Buyer frenzy

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by zljones

If you are a seller in the business of Hockey cards then I can see Canada inclusion as a must, but Baseball cards you can get away with excluding Canada bidders because of the shipping issues. If you sell let's say 100 items at once and maybe 20 high bidders are from Canada and pay at different times, you will have to make several trips to the post office. If you can't make it the PO to send those on time because of a busy schedule, buyers may zing you on stars for delivery, then ebay and Paypal will block you from receiving instant payment in the future.
I don't know if Ebay has a shipping label you can print for international orders at home, but I would not trust it, because I know the PO can come up with that it's wrong or some crap like that and return the item.

Hi Zach,

Not disagreeing with the hassle.

But here is something auction sellers often forget. It is not only about winning bidders. For every lot any bidder wins, they might place bids on 30 other lots they don't win. They might be the underbidder (the guy who drives the price up) on 15 other lots that the seller never has to ship to Canada...but possibly gets a much higher price on as a result.

The final price in an auction is not set by the winner...it is set by the underbidder.

Anyway, every seller needs to weigh the pros and cons - but if it was me, I'd never exclude 35 million people in a neighboring country with a fairly strong economy/currency from bidding on an auction I was holding.

Cheers,
Blair

[Runscott]

Blair, Have you ever had a winning bidder open a case against you because an item you sold was sitting in customs? It locks up your Paypal funds. It used to be that I could not actually stop Canadians from bidding (the ebay software didn't work). If they won, I would warn them of the border and insurance issues, they would say "fine", then they would still open a case and sometimes ding me on feedback. Go figure, those nice Canadians.

In addition, I prefer to offer free shipping, but I can't do that with Canada because of the high cost of insurance, and I simply won't send a $100+ item off uninsured, especially when another country is involved. I understand your frustration, and I'm not sure if the border hold-up issue is Canada's fault, or that of the USA, but it's a problem. We've had this discussion here MANY times, and the non-US collectors have yet to convince me that I'm making a mistake. Maybe I am, but I'm still waiting for a convincing argument.

Regarding hockey cards, most hockey teams are in the United States, so the main hockey market is also in the United States. Not offering shipping to your PRIMARY market would be kind of foolish. The main market for baseball cards is the USA, regardless of the actual population of Canada.

BTW - we run into the same issues with pool cues. There are some really major buyers of expensive cues in Indonesia, Japan, and other far east countries. Unfortunately, it's just not safe to ship to most of them. If ebay protected both buyer and seller in a fair manner, it might not be an issue, but they don't, so it is.

As it stands, I actually DO ship to non-US countries, but only via private, non-ebay transactions. More than anything, it's a problem with how ebay fails to protect sellers.

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by Runscott

I understand your frustration, and I'm not sure if the border hold-up issue is Canada's fault, or that of the USA, but it's a problem.

Hi Scott,

You misunderstand me...I'm not the least bit frustrated. Your competitors are more than willing to take every dime I have to spend on pre-war baseball (and then some ).

I was only offering some free advice, which is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Cheers,
Blair

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

Hi Scott,

You misunderstand me...I'm not the least bit frustrated. Your competitors are more than willing to take every dime I have to spend on pre-war baseball (and then some ).

I was only offering some free advice, which is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Cheers,
Blair

Blair, I took your "free advice" for exactly what it was worth, so we're both good.

[oldjudge]

Ruth cards are incredibly hot. Not sure why but the prices are crazy. Maybe it started with the M101-4/5s, but the Felix Mendelsohn that recently sold went for a huge number and I think that if an E135 like Ruth came out it would post a really big number too.