why do sellers prefer PAYPAL gift versus regular paypal payments?

[Hawaiian Bam Bam]

why do people prefer PAYPAL gift vs regular payment? I just started using it recently. what are the advantages of wanting to get paid via paypal gift? could it be to possibly avoid having to pay taxes on end of year tax bill? (or do you still have to pay taxes on paypal gift transactions) im very curious on the answer to this, so someone respond with some thoughts on this! thanks

[TheCardBandit]

With me it's the PayPal fees, so if I ask for $20 and someone pays via PayPal goods I'll end up with $19.25 or something, thats why I always state "$20 PayPal gift or PayPal goods equivalent", when purchasing I always use PayPal goods because if a transaction goes bad I can always make a claim when using PayPal goods, do note that I am considerate enough to usually add an extra $1 to cover the fees from my end.

[sschind]

Never heard of the "goods equivalent" but a good reason to never pay with paypal gift is you have no recourse if your item arrives damaged or doesn't arrive at all.

The reason sellers want a gift is because it doesn't cost them anything though it may cost you something if you are paying with a credit card. If you send them Paypal gift for $20.00 they get $20.00. The problem is if you send them $20.00 gift and they don't send you the card and you contact Paypal and say i sent him 20.00 and he didn't send me the cards they will say "what card? You didn't send him money for a card you sent him a gift." At least this is what I gather from the things I have read.

If I choose to accept Paypal I will absorb the fees, I would never consider asking someone to send a gift payment just to save me a few cents. Likewise I would never send someone a gift payment for a product because of the lack of buyer protection. If someone specifies they want a gift payment in their ad I will skip it. If we are dealing and they bring it up if I decide to continue with the deal I may add the Paypal fees to the regular Paypal payment but that is only if I think its a great deal to begin with.

Some sites prohibit asking for Paypal gift payments for sales of merchandise.