Thread: Offering International Shipping on Ebay?

Hi Guys,

I've sold a few items on ebay and my transactions have gone pretty smoothly so far. I've been restricting my sales to CONUS so far. To increase the number of potential buyers I was thinking of offering international shipping.

Are there any restrictions I should have on international shipping? Should I use eBay's Global Shipping Program?
Any advice that could save me trouble later would be appreciated. I'm not going to be selling a large number of items, so I want to keep the transactions as safe as possible.

Thanks

Using Global Ship will not likely net you any sales from Canada. I do not sell on Ebay and can only offer you a buyers experience. I rarely even look at ads that use Global ship to Canada. It is very expensive, has a brokerage change on top of high shipping costs and is very slow. There are ways in which you can restrict what countries you are willing to ship to. Shipping to some countries is super expensive from Canada and I am lead to believe it is from the US as well, which may be an advantage for G/S I do not know. There is a lot of misinformation about if you can track a first class international package into Canada, many people believe you cannot, but it does work finer. You may want to restrict who you are willing to do that for, as there is no insurance available on first class. A lot of that is going to depend on what you perceive as a risk and what the reward may be. It is all a balancing act in the end.

I agree the G/S is a super scam to the buyer. Chances are that the buyer will not get dinged duty. BUT if they do...usually it is a lot cheaper than the G/S.
You can ship via US post and get a tracking number and insurance (extra cost). That is the only way I would ship to anyone. Keeps everyone honest. Do the buyer a favour and stay away from UPS!!!! They love to ding people with brokerage fees.

You can restrict to which countries to you are willing to ship to. If someone is inquiring about the shipping charges and they have a lot of negative feedback or are a pain in the arse to previous sellers.... Don't do business with them.

eBay is a great place to shop. It's trial and error sometimes too.

Thanks guys

I saw one post on ebay speaking negatively about GS. I wanted to check since you can't go by one post by a random person. I'll make sure I'm not enrolled in GS before I offer international shipping.
I'll stick with USPS for now. I've had good luck with them. Even though I said NO international shipping, the last razor I sold was bought by someone in the UK. I used USPS (I believe it cost the same as shipping CONUS) and it got there pretty quickly.

Any specific countries that I should restrict? I figure that has to be some that don't do delivery confirmation or have really unreliable postal service. If you decide not to sell to someone (new buyer, history of leaving negative FB) does second place bidder automatically become the 'winner'?

The Global Shipping program is for high ticket items. The seller has an ironclad guarantee and the buyer knows he will get his item. The downside is it's very expensive. Unless the item sells for a grand or more the program will be a turnoff to prospective buyers.

Selling overseas is a pain and depending on the item and value tracking is spotty depending on the country and service used or available. The risk is to the seller. In many cases the buyer can bring a complaint saying he never got the item and the seller doesn't have any options.

Have many str8s from all over the world, Global shipping is double the price,
And the only items I have had stolen were via global and all in the Kentucky exchange facility.

Never had a problem with shipping just a bit slow getting here from some countries. The eBay Global Shipping Program sounds like another earn for them, crazy expensive.

Luckily the 3rd razor I had listed got bids during the last few minutes. I know people often wait till the last minute, but it has zero bids over 7 days until the last 15 min. The first two I listed got ZERO bids, but maybe my starting prices were a little high. I was trying to get my money back out of them, so I didn't think it was too bad at the time.
I guess big blades, Ducks, and bolstered handles are some of the most desirable.

So, I guess I will just use GS for the big ticket items or if it the buyer requests it. I'm going to do a little research and see if there are any countries I should restrict shipping to, or a few I should just list as the ones I will ship to.

One in a while I will list an item on eBay but will never ship anywhere except the USA. The reasons are the expense and time it takes to there. Shipping USPS priority I know exactly what the cost to ship inside the USA and it should get there with in 3-4 days. I guess you would just have to say I'm lazy. I like to take the easy way to most everything.