The money holding is to protect the buyer, and on the flip side, paypal now makes interest on the money tied up in escrow, view it as a big savings account, that they charge you to put money in and to list the item (ebay). So they nail bolth parties for a fee, and the money "in transit" is collecting a interest rate in thier account, well at say 2% on 100 million, that's 2 million a day. not so bad for a 21 day holding period. 21 calander days is legally the timeframe for the monies to earn the interest so it can be considered a calander month. So is paypal protecting you the buyer, yes, are they screwing you, more ways till sunday then you'd like to know!