International Shipping, Should I or Not?

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strikeratt

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So I haven't really done much international shipping on ebay, I've heard some nightmare stories about it. I recently sold a sealed The Beatles Rockband Limited edition on Ebay to a guy in Maylasia. Now for those of you who don't know, that's a 450$ sale right there before shipping. The box is also huge and heavy as we could imagine a Rockband game would be. So a couple of questions.

I was offering free shipping to the 48 lower states, if I do ship it to this guy he's getting charged for it. How much am I looking at for such a big item.

Next one is what's my protection against this guy screwing me.
 
[quote name='strikeratt']So I haven't really done much international shipping on ebay, I've heard some nightmare stories about it. I recently sold a sealed The Beatles Rockband Limited edition on Ebay to a guy in Maylasia. Now for those of you who don't know, that's a 450$ sale right there before shipping. The box is also huge and heavy as we could imagine a Rockband game would be. So a couple of questions.

I was offering free shipping to the 48 lower states, if I do ship it to this guy he's getting charged for it. How much am I looking at for such a big item.

Next one is what's my protection against this guy screwing me.[/QUOTE]

Damn... $450 is nice. I sold a few a year or so ago for about $300 each.

I do ship internationally. If you're worried you can add insurance through the post office or third party carriers like www.u-pic.com or www.shipsurance.com. I've used both and both are legit. Just keep your shipping paperwork and receipts.

But to ship the item you're looking at at least $80 - $100+ depending on if they want Priority or Express.

If you do ship it a good website to use to track packages internationally is www.track-trace.com.

I have encountered many scumbag customers who message me looking for a refund because their item "never arrived" which is confirmed by USPS tracking (it doesn't always update correctly or quickly) however if you plug the tracking number into the postal service of the destination country often times it'll show "delivered"

and remember you can only track Priority or Express international packages.
 
In my experience USPS insurance only replaces the value that the item is declared for on the CP 72 (Customs) form.

While most third party carriers will let you insure the total value including shipping based on your invoice... not what you declare the item for.

This is helpful because in many countries anything value over $50USD including shipping costs gets taxed; which means it is held in customs longer.

With 3rd party insurers I can declare the item at a low value so that it won't get taxed but insure it for the actual full value if it does go missing
 
[quote name='strikeratt']Hmmm neither of those sites cover shipments to Malaysia from what I'm gathering off them. Am I mistaken?[/QUOTE]

I have contracts with both (it just requires that you purchase at least $20 worth of coverage on a monthly basis---if not you're billed for it regardless) and Malaysia shows up in my list of covered countries although I don't see it on the u-pic website for people purchasing single units of coverage.

You could always use the shipcover service which is eBay's default insurance company.
 
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