I operate a small business that is both bricks-and-mortaer and online. Several years ago, my store's paypal account was suspended (and my funds held for three months!) because i sell ceremonial tobacco for religious purposes. I was not selling on ebay at the time, just at a web site and in the store. Tobacco products (incense, anointing oil, candle dressed with tobacco, etc.) 7 items out of 5,000 items in stock, and only one of the 7 (Tobacco curio) is even smokable. I stopped using Paypal rather than stop carrying these 7 spiritual supplies.
In the years since that costly debacle, i have since seen many other shops -- even at ebay -- that have carried religious tobacco, and i have read here that Paypal now only forbids merchants who sell tobacco illegally (i do not).
I would like to return as a Paypal merchant, both for in-store and web-based sales, but i do not want to sign up for a Paypal bricks-and-mortar sales account and go to all the trouble of setting up linkages, buttons, images, etc., only to have my account suspended and my funds frozen for three months again.
What is Paypal's official stance on bricks-and-mortar shops that sell tobacco legally?
