Any reason to avoid ebay's Global Shipping Program?
 

This is a separate question from whether there's a reason to avoid eBay altogether. Given that one is using eBay, is there something I'm missing about the Global Shipping Program? The only shipping costs to the seller are the ones to eBay's domestic shipping center, correct? Thanks for any advice.

Yes, the seller only pays to ship to Kentucky. Ebay charges the buyer extra to ship international.

Sellers like it because once the package reaches Kentucky, they are off the hook if the package is lost.

For lower value stuff I would say the disadvantage is you won’t get any international customers. Since they introduced that I’ve stopped buying from a lot of sellers (in fact, I have mostly stopped using ebay altogether) since the cost of shipping went up severalfold when they started using it.

As a Canadian buyer, I will pass on items where the American seller uses the Global Shipping Program unless it's something I absolutely HAVE to have.

- the package is opened up after being sent and before being delivered as part of the program, and the item is usually handled and repacked very poorly.

- sending it to a hub destination as part of the program before it's sent to it's final destination adds lengthy shipping times.

- the rates a lot of the time are beyond ridiculous... I've seen as high as $85.00 to ship a single graded card and almost $600 to ship a pennant. Yes, a pennant.

If you value customers, you won't use the Global Shipping Program.