eBay International Shipping Program

[toppcat]

It's worth it for expensive items and all you have to do is mail it to the eBay distro center. After that, it's all on them. I sold a box of unopened vintage die cast cars a few years ago that were only sold in Australia and New Zealand in the early 50's. If I had limited the audience to the US it would have sold for a pittance, instead it did quite unexpectedly well and ended up with an Australian buyer. It then got hung up in customs for 6 weeks after eBay shipped it and the dispute filed by the buyer was immediately rejected.

[dbrown]

As a seller, I love the program. Never fill out a customs form again, never worry about the ridiculous int'l rates, just ship it to ebay's shipping center.

It doesn't seem super-speedy, I'll grant that. It's mostly trackable, too, so the buyer can see what's going on.

[Tabe]

As a seller, it's great. For buyers, it can be rough. They are often charged very high additional shipping fees as well as all the customs fees, etc.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Tabe

As a seller, it's great. For buyers, it can be rough. They are often charged very high additional shipping fees as well as all the customs fees, etc.

Maybe this is one of those rare exceptions for why international buyers should sign up for a vault. Or maybe Canadians can buy a PO box in Point Bob or something.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

For Canadians, it absolutely stinks. I refuse to use it. eBay price gouging to the buyer at its worst. Don't forget all the ridiculous import fees which always seem much higher than they should be. A lot of that money is going right into eBay's profits.

If a seller can't ship to me in Canada without using this system, fine, I've given up fighting and pleading. I just have the stuff sent to an American friend or a p.o. box.

[seanofjapan]

As a buyer in Japan, this is what made me stop using Ebay completely.

I used to buy a lot of low to mid end cards on Ebay from sellers who offered resonable shipping. When this program started, the cost of sending a card here went from about 3$ from guys who would just send them in an envelope via standard airmail (which I never had a problem with over hundreds of transactions), to about 30$ to send it via this stupid, slower system. Most of the cards I was buying were in the 50 to 100 dollar range, so this change instantly made Ebay worthless to me as a way to get cards. I haven’t bought anything on there in years now.

[UKCardGuy]

eBay international shipping is great for sellers but stinks for buyers.

Being based in the UK, using the eBay international shipping service is seldom cost effective. Instead, I use a mailing service in Florida. They accept my packages and the consolidate them into a single shipment to me once a month. It saves loads on international shipping charges and opens my options for the number of places that I can buy from.

As a seller in the UK, I sometimes get requests from buyers in Europe to offer an shipping option for them outside of the International Shipping service. I'm normally happy to oblige.

I think having eBay International Shipping enabled opens my listings to a wider international audience. If people then ask me for additional shipping options, I like having the option.

Gary G01db3rg