i listed an item as ships to north america only, yet ebay let someone from norway buy it.
i got a message requesting total, with a note that it would be declared a gift with a $95 value ($299 sale price) to avoid paying import duties.
i cancelled the transaction as i don't need to deal with international shipping quotes being wrong and undercharging or being part of tax fraud.
do any of you use the ebay international shipping center with success? this is new to me, i used to sell a ton but that was prior to their international program. i've got some rare niche parts where ebay is probably the best exposure so i'm trying to get back into it to clear out some stuff and get the money that is otherwise sitting there collecting dust. max exposure would be the willingness to ship internationally, but i have had bad luck with the post office calculator being wrong and losing me money on the shipping end in the past.
I've had really bad experiences with it. More unhappy buyers than in fifteen years shipping to the US. Maybe because it's a long way away they figure I won't fight it or because international shipping sucks I'm not sure. I've bought some stuff recently using the international shipping center and that went well.
I've bought stuff a few times that went well, all from the UK though.
I've only sold international once, but I shipped it myself through USPS. If eBay had an international shipping center at the time I didn't know about it. I listed in my ad "lower 48 continental US only," but some dude in Australia won it, even after he contacted me asking if he could bid, and and me telling him no. After he won, he contacted me for an invoice, I told him no again, he pleaded with me, told me to adjust the shipping accordingly, so I calculated the cost, and added an extra $20 to it.
That guy in Australia paid a lot of money for a cheap workstation GPU. It made it there, and he left good feed back even.
After that I went through my settings to prevent anyone outside of North America being able to bid on my auctions.
patgizz wrote:
i got a message requesting total, with a note that it would be declared a gift with a $95 value ($299 sale price) to avoid paying import duties.
That's mail fraud or tax fraud depending on the jurisdiction...but definitely one of those.
As an international buyer it's funny that a lot of US sellers avoid international customers like the plague, because we are massively more vulnerable to being screwed over. International shipping is a massive disincentive to returning an item for whatever reason. The guy who runs the local mini-speed-shop says that some sellers do in fact know this and take advantage of it, but they're very much the exception to the rule.
Most seem to prefer the reduced fraud risk of only selling to the US (as far as they know), forcing us to use foreign credit cards and freight forwarding services.
I've had no issues. I sold some Focus Zetec parts and listed them as North America only. A guy contacted me from down under. He was happy to pay more in shipping than the parts cost and still considered he got a deal. I sent them uninsured per his request and put a low declared value. As far as I'm concerned the parts were scrap. Only worth what someone would pay, he covered shipping and HANDLING in what he paid me.
I've used the eBay international shipping service two or three times and it's worked well. They have you send the package to a freight forwarding service - in my case it was in Kentucky. I don't know if they all go there. The buyers all left positive feedback so they must have been happy.
It's been years since I sold on Ebay so maybe things have changed there. I was strictly a lower 48 seller until being contacted by people overseas who asked to open it up to international. I refused at first but opened to NZ after hearing their new car parts import duty story. They always paid top dollar and were good w/ shipping, the only thing they asked was on the customs form was to list it as 'used auto parts'. Seems they have an import duty on new parts.
Later sold to Australia, Puerto Rico and a few others offshore w/ no problems. South Americans like old typewriters for some reason.
IIRC, you could restrict sales by continent or country. As said tho it's been years since selling so things might be different now.
Actually had more problems w/ lower 48 buyers than overseas.
I've been listing a lot of parts recently and will only ship lower 48 and always bake shipping into my price. Got screwed once before shipping a top end kit for a 2 stroke mini bike to Puerto Rico. Item was listed as lower 48 only, eBay let the Puerto Rican guy bid anyways, shipping calculator WAY underestimated it, guy was a complete PITA to deal with...huge hassle that ultimately gained me like $3 after shipping.
I once shipped a set of stock fuel injectors from an S4T2 to a winning bidder in Finland even though my auctions are always USA only. It worked out fine.
I don't mind PR, the post office is there. One time i got a holset turbo new in the bag for $10 from a moron(it was under a table saw in the factory packaging, no dust inside bag) and sold it to a guy in PR for $400 plus shipping.
I feel like i'd be opening myself up to repercussion if i went along with the tax fraud request though
I had problems as well. I sold something using eBay's "ship it to us and we will handle it from there" international shipping because THEY WERE PUSHING it and made it sound simple. The auction was "Paypal Only".
The guy was in Spain and he really, really tried to pay me but couldn't because Paypal wouldn't accept any money from him, I don't take credit cars and didn't want to deal with foreign bank checks directly. In the end, I had to just cancel and relist. They (ebay) stuck me with the fees for the 1st sale and the re-sale.
Never again. It's just not worth the hassle - even if successful. I got the impression it had to reach the buyer and not just ebay's international shipping distribution hub for paypal to release the money and that could be weeks by the time it clears customs.
