Does anyone use foreign E-Bay sites?

0john0

I have found some coins of interest on Italian, French and German E-bay, but I am afraid that my lack of understanding their languages will lead me to mess up the transaction. Does anyone have any insight?
Can I ship US$ to those sellers? Or how else could I pay?
I guess they don't use Paypal?

Thanks in advance,
-John

SYRACUSIAN

Some do, but most don't . Bidpay can always be an option, or (even better) a Western Union direct money order (without bidpay).

Best of all of course is hot cash ; as for the languages, everyone's familiar with dollar I guess.

theboz11

I have purchased on the others and anytime I had translation problems , I used this language link.Translate

eureka

I've bought from the Canada, Germany, Italy, Australia, Mexico, and U.K. ebay sites. I've sold on the Germany, Italy, & U.K. ebay sites as well. I simply use an online translator when needed. When they don't accept Paypal, I've never had a problem sending U.S. Cash. When possible, I try to send native currency, like Euros or GBP - which I can pick up at an American Express travel agency. Getting foreign currency at American Express is cheaper than regular currency exchanges around me.

I've found that bank transfers seem to be common in Europe, but my bank charges way too much for international transfers. Sellers are pretty understanding of this.
As for Bidpay, I'd rather send cash. Sending money orders or checks to foreign countries can be problematic to the receiver. In fact, my only lost payment to a foreign destination was a small Bidpay money order.

Western Union can be good in some situations, especially to countries with notoriously slow mail like Mexico and Italy. If you're receiving money from a foreign country in this way, make sure they fill out the destination correctly. I had one a couple months ago with the wrong destination, and I ended up having to call the initiating location in Rome, and speak broken Italian to get it fixed....all the while trying not to laugh because I had the voice of Eddie Izzard in my head going "Ciao".

0john0

That is a great translation site!! Thanks a lot for that link. I see that as being a big help in the future.
And i guess I will try sending cash since you all seem to indicate that it is well-accepted.
-john

Askari

I have bought off the UK, Canadian, German, French, and Australian eBays with no problems. Since the layouts are pretty much identical, you can guess the functions and links to BidPay or PayPal go to their sites, which are in English.

I've noticed recently that I sometimes get "dragged off" to foreign eBays from time to time. This seems to happen unpredictably. Lately I was even on Italian eBay which I made it through using my advice above. Mostly, though, I've been "converted" to the UK or German eBays. Anybody else had that happen?

elverno

I've bid and bought off of most of the eBay sites. If you have friends around the world (and we do ) you can even get around the sellers that won't ship to the US and so forth... Costs a little extra on the shipping since it goes two places but I've picked up pieces that some particularly spikey Frenchie types were determined to keep out of 'Merican hands.

ccrdragon

I've bid on the English and German sites w/o any problems. Most sellers will accept cash and I have never had a problem sending cash to any of the foreign dealers. Translation is also not that much of a problem for me at least because I speak enough German to understand most of the auctions and if I have problems, I just send an email and we work something out.

The advantage that I have seen is that a lot of things (like Jersey/Guernsey proof sets) sell for about 1/10 of the price on these sites as compared to the US site.