I ended up getting 2 of these prepaid paypal cards.

If you don't want to register these with your personal information, you can call the number on the front of the card and ask for a "limited functionality" card that can only be used in-store (eg no online transactions). The agent will request your name, and also when the card was purchased and the value on the card. The hold times are pretty long currently though.

You can then set a PIN via paypal.com/prepaid - just fill out the first few screens and stop when it asks for all the personal information. I used it as a debit card at Safeway (which lets you get $2-300 cashback per transaction). I had a $200 card, so I purchased a $5 item and requested $195 back. I assume it also works for money orders, etc but Safeway was the most convenient for me.

Given all the reports on this product, I felt more comfortable going the limited functionality route. You can very easily cash it out via the PIN method. If you're masochistic, you can use this as a way of generating additional cheap "manufactured spend" .

Finally, I think this is going to be dead by tomorrow - the cash register at my local CVS was automatically voiding and refunding the paypal mastercard purchases.