Something very much off-topic—even for this thread—but I thought you guys might appreciate this since some of you occasionally use PayPal for international transactions as well:
I'm sending someone in Europe 375.00 EUR via PayPal.
Select "convert via PayPal": 403.00 USD
Select "convert via your bank": 387.20 USD
They—of course—default to "convert via PayPal," and they—of course—will not show you the amount for "convert via your bank." The amount stated above is thus taken from my bank statement and reflects what I actually payed.
Granted, PayPal can't show you the bank conversion amount upfront because they don't know the bank's rate at any given moment.
But even if they could, I very much doubt that they would — for obvious reasons.
And that's in addition to the relatively generous fee they already slap on your transaction to begin with.
Long story short:
While I don't know if this applies to all foreign currencies and/or to the country you may reside in, at least in the USofA, when sending Euros, I would advise to make sure you let your bank do the conversion. Can't really blame them for trying, but there's no need to "gift" PayPal any more cash than necessary.