP Data object relational mapping generator http://www.metastorage.net/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/php-objects/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: php-objects-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
