eBay Global Shipping Help Appreciated
 

I sold 29 cards to a buyer in Japan. I use the GSP, clearly say so in my listings. He is balking at the costs eBay is billing him. Since it is a large sale, I am willing to refund his domestic shipping charges payable to me to make it easier on him, because I can get all 29 cards to eBay's shipping facility in one flat rate box. My questions are:

1. Where in eBay's vast array of seller tools (I have a store) can I see what eBay is billing him for shipping?

2. Since all 29 items are one order, is there some way to get eBay to discount GSP costs accordingly?

3. Has anyone ever tried to deal with eBay customer service on this type of thing? How did it go? Who did you call?

Any helpful input would be appreciated.

Japan
 

Hi Adam, forget GSP. You can print an International label through the eBay website, or you can take it to the PO and they will put the postage on the package.

I don't know how much your package weighs, but you can mail up to 2 pounds to Japan for $28.75 at the PO, or for $27.31 through eBay. This is for a First Class International Package, with tracking, but no insurance.

Living in the UK and collecting baseball cards and memorabilia, I find myself selling through the GSP now and again.

1. You can check the cost for the buyer by going to the postage part of your listing on a desktop web browser. (you might have to log out of your account). Choose Japan as delivery location and voila.

2. I think ebay will combine the international leg for the order but they can charge crazy shipping charges/fees sometmes. I had someone buy from me and they balked at the $50 that the GSP was going to charge them for a few cards. In the end, I think I updated my listing to include an international postage option and sent it via UPS instead. Remember that the GSP will charge the buyer any import duties and taxes required in Japan.

3. I can't help with US phone numbers. I normally prefer to use the chat function.

Recommend the buyer get a mailbox service in the US like Shipmycards or COMC Mailboxes if they don't want to pay GSP.

Were the 29 cards one lot? Just sell them through GSP?

29 separate lots? Create a private listing with all 29 items and put it back on eBay for the buyer to buy BIN at the combined prices of the auction/BINs. That's what I've done in the past.

eBay's charge for shipping a $650 total order (29 separately listed cards) was $218.88 plus the taxes. I offered to rebate the buyer $120 of the shipping costs to get the deal done.

I was not aware that the USPS offers tracked shipping for international orders. Still I would rather not have to go to the PO to ship, which is why GSP makes sense. But at that price I can see why the buyer is pissed.

If you don't want to use Ebay GSP, you must ship to him directly and you take the hit if package is lost, you cannot ship to Ebay GSP location.

If you use Ebay GSP, once the package lands safely in Kentucky, you are off the hook for loss or damage. They open the package and re-ship, so they cover loss or damage.

Many buyer balk at the ridiculous Ebay GSP charges but its cost of doing business internationally.

This is where as a seller you have to decide....

IF you use the GSP, you'll protect yourself on the CHANCE something bad will happen, but...

1 you'll alienate countless buyers who refuse to pay the ridiculous rates, hence, lower prices realized for you
2 make people wait twice as long to get their item
3 have people not involved whatsoever in the buying process handle the item

From a purely logical standpoint on whether it is good business or not to use the GSP, the answer is obvious...

I'm not surprised by that fee at all.
Numerous sellers, until I bring it to their attention, have no idea what GSP the buyer is going to pay.
American sellers see X number of dollars in their listing but Canadian or other foreign buyers see a completely different fee, and that is usually way higher.

I've also noted many times a lot of sellers have no idea they have even signed up for GSP, which leads me to believe, eBay tricks them into using it.

To all American eBay sellers who refuse to use nothing other than GSP:

Please stop.

There are safe shipping methods which are far more cost effective to your customers. You're costing yourselves potential business using GSP. Do a little bit of research to find the option(s) that work best for you. GSP only serves to make eBay even more money while simultaneously costing your customers ludicrous amounts of money. It's a complete rip-off and unfair to all parties, yourselves included.

Do any of these methods cover the seller (again, we're talking eBay sales) if the buyer claims to have not received their package?

Not being snarky; I'm genuinely curious.

A buyer purchased 29 separate items. Did they make payment without first asking for a combined shipping discount?

I dont believe you can combine shipping on Global Shipping purchases.

I know there are numerous threads on the pros and cons of sellers using Global Shipping !!

From USPS.com:


The international shipping services for which free online tracking is available include:

• First-Class Package International Service
• Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelopes
• Priority Mail International Small Flat Rate Boxes

The free online tracking feature is available for these items sent to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, France, Netherlands, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Israel and Brazil.





So, to answer your question:

It depends.

As you can see, the list of tracked international destinations if you're using USPS is not particularly long.

Personally, I use the GSP because it means I don't have to go to the post office during regular business hours. International mail, even if you pre-print a label through Paypal or whatever, has to be handed to a clerk at the counter. With the GSP, I can use the 24-hr self service dropoff.

A very important piece of info to know:

(This has been my experience. Not sure about any of you.)

When shipping to Canada from the U.S., do not use your own printed labels/tracking from stamps.com and other similar shipping services. These tracking numbers only work within the USPS system. Once it leaves the US, there is no way to track via Canada Post. This was a very costly mistake which I learned the hard way, as when a package is lost, each postal system will just blame the other and wash their hands at your expense. You'll want to take your mailings into the post office and have the USPS issue their own tracking numbers which will carry over into Canada via the Canada Post website.

Some of you will see this as a big "pro" to continue to use GSP. Just remember that if you do want foreign customers, many of them will see that you're using GSP and pass your items by. Even if you are selling a 99 cent item, the GSP cost is ridiculous--I want to say the cheapest I've seen is $11+ per item, but the usual starting point has been over $14 per item more often than not. Of course, this cost just escalates based on the sale price of your items.

This matches my experience from this weekend. A buyer bought 16 items and then complained that they couldn't ask for combined shipping.

The entire lot wasn't big bucks, so I canceled his 16 orders, relisted as one, and shipped via USPS. I might not have done this if the sale was high dollar (at least not just ship via USPS) but trying to do a solid for a collector north of the border!

This buyer is in Asia, so the tracking from USPS that is specified above does not apply. I recently tried to send a package to Mexico to return fake cards that crooked cockroach barbacoa2015 sold me. No tracking unless I spent into three figures on it, so the fake cards were 'lost' and I ate the $400+ I spent. Once bitten, twice shy.

I do like the idea of canceling all 29 sales and relisting the entire lot in one BIN at the aggregate price they realized. If he doesn't pony up I will probably do that.

Thanks; hope it works out for you.

+1 for creating a new listing with all the cards and a BIN.

As an alternative you might want to consider UPS or Fedex. It'll cost a little more but you'll get a tracking number, proof of delivery that will work for the eBay seller guarantee and have only 1 company to deal with for the end to end process.

29 separate lots to buyer in Japan? hmm... Pokemons?

GSP cost arms and legs to the buyer, however, if the buyer is willing to pay for the fee then just let it be. I wouldn't offer anything else unless buyer asks for it or he/she willing to take the risk of the package getting lost/delay/opened by custom and being charge for huge custom taxes.... etc.

I'm actually a collector in Japan so I know how that buyer feels.

I'm not sure exactly how much that specific order would cost, but I used to buy cards on Ebay all the time since there were a fair number of sellers willing to charge reasonable shipping rates. Since they introduced that GSP the cost of shipping for buyers in japan (and presumable elsewhere in the world) has exploded and I've had to give up completely on shopping there (and also more or less given up on collecting MLB cards). This is of course not the fault of sellers and I feel bad that I can't give them my business anymore.

I definitely sympathize with sellers like you having to deal with this, but I'm also kind of sympathetic to that sticker shock for buyers in Japan, it didn't used to be like this.