Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with paypal

Need hip hop/rap/pop songs or gangster references about $ or new shoes!

DorothySmith — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:16:01 -0800

It may sound silly, but I regularly pay a personal trainer via paypal and I like to have witty subject lines instead of the typical 'you've got money!' My trainer is hugely into hip hop, rap, basketball, fashion (typically basketball-esque attire and has an obscene amount of shoes to match most outfits). Other things I thought could be funny to include are references to chihuahua's (his girlfriend has an adorable chihuahua) weight lifting (obviously), handstands, fart/poo/childish types of jokes (he's a little kid and prankster at heart).

I'd like my paypal subject line to be something witty or clever including any of the above mentioned interests in addition to money. I was thinking some sort of rap/hip hop/pop song would be best and preferably from the late 1980s or early 1990s forward since we're both in our late twenties and might not get references or slang from before then. Or current popular songs that he's likely have heard.

Some of the more clever ones I’ve used:

- I've got enough money in the bank for the two of us. Plus I gotta keep enough lettuce. To support your shoe fetish (From Fergie's song lyrics, Glamorous)

- Wanna be ballers, shot-callers? It's all about the Benjamins (Robert Bordens) baby!

These were pretty amusing for him and I'm having trouble thinking of something to top them.

Some of the more generic hip hop references for money I’ve used already:
You've got:
- Moolah
- Cabbage
- Dough
- Bacon

I've also said:
- You've got a handful of benjamins and fifteen wagon wheels.
- You've got lettuce and a little bit of spinach.

Need Paypal Alternatives

arniec — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:14:54 -0800

I have a "Donate" button on my web site, but people are using it against me. Are there any seller/money recipient friendly money sites like Paypal? I have a web site where we take donations. However in the past month two people have gamed the system to use this to HURT me. One person donated twice then did a credit card chargeback on one causing Paypal to not only take back the money but saddle me with a $20 penalty for an action in which I had no part. Then I sold items, had a tracking number prooving I shipped the items, but Paypal STILL took the money away from me.

I wondered if Paypal is "the only game in town" so they have me by the balls, or if there are alternatives that can get me away from this draconian pseudo-bank.

Bankruptcy, Paypal, and BillMeLater

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:00:48 -0800

I am filing bankruptcy soon (95% of my debt is medical debt). BillMeLater (owned by Paypal) is one of my creditors. Can or will Paypal try to take money out of my bank account to cover the debt? Will they close my Paypal account? I have an attorney already. He says I am allowed to have $8000 in cash or personal belongings, and I am well under that allowance.

The bank account that is attached to Paypal never has more than $250 in it. I am looking for some kind of assurance that it would be illegal for Paypal (which owns BillMeLater) to attempt to take this money out of my bank account to cover my BillMeLater debt (which is more than $250.) Can you show me evidence that this would or would not be legal on their part? (I've read BillMeLater's TOS and all I can find is that I'm responsible for costs incurred in bankruptcy actions or some such.)

I don't have a Paypal debit card, just the plain account. Will they close my Paypal account when I file the bankruptcy? Would this ban me from Paypal forever?

WTH is a Paypal sending (not spending) limit?

Ginesthoi — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:51:41 -0800

Had a payment through Paypal declined due to reaching "sending limit." What is that and how to handle? I was attempting to make a payment to Ebay through Paypal, after years of trouble-free transactions, and the transaction was declined. I received an email from Paypal, quoted below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, you've hit your initial PayPal sending limit of $__ USD. That's why your recent payment was declined.

Your sending limit is the maximum amount of money you can send or use for purchases before you need to become Verified.

Why do I need to verify my account?
We place initial limits on all accounts to increase security and help prevent fraud. Once you link and confirm a bank account or get approved for PayPal credit, your account will be Verified and you'll be able to make as many payments as you like with PayPal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is worth noting that this is not a spending limit that has been reached on the credit card. This
whole thing smells rotten and I hoped to learn from fellow Mefites :
a: what is the reason for this?
b. how can I work around this? I have no need for another credit card and no intention of giving out checking account information.

Thanks for your collective insight.

Small claims in the US from the UK?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:36:24 -0800

How can I file a small claims court claim in Philadelphia when I am in the UK? I made a transaction for ~£400 (~$600) with someone in Philadelphia. They paid via PayPal and I posted the items with proof of postage. After they received the items they filed a chargeback on their credit card. Despite giving the tracking information to PayPal, the credit card company has not honoured the payment. I've also been charged three £14 fees on top of losing the cash.

I have all the documentation (emails, postage proofs, etc) and this sounds perfect for small claims court. The only problem is I'm across an ocean. This money means enough to me that I don't just want to write it off. Is there any way I can do this?

Why does PayPal and/or Photobucket want a credit card?

MinusCelsius — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:07:17 -0800

Why does PayPal/Photobucket seem to insist on adding a credit card now? What if I have no credit card? What if I want no credit card? Yesterday, Photobucket sent me a reminder that my Pro subscription is coming to an end. I tried to purchase another year via PayPal payment, as I have done in the past. Didn't work, reason "subscriptions need a credit card associated with the account". I tried to buy a one month Pro sub - again, no luck, same reason.

I have years worth of images on that account and need them to stay available at their current url, so moving to another hosting service is not an option.

I currently neither have nor want a credit card. I have PayPal for precisely that reason - to handle online purchases instead of a credit card.

What are my options to buy the 1 or 2 year subscription without getting a credit card? (The Pro runs out in less than a week, so I don't think I'd have the time to get one anyway.) Can I use some sort of prepaid card? If so, where (online) can I get one?

Protecting myself from fraud on paypal

skjønn — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:06:52 -0800

How can I protect myself from buyer fraud selling something through paypal? I just sold something and the buyer sent me payment via paypal. (not ebay though)

I am shipping the item soon. I noticed that my paypal said that as long as I ship it to the confirmed address and get signature confirmation, I am protected from the buyer saying they didn't receive it.

Hopefully this would never happen, but what can I do to protect against the buyer they received it, but that something was wrong with it or it was defective?

What does paypal do in those types of situations?

I haven't boxed the stuff up yet, so anything I can do to protect myself would be great.

how can I document or protect myself from a buyer possibly making a fraudulent claim?

PayPal as terminal

tomcochrane — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:51:09 -0800

Is there a way to use PayPal to set up your computer as a way to accept credit cards in person at a fundraising event? Tomorrow evening is the annual Christmas gala and silent auction for a local classical music festival. It's the biggest fundraiser of the year. In past years the only way for donors or auction winners to pay was with cash or cheque.

We'd like to be able to offer the option of using credit cards, and PayPal seems like a natural fit - we don't have the cash to pay for an actual credit card terminal. We use PayPal to accept online payments - is there a way we can use PayPal to accept payments in person, and have it set up by Saturday evening?

We're located in (somewhat) rural Canada, if that helps.

Note: We know about Square and PayPal Here. PayPal Here isn't available in Canada yet, and our Square card reader hasn't arrived yet.

Return my things!

Kiwi — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:05:52 -0800

How can I get someone to return my stolen stuff they bought on eBay? Related to my previous post here.

Someone has bought on eBay what I suspect is my stolen bike, and I need them to confirm a serial number to be sure.

Normally I think eBay would refund the PayPal transaction once it is satisfied that the transaction was not legit, but I think in this case the transaction would have been cash (as requested in the original eBay listing).

So, as the buyer has forked out about £600 for this bike, he or she might be very reluctant to volunteer information that will have it confiscated by the police, without any chance of refund.

Any suggestions?

Blocked from PayPal

wisekaren — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:00:00 -0800

How can I open a new PayPal account when mine was blocked because someone else tried to hack into it? Earlier this year I went to use PayPal and was blocked. After some sleuthing, I learned that PayPal had detected that someone was trying to hack into my account, so they closed it. Many emails and phone calls later, I was told that I would NEVER be able to open a new account, even with a new credit card and bank account attached to it, even though they assured me that *I* was not the one who caused the problem. So what can I do? There are occasionally things I want to do and PayPal is the only way to do them (and not just as a guest).

Seeking your advice on donate-by-SMS services

Mo Nickels — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 07:49:43 -0800

What are your experiences with using a service to receive donations via SMS/text message at your charity? I'm looking into all the variety of services that allow a charity or 501(c)(3) to receive donations via SMS or text message. What services have you tried at your charity? What were your experiences? What were your donors' responses and experiences? Is there a service you would particularly recommend?

I'm particularly interested in services with low or non-existent monthly fees, that have a small transaction cost per donation, cause minimal hassle for the donor, and that work seamlessly with PayPal, Amazon, or Google Checkout.

We'd prefer not to use services that require the user download a special app to their mobile phone. Instead, we'd prefer that it simply be a straight text-message transaction: user sends a special code or word to a specific mobile shortcode, gets a confirmation text back, confirms the transaction, then the donation is billed to the donor by their cell phone service provider.

buying used books on Amazon vs eBay

pleasebekind — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:22:43 -0800

First time buying used books via Amazon. Is the process the same as that of eBay's? I always find and buy used books via eBay because they offer PayPal. Recently though I've discovered that some of the sellers on eBay are also on Amazon, and I've spent the better half of this week going through my list of books and comparing the prices. Some questions:

1. A book is offered at $0.99 at Amazon vs $1.99 at eBay by the same seller. Should I go buy from Amazon then if that is the case? (Most books in my list have this scenario)

2. Most likely they would not combine shipping, no? So really each book would actually cost around $4+. Is it futile to ask the sellers if they would give a discount for shipping? (I am planning to buy around 3-5 books per seller).

3. I have never tried buying via the used books section of Amazon. Would it be just like buying new books — you go to checkout and pay (by credit card)? What if am buying several used books from one seller? Do you suggest I contact the seller first and express my intent?

4. What if I am buying from several sellers? Should I just buy them by chunks — for example, Seller 1 first where I'm buying 3 books, then checkout, then just repeat the process for each seller?

5. I plan to buy books with specific book covers and editions. Should I trust that the photo + info displayed is accurate in Amazon? I am asking because with eBay I really do get to see the info corresponding to the actual book I'm buying...and I am overwhelmed at the thought of having to contact each seller in Amazon to confirm the details (though would do it if really needed).

6. If I want the seller to deliver the books to a different address, should I edit my own account to reflect that or just talk to the seller about it?

7. Any other advice you can give me on how to make this process easier/smarter?

Thanks!

Why does PayPal want me to have a crappy password?

Susan PG — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:02:04 -0800

I'm trying to change my PayPal password. Normally I would copy-paste the new password in from KeepPass (or gedit), but PayPal disables copy-paste. That means I need to accurately type in a bunch of fiddly deliberately-hard-to-memorize characters, which only show up as asterisks, TWICE. Which apparently I am incapable of doing, whereupon PayPal kicks me out for two hours before letting me try again. Please help me figure out a workaround to solve this stupid problem. I've Googled this and found a few relevant links, but nothing that lets me copy-paste.

KeePass Autotype successfully fills the field (again, asterisks), but then I get an error message saying the passwords don't match (?!). A Febuntu forum says copy-pasting out of gedit should work, but it doesn't for me: I still get the 'no copy-paste' error message.

Can anyone suggest a workaround for this?

Thanks.

(Oh and I am running Ubuntu 10.10 and using Chrome 17.)

How can I keep using Gmail, PayPal and Bank of America 2-step verification after moving from the US to Bulgaria?

wet-raspberry — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:08:15 -0800

How can I keep using Gmail, PayPal and Bank of America 2-step verification after moving from the US to Bulgaria? I'm moving from the US to Bulgaria at the end of August and I'd like to keep using the 2-step verification process offered by Gmail, PayPal's mobile Security Key and Bank of America's Safe Pass service while I'm there. To that end, I am trying to figure a few things out:

1. Gmail supposedly offers its 2-step verification service with local carriers. To those of you who have used the service in Bulgaria, how reliable is it? Does it actually work?

2. From what I've gathered so far, neither PayPal's Security Key nor Bank of America's Safe Pass are supported within Bulgaria. What options can you recommend in order to get them to work? Using a US phone with a US phone number and paying for roaming charges to cover the received text messages (probably about 2 a day)? Maybe some sort of a text-only service that will let me receive only text messages at a more affordable rate?

3. I'm hoping to be able to receive the codes on a regular dumbphone - I don't have a smartphone and I feel that using Skype or any other computer-based service defeats the purpose of the verification process.

Paypal premier to Paypal business - what happens next?

LyzzyBee — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:53:03 -0800

I currently have a PayPal Premier account I use for payments to my business (which is permitted under their terms and conditions). But it has a limit on funds that can be received, so I will need to "upgrade" to a business account. Has anyone done this and are you able to tell me what, in essence, happened to the fees? I have calculated that at the moment, they apply fees of c. 5% on average, so I add a percentage to my clients' invoices (with their permission) to share the loss incurred. But it's not clear at all from the various fees and charges in PayPal's tables what actually happens to the average fees. Surely someone on the Green has been through this and can share their experiences (feel free to memail me if you want to keep it private). Notes: (1) I am in the UK. Clients paying me in this way are mainly from the US, China and India. (2) I try to get clients to pay by bank transfer but some of them aren't happy with the fees, esp on smaller totals. (3) I have looked at Moneybookers and use that sometimes, but my client base is more familiar with Paypal. (4) I will not want the fancy stuff Paypal Business offers like shopping carts (I believe) and taking credit card payments, as far as I know. But if you've had a great experience with suddenly being able to take c card payments, feel free to let me know!
Thanks!

Help selecting the right PayPal API calls?

Drasher — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:12:23 -0800

I want to use PayPal to implement two different ways of payment. The API set is confusing enough that I don't know where to start. I need some direction as to which API set to use. I want to be able to sell a digital product to the general public. This should be the PayPal that people are familiar with. They should be able to make a purchase whether they have a PayPal account or not. I think that this will require the "Express Checkout" or "Express Checkout Pro" API. (It seems that the regular Express Checkout is for those with accounts and the "Pro" will allow those without accounts.)

The second type of transaction needs to pre-approve specific clients and have them agree to having me sell data to them when the data becomes available. It will allow me to debit their PayPal account (credit card or bank) on an as needed basis. It could possibly be daily or weekly; whenever the data is ready to be transmitted. I will (after the clients agree) send them the data, get paid for the transaction, and send an invoice marked as paid. They will be able to cancel their agreement whenever they want.

Exchanging gift cards I don't need for money I do?

jitterbug perfume — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 14:02:41 -0800

Is there a place online where (presumably they would have to be nice, I would guess) people would trade money for gift cards to stores at which they shop anyway? Or something similar? I don't know if this is even possible so I don't know how high the likelihood something like this exists is, but I assume there could be some kind of PayPal money transfer and the numbers on the gift cards could be given to the party trading the money OR some kind of local thing. I can't be the only poor, young person whose parents/godparents/aunts/uncles/older friends/whatever people have give me gift cards to places I don't shop because they "don't trust my spending" or something or to personalize gifts more than cash or etc. I wish the grocery store would accept my Barnes and Noble gift cards, I really do. I would be willing to give a small percentage of the money to the other party in this exchange, but it wouldn't amount to much as these giftcards, as you probably guessed, aren't for thousands or multiple hundreds of dollars.

Subquestion: "Western Union Money Gram Paks" are just a way for people to rip you off, right? I mean to say - do legitimate transactions that don't involve corporate things ever happen on there or is it all people telling you they'll send you artwork/books/gift cards/I would imagine drugs and other things I'm neglecting to even think of/whatever people do on there and then stealing your money super effectively?

Local buyer using Paypal

Avenger50 — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:43:08 -0800

I am selling my old computer for almost $2,000. The buyer lives nearby and is coming to check it out in person. He's wondering if he can just pay with Paypal. Assuming this guy is on the up and up, what can I do to protect myself? And avoid a Paypal fee? Do I make a receipt?

Shopping carts to accept credit cards over the Internet without leaving the site

steinsaltz — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:50:37 -0800

Please help me understand how to accept credit card payments online for a fussy merchant, who wants to set up a shopping cart to sell luxury items, but fears using PayPal will make him look like he is "selling toys on eBay." Trying to build a low-cost shopping cart for a small businessman, using open-source software. He wants to be able to accept credit card numbers online, but I can't figure out the best way to do this.

I assumed, without thinking about it, that it would be cool to just set this up with a PayPal merchant account. But he thinks this will make him look amateurish if the purchaser has to jump over to PayPal and back. He wants to accept credit cards.

Is this something I could do with Authorize.net or a higher-end PayPal plan: to let the seller accept credit cards but make it look like we haven't left his website, instead of something where you jump to another service?

He seems so set on this that he would rather have credit card numbers sent through an HTML form rather than have buyers go to PayPal. I guess I understand where he is coming from, but I seem to have memories of websites with slick enough E-commerce third parties that you don't really notice. Maybe it's still an option, if there's some way to convince him.

If it helps, he normally enters credit card payments by hand, at his business, into something called BestMerchantRates.com.

Trying to avoid high-cost hosted E-commerce.

ebay transaction cancellation/resolution center/refund heck

Zed — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:05:35 -0800

Listed a laptop on Ebay, offering shipping only to US. Norse buyer did "buy it now." Buyer agreed to cancel transaction, but opened a separate "did not receive item" case in resolution center. Can I just refund the money and be sure I'm done with this, or is there some weird potential for him to try to double-dip on the refund? Listing a laptop on Ebay was probably my first mistake. I had thought I had checked the gamut of block-potentially-sketchy buyers options on the per-listing level (but I don't see a way after the fact to get Ebay to cough up what they were -- anyone know?) but not on a global account-wide basis. The shipping description and the item description both clearly said I was offering shipping to U.S.-only.

A buyer with a Norway address did "buy it now" and really did make a Paypal payment with $80 extra for shipping. The account had been created at the end of March and has a history of only 7 transactions; I assume the buyer's a scammer.

Following directions here, I sent the buyer a message; the buyer mentioned being shocked, shocked to see I shipped only to the U.S. after buying the item but didn't express explicit objection to cancelling. So I opened a cancel transaction case in the Ebay resolution center, and the buyer cancelled.

I had thought a refund would be issued automatically, but it didn't -- the transaction is still listed on my Paypal account, but with status "held." Ebay's instructions are completely unforthcoming on how cancellations and refunds relate to each other. And the buyer opened a separate case in the resolution center with "didn't receive item" as the listed reason.

So can I just refund the money and this goes away? Or is there some fraud angle I'm not seeing where after I refund the money the buyer can continue to pursue some sort of complaint with Ebay or Paypal?

To claim or not to claim? To report or to ignore?

likeso — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 06:55:46 -0800

Small euro amount sent to my PayPal account by company with whom I have had no dealings. Test? Phishing? Scam? A few weeks ago, PayPal sent me an email telling me a specified, very small amount of money had been transferred to my account and I have x number of days to "claim" it. I did not click on any links, logged into my PP account, and checked. The email was legit, and the money is indeed there to be "claimed". So, no real need to contact PayPal.

However, I do not recognize the sender. It is a postal company in Great Britain. The amount is very like what an eBay or Etsy seller might refund in case of overcharging for shipping, but I have not ordered anything from anybody in the UK for the last, oh, year or so. Still possible, I suppose, but then I would expect the name of the *seller* as sender, not a parcel company.

PayPal now tells me I have 5 days before the money is returned to sender. My instincts tell me to allow this to happen because this might just be a new kind of phishing, or a scam of some kind (I *should* claim, otherwise, scammer knows the account is not highly used and will do Something Nefarious, though I don't really see how), or perhaps this company is attempting to verify I have an active PP account before slapping me with some huge late customs fee I am unaware they fronted or somesuch. Of course, the terms "plate of beans" and "slightly paranoid" have sprung to mind.

tl;dr: Anybody heard of similar scams/tests/phishing? Should I take any action?

How to buy porn on Ebay

Anonymous — Sun, 06 May 2012 11:25:05 -0800

Porn sellers want me to buy porn on Ebay. My husband and I want to buy porn on Ebay. But Paypal doesn't want me to buy porn on Ebay. How do I fix this? I have used Ebay for a very long time with no problems. I also have a paypal account I've used with no problems as my primary method of payment. Recently, I found out Ebay has porn. Hurray! My husband and I want to watch it together, and it is way less expensive on Ebay, whereas porn titles can apparently often go for 30-40$ otherwise. However, when I went to bid on it, I got the error "BUYER_CANNOT_BUY_ADULT_WITH_SOLO_PAYPAL"
This makes for sad kittens everywhere.

I have attempted to look at all of Ebay's help files, with no luck in finding a workaround. A little internet research also shows that Paypal has apparently closed off paying for some adult-oriented merchandise. Okay, no big deal, pay another way. But yet, some of these sellers are selling their products with Paypal only-and there are bids on them, which means someone has figured out this workaround-maybe you!

Please help me figure this out- I would like to get to happy couple porn-watching without these aggravations!

How to track affiliate sales on PayPal

mamessner — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:02:45 -0800

How do I track affiliate sales with a tracking pixel using PayPal checkout? OK. I have a website with a button to make a payment via PayPal. My affiliate network wants me to place a tracking pixel on some page that represents a completed sale.

If I put the tracking pixel on the "thank-you" page, then it seems like any time someone visits that page, the pixel will fire (which is not my intention). I want it to ONLY fire once, when the payment is confirmed.

PayPal offers a system called "Instant Payment Notification," but it's very complex and requires coding knowledge that I don't have. They mention that it can be used to track affiliate sales, though:

There has to be an easier way, though - Placing a tracking pixel is a pretty routine task, isn't it?

Anyone use PayPal and have a tracking pixel in place to track affiliate sales?

Where can I buy bulk quantities of high-quality body soap online?

GlassHeart — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:45:53 -0800

Where can I buy bulk quantities of high-quality body soap online? I'm sick of using soaps that smell like laundry detergent and have been trying to find bulk quantities of cheap (or at least cheapish), high-quality soaps online. I haven't had much luck.

I plan on buying enough soap to last me four or five years and plan on paying a maximum of $75 on it. I want to buy a huge amount of soap so that I don't have to worry about buying it for a really long time.

I've found lots of soaps which sound promising, but I'm not interested in paying $10 for 100 gram bars of soap; that's way out of my budget (especially considering how fast I go through soap).

I don't care much about what ingredients the soaps you recommend contain as long as they:

Don't smell like laundry detergent
Don't dry skin out

I'm generally more of a fan of glycerin-based soaps than non-glycerin based ones, but recommend any soaps you feel perform well. Also, if you could recommend high-quality olive oil soaps, that would be great (I think a soap with oil in it would work well for me since I have very dry skin).

I'm also fine with unscented soap recommendations as I care more about the performance of soap rather than the scent. But a good scent + high performance = awesomeness.

Lastly: Please recommend sites which have PayPal support as that's my preferred method of paying for stuff online.

Thanks.

Buy my book, baby, and I'll drop down for ya.

Kerasia — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:22:28 -0800

I would like to add a paypal 'Buy Now' button for a single item to a self-hosted wordpress website, with a drop-down selection list. I've created the button in Paypal but the code becomes messed once the html is inserted in the wordpress page - the options are all visible as if in a table, not in a drop-down. I've googled but can't find the solution. A friend has published a non-fiction, softcover book that he wants to sell directly from his website. Some non-profits engaged in related issues want to promote the book for him and, in return, he wants to give a portion of the sales back to the groups. We figured the way to do this was to have a "referring organisation" drop down tied in with the paypal buy now button (much like 'small, medium, large as if selling t-shirts). When the order comes in, he'll keep track of how many referrals came from organisation 1, org 2, and so on.

However, the code gets messed up once it's pasted into the (html) section of the wordpress page. This appears to be a known problem but all the solutions I've tried (via google) don't work. It would work if we ignored the drop-down but that means we don't know who to give a percentage to which is important to him.

I see that there are wordpress paypal plug-ins - I've tried a couple but they don't seem to have the drop-down selection option that the paypal button has.

So I am seeking advice, a work-around or recommendation of a plug-in. We are only selling one item so don't need a shopping cart however, if that is the way to go, then so be it.

tl;dr Need a work around to add a paypal buy-now button with a drop-down select list to a self-hosted wordpress website.