The Kindness of People

I won a Rebecca magazine from a German seller and I assumed I could use PayPal, since I've used it tons of times with UK sellers. This seller had never heard of PayPal.

After some digging around, I found that sending money via Western Union ($20 fee), doing a wire transfer from my own bank ($45!), etc. would be too expensive relative to the purchase. So I asked her to either sign up for PayPal or allow me to send actual currency in the mail. Risky... Or, if it's too much of a headache, to cancel the auction. :(

She said, oh don't worry, send the US currency, and I know you're a sincere person, so I'll send the magazine today, trusting that the money will arrive.

How cool is that?

Mostly, it points to my feeling that people in the US are not very trusting in general. I can't imagine an American eBay seller doing the same.