[noloqy]

If I were PayPal, I wouldn't primarily be focused on buying items, as it would be very expensive strategy. I'd try sending sellers email first, indicating that you are interested in purchasing their product and asking them if they support PayPal. Having thousands of sellers just visiting your site to see what this "PayPal" is about is a great way of getting your name out there at no cost.

Also, if I'm not mistaking, buyers have no right to force sellers to accept a payment method that the seller did not support. Of course you could try to persuade them after you've bought their product, but insisting goes way too far.

[notatoad]

>buyers have no right to force sellers to accept a payment method that the seller did not support.

sure they do. after you've won an auction or otherwise agreed to buy you are restricted to only the accepted payment methods, but before making a purchase you can contact a seller saying "i'll buy this if you can accept paypal"

[the_watcher]

Looks like PayPal's strategy worked. Also, eBay used to be a much more unregulated (read: easy to spam/game) than it is now.