selling on ebay and shipping internationally

[jimbo]

I just wanted to hear others experiences about selling on ebay. I have some items up for sale. I have stated in the auction shipping to USA only, but I have potential buyers that are overseas. I wanted to know others experiences with shipping via UPS or USPS to overseas destinations. Also would like to know how payment is done, and whether Paypal is okay to use?

[Ken_Shea]

Having sold internationally for some time I can say this, I no longer do it for the following reasons.

1) Just too time consuming in regards to quoting shipping prices, then waiting for a reply only to get more questions and on and on it goes.
I can say this, I found the USPS is the easier by far to ship internationally.

2) Since 9/11 export laws have drastically changed and one can get themselves into a lot of trouble shipping seemingly Innocent items to wherever internationally. You have to be very careful here.

3) Payment by PayPal is no guarantee that funds paid by credit card are not paid with a stolen card. Prior to stopping international sales, payment was only accepted via Western Union, Bank Wire transfer, these means are the same as cash and the only sure way of protecting your self from expensive credit card charge backs. Believe me, when/if you were to import they would require cash up front as well and I would not blame them.

4) My feeling is that unless you have a market for numerous sales it just is not worth the time for only a few sales. That it is not simpler is very unfortunate because of the very large international sales potential.

Ken

[sendkeys]

I have never had a problem sending internationally. Must have sent around 100 things in the last couple years never a problem. I always used usps global priority.
Now if this is a larger setup? filling out customs forms might start being a pain but for a sale :P not that bad. only takes min. or two.

All my sales have been with money orders or paypal. paypal being the bulk.

Never a problem again. but i have seen some things with paypal. some tips . Like ken said. if they pay with a stolen creditcard they will lock your account and want receipts or some other proof or somthing to get unlocked. So dont keep more money in your paypal then you wouldn't mind seeing locked away for couple months.

To make it safer if you're dealing with low feedback users or hight-end products you can make the user have a "verified paypal account" and a "verified address" before you take the money. this is a setting in paypal you can select.

"Verified account+address + good feedback" should be fine
but this would more have to do with what you sell. Selling flat screen tv's is going to make more problems than selling custom wallet hooks or somthing :P

Also some countries will have more problems then others. Say china or Russia or African will more likely have more “crime” then say Canada or Germany as they others governments seam to not care as much. You can select in ebay what counties you will sell too.

Could always do money orders too or they can send it via bidpay.com (very slow and i dont like them that much but they do work)

[jimbo]

Ken_shea, sendkeys thanks for the response. That is pretty much my sentiment too. The credit card problem for paypal exists anywhere. I also created a separate checking account just for paypal transactions. Money orders take some extra time to recieve. I will look into bidpay.com.

These are just some cnc related items that I was trimming from my project list. I also realize that overseas it is much harder to obtain stuff like this, so I was wanting to help in that way.

Jim.

[sol]

My sentiments are with Ken; the time it took to take care of the red tape did not make low markup items worthwhile. Too add even more complexity USPS does not offer the same services to an entire country so it takes time to find the city code cross check delivery options find the import and export restrictions . . . .
Also PayPal is not as global as it initially seems, certain cards do not work in certain countries which is realized AFTER the paying process is underway.

I found it to be a huge pain and quit offering overseas sales. Were more money being made on each sale it might be worth the trouble but not for just a few bucks profit per item.

[PEU]

In defense of internanational buyers like myself, I received items from all over the world with no problems, I always use registered mail or from the USA I use EMS (global priority) since there is no less expensive trackable method.

I saw a trend at ebay regarding international payments must be paid using bidpay instead of paypal. I only use paypal BTW.

Keeping an eye on who is buying, paypal and ebay profile should keep you safe, but always keep in mind that there are thiefs/fraudulent buyers in USA too... (I was scammed only once and the seller was from USA)

My 2 cents (of peso)


Pablo

[InspirationTool]

I do quite alot of business internationally, especially Canada.

I've never had a problem. Actually, if your business supports repeat customers, it can be a competetive advantage as you get referrals in the other country. It only costs a few cents extra to ship to Canada, but takes more time (10-12 days for airmail.)

-Jeff

[Al_The_Man]

I ship and recieve both ways across the US/Canada border every month and I get a bit upset with some US sellers that refuse to sell to Canada, but I assume it is bad feed back from some buyers that are not aware of UPS brokerage fees etc.
I am fortunate that I can clear my own so I do not have that problem.
I have heard some say it is not worth the bother for an extra few cents, but it can mean more profit than that.
A prime example, alot of US sellers allow the default ebay page to declare US shipments only, but when I contact them, they say 'No problem'.
A case in point, On a recent auction I contacted a sellers to find out if he shipped to Canada and he agreed to.
The auction was for some electronic equipment and there was an initial 3 early bids up to $50.00 which lasted for the whole week, The item was worth at least $200.00 to me so at the end of the auction I placed a last-second bid for $200.00, the previous bidder had obviously placed a reserve of $150.00 as my bid took it for just over the $150.00.
The moral of this story is that had the seller reserved the item to US bidders only, he would have been out $100.00!! And he would not have even been aware of it.
Al.

[Ken_Shea]

So that I am not misunderstood, I have never had a problem shipping internationally, except the time factor, to stop was a business decision based on my own business structure and not some personal issue with countries outside the USA. Had it been profital for me I would not have stopped, it simply just took up too much time.

Ken

[Geof]

If you do decide to ship internationally on a continuing basis one thing to consider is setting up bank accounts overseas so you can ask for direct transfers to your overseas account. Particularly in Europe this is feasible with the Euro being common to so many countries. This solves the big problem of quick yet secure payment. But as Ken mentions you do have to go into it in a businesslike way and have the sales volume to justify the hassle. Also you do have to make sure you comply with all the government red tape. For occasional sales it is probably not worth the effort; if you are manufacturing and selling your own product that is a whole different thing and international sales can be very profitable.

[Evodyne]

I've shipped within the US, to Canada, Finland, Norway, etc. and not had problems. Most of the overseas sales were to guys here at CNCzone. The way I look at it, if they are willing to pay the shipping and money shows up, I'll ship there. I have a Pakmail outlet by me and I'll bring an item in and they are very good about quoting all my options at once.

Evodyne