My new PayPal store is ready, it will be online in the first days of this week. This
article inspired me and after several weeks of php development it is now finally finished.
I am now able to have complete control over the purchase process (using PayPal IPN) and collect a lot of useful information from it. I have also tried to reply to the question "Is it worth the time and effort involved? " well, yes, absolutely.
For example, this is a comparison between the three major merchants (that SQLabs in different time of its history have used) for a $25 product that sells 40 copies in a month: ($1000/month, $12000/year)
| Fee | Per-sale income | Per-sale fee | Montly fee | Montly profit |
| Kagi | 2.5% + $1 | $23.375 | $1.625 | $65 | $935 |
| eSellerate | 10% | $22.5 | $2.5 | $100 | $900 |
| PayPal | 2.9% + $0.30 | $23.975 | $1.025 | $41 | $959 |
Even more interesting, the same comparison for a $50 product that sells 40 copies in a month: ($2000/month, $24000/year)
| Fee | Per-sale income | Per-sale fee | Montly fee | Montly profit |
| Kagi | 2.5% + $2 | $46.75 | $3.25 | $130 | $1870 |
| eSellerate | 15% | $42.5 | $7.5 | $300 | $1700 |
| PayPal | 2.9% + $0.30 | $48.25 | $1.75 | $70 | $1930 |
I am not an US resident, so for example I cannot use more professional solutions like authorize.net or something similar, but I really think that PayPal is now the best option for any shareware developer.
