Ebay International Shipping?

[Balticfox]

Does the Ebay International Shipping program benefit anyone but Ebay?

A certain seller is offering five card lots of "Ex/Ex Mint" Topps 1959 and 1960 Baseball cards for $10 per lot. Shipping though is $16.44 for a single lot with combined shipping offered. Since that sounded reasonable, I put 20 lots (which amounted to 100 cards) in my basket expecting to see a reasonable rate for shipping 100 cards. Well I did not. What I saw was shipping of $116.36 and a taunt that I'd "saved" $207.76. (The mathematics doesn't even work.) Well in my universe that's not classified as a "saving". I'd instead be agreeing to being gouged on shipping. So no deal.

Since very few sellers would have the audacity to gouge on shipping to that extent, the Ebay International Shipping program certainly doesn't benefit the buyer. Does it benefit the seller in some way? Does the seller get a piece of the action, i.e. shipping fee?

Or is this International Shipping program solely to Ebay's benefit? Did Ebay just decide to eliminate buyers' constant complaints concerning sellers charging unreasonable shipping fees by instead charging the unreasonable shipping fees at the Ebay level and therefore turning the negative feedback into its own revenue stream?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

It's ridiculous. You can also talk about the ridiculous "import fees" on pricier items. These fees are far more than actual cost to import.

[boysblue]

Agreed. Ridiculous! Between shipping and potential import fees, it simply doesn't make sense for Canadians to buy from American sellers anymore. Too bad.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

This has been going on for years. It works both ways; Americans won't want to buy from Canadians, either. I hate eBay.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Does the Ebay International Shipping program benefit anyone but Ebay?

A certain seller is offering five card lots of "Ex/Ex Mint" Topps 1959 and 1960 Baseball cards for $10 per lot. Shipping though is $16.44 for a single lot with combined shipping offered. Since that sounded reasonable, I put 20 lots (which amounted to 100 cards) in my basket expecting to see a reasonable rate for shipping 100 cards. Well I did not. What I saw was shipping of $116.36 and a taunt that I'd "saved" $207.76. (The mathematics doesn't even work.) Well in my universe that's not classified as a "saving". I'd instead be agreeing to being gouged on shipping. So no deal.

Since very few sellers would have the audacity to gouge on shipping to that extent, the Ebay International Shipping program certainly doesn't benefit the buyer. Does it benefit the seller in some way? Does the seller get a piece of the action, i.e. shipping fee?

Or is this International Shipping program solely to Ebay's benefit? Did Ebay just decide to eliminate buyers' constant complaints concerning sellers charging unreasonable shipping fees by instead charging the unreasonable shipping fees at the Ebay level and therefore turning the negative feedback into its own revenue stream?

Reason you got the high quote, is that Ebay "combines" the shipments by taking the sellers estimated dimensions and weights of each individual lot, and then multiplies that by the number of lots you won. (ie. one 6 ounce package, becomes a 12 ounce package, and so on and so forth). Hardly a true combining of lots. The seller is also, not allowed to adjust or recalculate the invoice, once the sale or commitment to buy is made for International shipments....and yes, then Ebay pockets the difference the actual combining of lots makes...and the seller and the buyer are left out in the cold. As a matter of fact...the seller then had to pay an elevated "Final Value Fee" based on the bullshit estimate that they gave the buyer...which screws them even harder on the selling fees.

It's a clusterf*ck! Definitely doesn't benefit sellers...although others who are loathe to ship International are fine with it, because it takes an element of risk out of their hands. My take...I'd rather have some risk, then no sales.

I specialize in boxing. An International Sport, right? Wasn't too long ago, maybe 35% of my buyers and bidders were of non-U.S. origin.

Now it's, maybe 5%. Not only does it limit sales, but it depresses the prices on things that do sell, because of a lack of competition.

I recently lost a customer that's been a regular of mine in the Netherlands for over 20+ years. Probably bought 1000+ items from me over the years. Very knowledgeable boxing fan and historian. Once upon a time I used to give him free shipping whenever he identified an unknown boxer I listed on Ebay or on my website for me, and I was able to corroborate his ID. Then at a certain point I couldn't do that anymore, because it got too expensive to ship overseas.

I recently got a note from him after a bunch of auction wins, that he would no longer be bidding with me, because of the shipping costs Ebay was charging him. Costs that I was completely unaware of, because Ebay doesn't even let me send my own invoices to International customers anymore. They won't even let me SEE the invoice, until after the customer had paid.

I refunded some money back to him, but I took a bath on it, because that money went straight to Ebay, not to me...so I was refunding him through my auction take, which was already depressed because Ebay charges a higher Merchant fee for International payments.

The combined shipping calculations have become useless or nearly impossible to navigate and predict on Ebay, but at least I can adjust invoices or issue valid refunds for domestic buyers after the fact. I can't even do that with the International buyers, because that money doesn't come to me, and I can't issue adjusted invoices before they have paid.

International pricing was already going up pretty aggressively, but Brexit started making it really bad...and when the word "Globalization" became a 4 letter word in certain circles...it's made it nearly untenable for smaller sellers who don't rely on Global warehouses all around the world.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Costs that I was completely unaware of, because Ebay doesn't even let me send my own invoices to International customers anymore. They won't even let me SEE the invoice, until after the customer had paid.

This can be avoided. It's just a matter of learning how to correct the issue so that you change the entire process to doing it manually, yourself, as opposed to using the eBay Global Shipping program. They don't force you to use Global Shipping. That still may not get rid of their gouging your buyer on import fees.

Does anyone know for certain if import fees are only applied by eBay when a seller uses Global Shipping?

[Balticfox]

So I'd asked the seller to send me a combined invoice for fifteen or so lots. He agreed. Well five weeks later and I'm still waiting. I guess he either can't figure out how to do so or he can't be bothered to take the trouble.

[sb1]

The benefit to US sellers is that they only pay postage to the US based mailing center which is normal postage rates. While mailing from Canada to the US is relatively cheap, mailing from the US to Canada is pretty expensive, even for a small package so the ebay sellers benefit from very little out of pocket and none of the risk of non-tracking as well, as ebay is on the hook if something goes missing. Added, I buy a lot from Canadian sellers and pay low shipping, just have to endure the wait, which is not a big deal.

[MooseDog]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

So I'd asked the seller to send me a combined invoice for fifteen or so lots. He agreed. Well five weeks later and I'm still waiting. I guess he either can't figure out how to do so or he can't be bothered to take the trouble.

I tried to do that for a UK buyer...apparently eBay won't let a seller send a combined shipping invoice to a non-US buyer. I imagine that it's the same when the seller is not in the US.

So the fix was to create a special auction listing just for the buyer and adjust the price in the new listing. One lot only, though. Send the buyer the item number and cancel the previous individual sales. Make sure the title is something that won't get picked up by searches though...something like "special listing for jqpubliczz"

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

Make sure the title is something that won't get picked up by searches though...something like "special listing for jqpubliczz"

Yup, and/or list it for $3 billion OBO.

[LEHR]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Does the Ebay International Shipping program benefit anyone but Ebay?

It benefits me as a US seller. Nothing against the good people of Canada but I stopped shipping directly to Canada 18-20 months ago because I had three packages go missing in a six month span. All fell off the radar in or after clearing customs. The value of all three was approximately $700.00 and the US postal service is in my opinion a nightmare to deal with regarding refunds, especially with packages going out of the country. The eBay International Shipping program benefits me because it opens my items up again to Canadian/International buyers as I'm only shipping to a US hub, and if the package is lost after that it's all on the eBay without question.