eBay coin sellers....Will you ship outside the USA??

Manorcourtman

I have been tossing around the idea of opening my eBay auctions to bidders outside the US. Good idea or not based on your experiences? Do you really benefit from expanding your potential customer base? Thanks for your input. Chris

100proof1957

Canada should be ok but you are gonna some strange requests because of customs laws.
Got an email from Slovenia re: a pair of raybans i have up,looks like the shipping was gonna be about 25 bucks and they cant use Paypal,mostly western union.
Conclusion : pain in the arse

Proof

tonyhar

I for one would then be able to consider your coins.
My searches filter out sellers who will not sell worldwide. I am grateful to the hundreds of sellers who will sell worldwide many of whom I have successfully traded.

lathmach

My son sells stuff on Ebay, all over the world. Doesn't have any problems, and the shipping is generally not that bad.
Someone wanted to know the shipping on something last week, and he thought it was out of line for the item. When he told them, they said they wanted to buy it as they couldn't get that thing in their home country.

Ray

Barry

I avoid it, unless it's something I think will have more non-USA appeal (like Euro sets). Insured shipping (not including Canada) is very expensive (min ~$20) because you can only insure Parcel Post, not Letter rate. If Registered you can insure, but only up to $40 or so in most countries. Buyers will want you to lie on your Customs declaration so they don't get reamed on Duty, but then you can't insure it for full value (besides being illegal to do).

Some of Europe (particularly northern) has very reliable mail service, but southern and eastern Europe are flaky at best with mail service.

BigD5

The problem you run into with international shipping is the insurance issue. Most countries don't allow more than $47 insurance.

Registered mail is ok in most places, but almost every international shipment I've made, I have also received a request to lie on the customs form.

I have a couple of board members that I've done this with, but I really try to avoid the whole situation all-together, and specify only US shipments in my item descriptions.

With all that said, I've never had an international shipment "lost". Go figure.

BAJJERFAN

From what I gather the USPS has reciprocal agreements with some countries regarding insurance claims and stuff like that but for me its not worth the hassle most of the time.
On another note I don't want to come across as a bigot but somehow I have a thing against really nice Morgans leaving U.S. soil. I don't think that we need to share everything with the rest of the world.

nccoin

No, not worth the hassle.

K6AZ

I no longer mention that I ship internationally in my auctions. The reason I did this is because I started running into a lot of bidders (mainly from Canada) who would win an expensive coin, then demand that I falsify the customs form. I have found that most responsible overseas bidders will email you and ask if they can bid. When they do this, I can tell them that I will ship to them, but they have to understand that I will not falsify the customs form, and they must accept responsibility for the shipment since in most cases the indemnity limit is $40.25 (this may have gone up since the last time I checked).

UncleWiggly

As Tony said from the Isle of Man that it would greatly expand his opportunities. One of the big problems I've read about is that some countries put a max on the postal insurance at around $50. Maybe a line in the shipping instructions: International bidders contact before bidding. I would check with someone like DHL for the world wide shipping. Maybe for a few test runs, you can let it be known by word of mouth amongst the international board members here that you'll ship to them. I'd hate to see any PCGS board members get cut short.


Jerry

ms70

No. I have had the same experiences as K6AZ. The serious ones will e-mail you and ask permission.

mercurynut

I will ship to Canada fora couple of bucks more.

airplanenut

I'll ship anywhere--it's noted that it'll cost more, though, outside the US. At least to Canada, my private insurance doesn't change its rate.

Jeremy

mr1931S

I once listed a collectible magazine. Turns out the winning bidder lives in Eastern Europe in a country I hadn't heard of.

I was willing to sell to him even though my auction was for US residents only. He didn't understand how much this thing was costing him in USD. The sale didn't happen. As I recall, the not-possible-to-insure shipping would have been about $20 to him. It really was cost prohibitive for him in addition to his misunderstanding about currency exchange rate.

On the other hand, I sent some coin auction catalogs to a UK bidder. He paid me satisfactorily, postage and all, so I sent the items to him in London and he was delighted that I was willing to sell to him.

Mixed bag experience is what I've had.

100proof1957

OT
shipped 8 packages to Canada via FEDEX,same size boxes,correct paperwork.etc.
7 made it
1 ended up on my front porch 3 weeks later !
call FEDEX "we dont know" can i get a credit ? no !

Barry

<< <i> Turns out the winning bidder lives in Eastern Europe in a country I hadn't heard of. >>


The Grand Duchy of Fenwick?

darktone

<< <i>I no longer mention that I ship internationally in my auctions. The reason I did this is because I started running into a lot of bidders (mainly from Canada) who would win an expensive coin, then demand that I falsify the customs form. I have found that most responsible overseas bidders will email you and ask if they can bid. When they do this, I can tell them that I will ship to them, but they have to understand that I will not falsify the customs form, and they must accept responsibility for the shipment since in most cases the indemnity limit is $40.25 (this may have gone up since the last time I checked). >>

I agree with Eric that if they contact me first I will tell them my rules and that they assume all risks involved with shipping but I won't send high value coins overseas. I have a $300 claim in since may of 2003 on a package to Germany that I can only recoup $40.45 on and I just got a response back from the USPS last week! So far I am out $300 plus $11 postage ebay fee's not to mention packaging costs and my time and grief on the matter and since I stand to only recoup $40.45 on the whole mess I am thinking about just tossing the claims papers in the trash and ending my agony on this matter. mike

Gonfunko

I ship anywhere in the world if the buyer is willing to pay for it. It's not common, but occasionally somebody from out of the U.S. buys something. So far, I haven't had any problems. What really annoys me are the ultra-patriotic sellers who claim to ship "only to the U.S." and won't deliver to Puerto Rico. True enough, Puerto Rico is not a state, but it is a commonwealth of the U.S. Other sellers insist on doing customs and writing "Rare Coins" on the package when they send it here, even though customs is uneccessary. So in conclusion: The Internet (and eBay) is a worldwide tool and all its resources should be available to anyone, anywhere in the world. There are honest people outside the U.S., you know. And a word of advice to sellers: Learn a bit of history and geography beore refusing to ship to Puerto Rico!

ajia

No.
The problem with selling to bidders outside the US has already been mentioned.

I did not start selling on eBay untill after my run in with Dennis88 from the Netherlands.
We were going to trade coins, a few of my PCGS Morgans for his PCGS Lincolns. His were "returned" to him after a couple of weeks(?) while mine were "lost" in the mail!
He convenently said he was going to keep the Lincolns until my Morgans arrived! Which, of course never did!

He was going to mail me paperwork showing he actually mailed the package, never did.
Then he (or his parents since he is a minor) was going to write a letter stating he never received my package, so I could have that, never received that either.

I have just decided it was not worth the hassle of trying to get the kid, although it burns me up that he is still around 'winning' give-aways on this board.

I also decided it was not worth the hassle dealing with out of the US bidders.

Back to your question...
Do you really benefit from expanding your potential customer base?.......benefit depends, I think, on the value of the coin. If you will be selling mostly common coins with a winning bid a buck or 2 higher than the runner-up, then I would say no.....not worth the hassle.
If the coins are super high end, where there is a good gap between winner & runner-up & the winner has the means to absorb the high shipping charges to ship oversees via an insured carrier (UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc) then it might be worth the 'hassle'.

hojodojonono

I would let bidders outside of the US bid. You want as many people bidding in your auctions as possible. They tend to not win a whole lot due to exchange rates and shipping and customs issues, but any bids they place just help your items sell for more. Everything can go in those Global Priority envelopes pretty cheap, and just make it clear that you while you are responsible for shipping the items, you take no responsibility over what happens to them after that. A reminder too that Paypal can't be an option for payment because you won't have what Paypal needs if a charge is challenged.

hojodojonono

I would let bidders outside of the US bid. You want as many people bidding in your auctions as possible. They tend to not win a whole lot due to exchange rates and shipping and customs issues, but any bids they place just help your items sell for more. Everything can go in those Global Priority envelopes pretty cheap, and just make it clear that you while you are responsible for shipping the items, you take no responsibility over what happens to them after that. A reminder too that Paypal can't be an option for payment because you won't have what Paypal needs if a charge is challenged.

mr1931S

The Grand Duchy of Fenwick?

Duchy the lesser...maybe.

100proof1957

whats the deal on international money orders ?
do all countries have them ?
if i get one from Canada i can cash it for USD
if i send a regular Us order to Canada i guess they get gaffed on the exchange rate,but i can buy an INTL one here and they dont get hurt.

Proof

shmort6552

I live near Toronto and have made about 70 purchases from sellers off of E-bay. I've never had a problem. I usually e-mail first and ask what the shipping rate etc will be. These deals have been very easy for both myself and the seller.

jdimmick

Most of the time I ship US Registered and since the US postal service has no authority outside the US, I dont ship thier. Canada has a limit of 400.00 I believe. One guy in Canada bought an 1877 Indian from me about two years ago, but I made him take full responcibility in the event of loss. He asked prior to placing bid and that was the agreement we made. It made it thier safely, but took like two weeks.

There is a enough buyers inside the us, for me not to have to worry about selling to the outside, so i dont.

291fifth

Stick to the US.

DDR

I've purchased (not sold) a number of coins from overseas dealers and have never had a problem.

Please don't exclude APO addresses from your selling. APO addresses are those used mostly by U.S. military, but also State Dept., USAID, etc., working for the U.S. government overseas. Those people are generally trustworthy buyers and although technically overseas, you can treat mail to APO address just like regular U.S. mail.

Catch22

I limit my auctions to US. However, if someone contacted me to discuss shipping to another country I would probably allow it if all my bases were covered and the buyer had good feedback. In general, I don't want the hassle and the demand from our own country is more than satsifactory.

The same goes for bidding on items from foreign countries. I won't do it...even Canada.

PCBUM

I would ship to Canada, but with no insurance offer. The insurance is too expensive and note that in the listing that insurance to Canada is not offered........

relayer

There are 370,000,000 people in the US, so that is plenty for me, but on request have shipped a couple to Canada and Europe.

I've bought coins from every continent except Africa and South America

boyhowdy

I restrict shipments to US, Canada and Australia. I've sent coins out of country 6 times (except for Canada) and 3 of the shipments were "lost", Philipines, Argentina and Ireland were the countries.

Steve

Rampage

I have never had a problem shipping coins or anything else overseas. Fill ot the small customs form and all will be fine. Just do not do favors for the buyers and put "gift" or undervalue the item.

Dog97

I advertise free shipping and that includes anywhere in the world but if I ever had an international buyer that cost me $25 to ship a coin I'd probably shiat a brick and not do it anymore without charge.

wallstreetman

I've shipped all over the world, almost all are willing to take the risk of no insurance, so far nothing has dissappeared. I cant believe the difference in price when you add insurance!

Robgetty

I'll ship to anyone as long as I have payment in full before the coins get
shipped. If they want to get the coins sent without insurance, it is their
risk, not mine, as long as I keep proof of mailing. Why limit the number
of bidders? Any extra costs would be passed to the buyer.

CarlWohlforth

I ship internationally. Last week a UK bidder won one of my auctions. Canada is a no brainer, it took just 3 days for a package to get their once. I insist on payment in US dollars. I also note that the buyer has to pay extra shipping costs and bear the risk of a lost package in case insurance isn't available.

mr1931S

Once sent an item to a Canadian. Was told by clerk at PO that insurance is not available for packages to Canada.

Has their policy changed and is now possible to insure packages to Canada?

I will not send any coin or coins without insuring. Period. Winning bidder who tells me he or she doesn't want to pay for insurance shouldn't have bid on my item in the first place.

No insurance and the only thing a legit seller can do is refund the money spent and chalk it up as a lesson learned.

I simply don't want to get into eating the total spent by the winner if told, for example,

"I haven't received the coin yet. Are you sure you sent it?" or " There was only one coin in the package and your auction was for two. What's up with that?" or " Looks like your flimsy package broke and the coin fell out. What are we gonna do? It's not my fault you didn't properly package."

The price of insurance is cheap when one considers the possible headaches it eliminates on both sides of the deal. No way do I want to have to tell a buyer, " You should have bought that insurance. Since you didn't , I can't help you. Sorry."

I have never and would never return a coin for refund without insuring it either.

mr1931S

Will you ship outside the USA??

It's an insurance issue as far as I'm concerned. Who eats the loss if something happens to that little valuable package?

Compa

I'm sure there are some of you out there with success stories about shipping overseas. The only ones speaking up are the ones that are complaining about a problem and not mentioning the successes they've had.

The solution to insurance of overseas sales is private insurance. It is even cheaper than regular USPS.

One site of many is: Link

Do a Google search and I'm sure you can find more.