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Selling internationally on eBay... yea or nay?
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75 posts in this topic

It is those import charges which are ridiculous.  Just bought a pair of comics (last ones for my X-Men 1-400 run...yay!) but I went weeks watching it slowly get lowered in price until it finally made sense as a purchase.  If the GSP wasn’t used, the sale would have been made a month ago.  It is a bit of a scam...I would never have been charged import charges with a normal shipment of this value. 

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10 hours ago, habsfan1 said:

That is what I thought..that said, every seller that I have dealt with here has been really reliable, friendly, and gives pretty much the same quote (which I usually check in advance to make sure we are on the same page).  I pay quickly and the books arrive sometimes in a week.  I send to the US and even if I don’t take the tracking the item arrives to the destination in a week or so....usually to huge surprise of the buyer.  I have sold since ‘98 and honestly have had only one issue shipping there, but the box arrived back here eventually with tire tracks on it lol This isn’t a faraway land....I just don’t get it from some.  Not like you are going to a different post office.  

I think for American sellers that use the online printout shipping forms, there's extra steps involved that forces them to wait at the post office rather than just drop packages off that are already labelled and that is where some sellers don't want to put in the effort. And I understand that.

I talk to Harley all the time, who travels to Asia, Australia and some of Europe and he has customers all over the world. So it's a choice to limit your market.

I can also sympathize with collectors who don't have the access to stuff that we have on this side of the pond. They do complain about cost sometimes but you just have to factor things like shipping and currency exchange into your collecting habits. That's the cost of living somewhere else.

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23 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

I think for American sellers that use the online printout shipping forms, there's extra steps involved that forces them to wait at the post office rather than just drop packages off that are already labelled and that is where some sellers don't want to put in the effort. And I understand that.

I talk to Harley all the time, who travels to Asia, Australia and some of Europe and he has customers all over the world. So it's a choice to limit your market.

I can also sympathize with collectors who don't have the access to stuff that we have on this side of the pond. They do complain about cost sometimes but you just have to factor things like shipping and currency exchange into your collecting habits. That's the cost of living somewhere else.

There are no extra steps using the print out I drop them off the same as I drop off domestic packages walk in put them on the counter and walk out 

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On 4/11/2019 at 4:59 PM, Kevin76 said:

I always ship outside of the US. 

I don't use the GSP since most people outside the US hates it. 

Pack well, write the name and address of the buyer on the box, attach the customs form to the box, sign and date it....how is that a hassle for sellers?  Sounds more like laziness. 

I've shipped to New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, UK, Canada, Germany, Philippines....never had a problem.     

I am right with Kevin.  I have shipped internationally for 20 years with very little problems.
I've shipped to every continent and I only try to avoid Brazil and Mexico for their bad reputation
for postal systems.  Once you know how to pack its really not much different.

I don't use the GSP for the same issues that have already been mentioned by buyers. 

But, international sales have fallen a lot the last couple of years for me and I don't really understand why.
I know its more expensive, but there is nothing I can do about the cost of shipping internationally I don't make
any money on the shipping I can tell you that. 

I do miss looking up all the exotic places I was shipping too. I really miss the Aussies who used to ship me back
Tim Tam's and I would send something to them in return. I also miss the German who used to send me extra
20s in the mail and ask me to send him back $1 bills.(Before Paypal)  The guy in Greece I used to ship 50
books at time. The guy that lived on an island somewhere near New Zealand with 20 other people. The Saudi
guy who had me hide his Spider-man books inside some magazines so they wouldn't find them.  

 

 

Edited by fastballspecial
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6 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

But, international sales have fallen a lot the last couple of years for me and I don't really understand why.

Exchange rate. USPS price increases. GSP. Overinflated book prices. Auctions that end at 3am. To be fair, occasionally a reasonably priced book will turn up or the seller offers First Class post, and I will buy a book. :wishluck:  

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4 minutes ago, electricprune said:

If you list an item on eBay and mark it with no international shipping, are foreign bidders still allowed to bid on that item? I’m having an issue with that right now.

They can, if their mailing address is in the US.

Also, be watchful... sometimes the GSP will auto-add itself to a listing, especially if you're relisting a BIN. I've had that happen multiple times.

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7 minutes ago, oldrover said:

They can, if their mailing address is in the US.

Also, be watchful... sometimes the GSP will auto-add itself to a listing, especially if you're relisting a BIN. I've had that happen multiple times.

Thanks. He is in Taiwan, but he said he has a friend in the US he ships stuff to. His English isn't great, so I'm not sure he fully understands my questions about not shipping to an unconfirmed US address. I've had foreign bidders have legit US addresses before, but I'm not sure about this guy. I'm hoping his US address is linked and that is what allowed him to bid.

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1 hour ago, oldrover said:

They can, if their mailing address is in the US.

Also, be watchful... sometimes the GSP will auto-add itself to a listing, especially if you're relisting a BIN. I've had that happen multiple times.

I still don't understand how ebay can change your auction without your acknowledgment first. I remember one of my listings (probably about a year ago) all of a sudden went from BIN to BIN w/OBO and it was going to accept offers at 50% of the price. I had to just end the listing. So now they can add the GSP without your knowledge? :facepalm:

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Exchange rates are not the sellers fault.  We cannot control government monetary policy.  Shipping costs really depend on the options available.  When expensive items are shipped in a vacuum with no tracking sellers have a right to limit the shipping choices.  Nothing like a scam or loss to change those options.  I very rarely sell on Ebay so no GSP shipping issues.  

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12 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

The guy that lived on an island somewhere near New Zealand with 20 other people.

 

 

Depending on the female to male ratio, this can either be good or bad.

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On 4/11/2019 at 3:00 PM, pemart1966 said:

I live in Canada and I won't buy off anyone that uses Global Shipping.

+1. Global Shipping sucks and I will not buy from sellers that use it. 

 

 I’ve paid GSP twice. Once before I realized how much it would cost and the second time because the book was valued much more than I paid. 

 

 

Edited by c_mkv
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Here's a copy and paste from a post I made in (yet another) GSP thread in 2015, Linky

 

 

"I'm on the record here as a GSP hater. I find it loathsome, and will not buy from sellers who use it.

 

Period.

 

What a lot here seem to be missing is the elephant in the room.

 

All packages shipped to the GSP hub in Kentucky are opened there!

 

The USPS doesn't open outgoing packages unless it has a reasonable suspicion that something's "not right". When a package is opened by the USPS, pretty strict guidelines have to be followed in order that there are no "shenanigans".

 

EVERY package shipped to Kentucky is opened, to "check". meh

 

Yeah, right. I'd love to believe that their facility, when it comes to opening packages, is held to the same standard as the USPS.

 

I doubt it though.

 

Leaving all this aside, how comfortable are you as a seller with the notion that someone else is going to repackage your carefully constructed parcel?"

 

I followed it up with a reference published in the Boston Globe:

 

Linky

 

Relevant extract:

 

"Under the eBay program, sellers mail items to a Pitney Bowes warehouse in Erlanger, Ky., where employees open and repackage items, billing the buyers — not sellers — for shipping and customs fees. A handling fee is added into the charges, but neither eBay nor Pitney Bowes would disclose how the fee is calculated."

 

Bolded for emphasis."

 

Use it, don't use it, it's all good as long as both parties are aware of what it entails. I am aware and refuse to engage with sellers who use it.

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I'm slowly transitioning away from the GSP for the reason that it limits the amount of international buyers that I have.  The majority of my international sales are to Canada and the UK.  If I remove GSP, and go with a calculated rate, then I do limit where I ship to.  I stick to CAN, UK, GER, AUS and NZ as I'm confident in their postal systems, and USPS 1st Class International does offer tracking/delivery confirmation with those countries.  I used to be a big fan of GSP, until I realized how it actually hit the consumer.  It gets expensive at times to ship a book.  I think the USPS quotes 1st Class Int'l to Canada as $14 or $18, and it gets up to $24 or so for western Europe.  It really isn't a lot of extra work.  The customs form prints right out with the label.  I just fill it out, print, sign, drop it off at the post office.  I'm not always a fan of USPS prices, and I can't control it, but I try to figure how it costs me $24 to ship to the UK, when Royal Mail Int'l Tracked & Signed on books to me is like £9 ($11 roughly).  I haven't had any issues with shipping to those countries, and am considering dropping GSP.  I don't really sell any high value items, so maybe it isn't as big a deal.  

On a side note, my dad and brother worked/work for the USPS and they recommended not shipping to Italy of all places because of the issues with their postal service (only shipped there one time through GSP, no issue), and they mention that the old Soviet bloc can be hit & miss.  

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