What do you guys like/not like to see in a Vintage Seller?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

As far as the GSP goes, it is all defensive. I don't like it as a seller, but it is a lot better to lose the sale than having to eat chargebacks from unscrupulous international purchasers. Unfortunately, we in the states don't have a cheap, trackable international shipping mechanism, so you either use the GSP or you risk being defrauded. The honest folks get lumped in with the dishonest sacks of dung.

It does make for some weird outcomes. I had a buyer from Japan take down 25+ lots of cards I had then have a cow over the shipping costs. I even offered to refund him 90% of the costs since it was all going to go into one box anyway, but he refused to close and I had to file over two dozen non-paying bidder claims against him to get my eBay fees back.

I completely understand the need for security on larger-priced items, but I'm not sure how an $18-20 S&H fee can be justified for a nothing item valued at less than the GSP cost to ship. Both eBay and the seller are basically thumbing their noses at a section of the customer base, however small it may be. Might as well not accept international bidders rather than offending them. For low value items, just run the risk and send without tracking or don't ship internationally at all if you're worried about being scammed. Include verbiage in your listings indicating how much time sending regular mail between the countries can sometimes take. Believe me, all Canadians are already aware of this to begin with, but put the verbiage in there just to cover that base. That's my perspective. Then, there's the incredibly inflated "Import Fees" imposed by eBay on pricier GSP shipments. Combined with the shipping cost, the total has sometimes exceeded 40% of the cost of the item(s)! One guess where all that extra money is going. GSP items are sent through the USPS, so there are no potentially staggering brokerage fees as you sometimes deal with when using UPS and the like.

Also, I certainly hope that most international buyers do understand that a nice amount of that inflated GSP S&H charge goes directly into eBay's pocket. It's yet another money grab. We know that it doesn't cost that much to ship something small like a card to Canada via USPS, even with tracking. Let's not even begin to speculate what sort of discount shipping price eBay has negotiated with the USPS for GSP items, either.

Forgive the derailment from the subject at hand. As is easily seen, this is a sore spot.