What would happen if I end all shipments overseas?

Aethelred

I have had two serious problems with overseas sales so far this year and I am sick and tired of dealing with it! I feel like there is enough on my plate without problems with currency exchange, customs forms, people who don't read my terms and so on, not to mention issues with fraud and lost items.

I am giving serious consideration to ending all sales with the exception of those going to the US, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland. However I wonder how much this will cost me in terms of eBay bids? Is this a wise decision, or do i just need to hunker down and deal with it?

(edited to add that members of this forum are exempt from the comments above and have never caused me the least problem. If you live overseas, are a regular here and have done business with me in the past, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU.)

wybrit

am giving serious consideration to ending all sales with the exception of those going to the US, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland. However I wonder how much this will cost me in terms of eBay bids? Is this a wise decision, or do i just need to hunker down and deal with it?

I lean towards "deal with it." Most of my buyers outside the US come from Canada, Europe and Australasia, since Brit coins are heavily collected in those regions. I'm not opposed to trading with Asia (but will not ship proof sets or large shipments there) and have done so with few problems. Many good buyers I work with reside in Germany and other locations in Europe, so I would advise against stopping your shipments there.

danglen

About twenty percent of my sales come from overseas buyers. The only changes I have made are to insist articles shipped to Brazil, Costa Rica, Portugal or India are via Registered Mail, regardless of the cost of the article because of the high incidence of articles that get "lost" in transit to those four countries. I also require that anything that has a value of over $50 be shipped using Registered Mail. That seems to have solved my overseas shipping problems.

MacCrimmon

How much does Overseas Registered mail cost, i.e., from the USA to Europe, etc.??? And, is it at all insurable?

historygeek

In Canada it cost nine dollars.

Donovan

Why not just say "Any items shipped outside of the US will be at buyers risk" and let the bidders decide if they want to bid or not.

Aethelred

As always, great advice from everyone here!

cosmicdebris

They can always come over here and pick it up.

1jester

Now I know why Newbie isn't posting anymore.... The Dead One chased him away with his discriminatory invective...

Stork

<Why not just say "Any items shipped outside of the US will be at buyers risk" and let the bidders decide if they want to bid or not>

I can understand this sentiment, but after reading several strings about this sort of thing domestically on the liteside, I have come to come down on the side of the concept that the seller of the item is ultimately responsible for it's delivery.

If/when I sell some things I will include postal insurance in the shipping charges and everything will ship with whatever insurance/tracking is neccessary.

If there are any problems then, hopefully, I can file a claim with the post office, because I am mortally certain paypal and ebay will be of zero help whatsoever. Perhaps I am mistaken, but that is what I have taken away from the multiple discussions on the liteside.

I am probably being very idealistic and non-realistic because there are probably a few countries where I cannot register and/or insure the package properly.

Of course, this supposes that I will ever bring myself to sell anything...I'm thinking about it! Okay, time to return to my wine glass....

As for the original questions...I don't know. I suppose it depends on what you sell. I would review your auctions and see what proportion of your winning and first underbidders seem to be from overseas. Without them do you think you would still have realized enough for your auctions? If not, you could give up on the hassles, but if there is a genuine contribution to your bottom line then I would suggest keeping those customers.

I hope you don't give up on people with custom's forms... for the next 6 months I will have a US address, but if it's anything more than an envelope then a form may be required to send to me. Ooops, I forgot, I need to go back to my liquid relaxation now...sorry for the rambling!

NJMark1

I'm too new at E bay to have a answer but I have a Question in the same topic. I said in the listing that I do not ship outside of the US and Canada but the high bidder so far is from France. How do I handle this? Thanks


Mark

Bruce

I have never sold, only bought on ebay, and that is not too often. Not that I want to encourage it by any means, but probably 2/3 of the auctions I scan say "Will ship to the U.S. only" obviously leaving me out on that one. So I know you wouldn't be the only one, especially if you include Canada and Great Britain as shipping destinations.

Myriads

Mark,

I'm a seller who has shipped to Europe and Asia a few times, and as a new buyer of Euros, I'm now a very frequent buyer of coins from Europe. So I have experience on both sides of the equation. Doing oversea transactions as a newbee is a bit daunting, but it's not that much harder then a regular transaction. And even simpler if the magic of Paypal is involved :-) France has a pretty secure postal system. So it's not a problem place to ship to.

Your buyer in France is probably a pretty safe bet if his feedback is good. You'd trust a US citizen with good feedback, so why not him? If it looks like he's goign to win, find out how much your package weighs and then get a spread of shipping prices for him. So if he wins you can send a friendly e-mail asking him how he'd like it shipped, and then provide him with a final invoice. As if they desire insurance. Odds are you'll have a smooth transaction and everyone will come out happy. If you offer a return privledge, be sure to take into account shipping times for a return when you inform him of his shipping costs.

Aethelred,

I'm of the mind that a few bad transactions shouldn't put one off from selling overseas. I don't sell coins, but I do sell comic book related material/action figures/promo items, and interest for some of this stuff in Europe and east Asia is very high. I've had a few items go for 3 and 4x what I expected because of strong international bidding. A friend I know has taken to listing items on the German eBay directly, and has been seeing very good multiples then what he was getting in the US. eBay's ownership of Paypal is opening the European Market nicely. The ability of buyers to avoid international Money Orders and such really spurs sales. Makes me happy too I just sent a package to the UK a day after auction close. That wasn't possible back in '98!

However, if you are feeling burnt out, then by all means take a step back and only sell to the areas you want to for a bit. No one wins if you get stressed out of this stuff. And as another member said above, it might not make a difference if most of your sales are not from Europe.

Myriads