OT: Will eBay's Managed Payments Destroy the Seller

[seanofjapan]

As someone living overseas (Japan) it does suck to read this thread. I totally understand the logic and concerns that sellers have with shipping internationally and why you'll only be shipping domestically so I'm not blaming anyone (except Ebay).

But it does suck for those of us on the outside. 10 years ago I used to regularly buy a lot of lower value (under $50) cards on Ebay from sellers who were willing to put them in an envelope and toss them in the mail for 2-3$ shipping. It made collecting US cards feasible even if you were overseas.

Now, nobody on Ebay sells singles with shipping rates under about 20$ per card. So the math basically eliminates you from bidding on or buying anything under $200 or so since the shipping fees make it not worth your while. I haven't bought any cards on Ebay in a few years as a result and have more or less given up on my US collection, save for a few trading-by-mail relationships I have.

At a broader level, its probably stunting the growth of the hobby by cutting off the entire international market for US cards.