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Published: July 18 2006, 10:20:00 PMUpdated: July 25 2022, 8:59:57 AM

I am getting the value SIS in my GetItemTransactions call, much like this:

<ExternalTransaction>
  <ExternalTransactionID>SIS</ExternalTransactionID>
  <ExternalTransactionTime>2006-07-10T16:54:18.000Z</ExternalTransactionTime>
  <FeeOrCreditAmount currencyID="USD">0.0</FeeOrCreditAmount>
  <PaymentOrRefundAmount currencyID="USD">11.48</PaymentOrRefundAmount>
</ExternalTransaction>

What does SIS mean?

Also, I see that sometimes I have 2 external transactions in a single Transaction container for what appears to be the exact same transaction payment, much like this:

<ExternalTransaction>
  <ExternalTransactionID>SIS</ExternalTransactionID>
  <ExternalTransactionTime>2006-07-10T16:54:18.000Z</ExternalTransactionTime>
  <FeeOrCreditAmount currencyID="USD">0.0</FeeOrCreditAmount>
  <PaymentOrRefundAmount currencyID="USD">11.48</PaymentOrRefundAmount>
</ExternalTransaction>
<ExternalTransaction>
  <ExternalTransactionID>6C391488V2705932A</ExternalTransactionID>
  <ExternalTransactionTime>2006-07-10T17:04:27.000Z</ExternalTransactionTime>
  <FeeOrCreditAmount currencyID="USD">0.52</FeeOrCreditAmount>
  <PaymentOrRefundAmount currencyID="USD">11.48</PaymentOrRefundAmount>
</ExternalTransaction>

What does this mean?

When you see a value of SIS for ExternalTransactionID, it means that the buyer completed the eBay Checkout flow, and indicated a payment method other than PayPal.
In such a Checkout scenario, the final step that the buyer completes is called "Send Information to Seller" as is displayed on the eBay Checkout page.
Usually the payment method in such cases is Money Order, Cashier's Check, Credit Card, any possible method other than PayPal.

In situations where you see more than 1 ExternalTransaction container within a single Transaction container, it can mean 1 of 2 things:

1. The buyer initially completed the eBay Checkout flow and did not pay through PayPal at the time, thus ending the Checkout flow in the "Send Information to Seller" page. The buyer then proceeded to pay through PayPal at a later time, either as a result of the seller sending an invoice through eBay, or by manually going through the Send Money flow on the PayPal website and indicating the item for which they were making the payment. The ExternalTransactionID with a value of SIS corresponds to the buyer going through the Checkout flow, and the second ExternalTransactionID has the value set by PayPal when payment was made.

2. The buyer paid for the Transaction in separate Partial Payments, usually made through PayPal. In this case, there is usually no ExternalTransactionID value of SIS. Instead each ExternalTransactionID corresponds to each partial payment made through PayPal.

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