Help shipping to Italy!!

Collectorguy00

Collectorguy00

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I just had something sell on Ebay to an Italian and I've never shipped anything overseas before so I was wondering what the smartest way to go about shipping? I'm mainly worried about fraud prevention as I suspect things are different overseas and I heard Italy is a bitch to ship to. Any advice?

Edit: Just realized this should of gone in the auction forum so if a Mod sees this please move it, thanks!
 
[quote name='Collectorguy00']I just had something sell on Ebay to an Italian and I've never shipped anything overseas before so I was wondering what the smartest way to go about shipping? I'm mainly worried about fraud prevention as I suspect things are different overseas and I heard Italy is a bitch to ship to. Any advice?

Edit: Just realized this should of gone in the auction forum so if a Mod sees this please move it, thanks![/quote]

Never, I MEAN NEVER - ship to Italy. I don't know if you ever noticed sellers will say I don't ship to X and 99% of the time X is Italy? There is a reason - Italy has a notoriously slow and awful postal service. USPS will deliver fine to the country but when Italy post takes over things either get lost or take months to get there - so even when they get there paypal already decided against you in a complaint. Then you are out the product and what you paid. The only way I would ship to italy would be insured but USPS doesn't do insurance unless it is express so then it would be UPS or Fedex which can cost an arm and a leg and no one will pay those prices. I know it is too late for you, but it was my experience too. I took the chance and some guy never got it - was out 55 in paypal refund and then what I paid for the CDs I sold!!! I have no doubt shady buyers also take advantage of this to file bad claims.
 
The smartest way to ship to any international country is to not do it. Seriously. You basically have no protection if you ship to a non-US buyer. You can't get tracking or insurance unless you use UPS/FedEx, which costs hundreds of dollars even for the smallest package.

Honestly, I'd back out of this if possible.

But if the item is of little value and you still want to do it, the best way would be to take it to the post office. You have to fill out some forms and whatnot.
 
USE non fix rate priority mail. that way you'll get some kind of tracking i believe (not sure if Italy will have tracking). not the best, but at least it will help decrease the chance of fraud.
 
Add registered mail to the package It costs like ten bucks, but it not only insures you, but is fully traceable and tracked at EVERY post office it lands in.
 
[quote name='Paco']Add registered mail to the package It costs like ten bucks, but it not only insures you, but is fully traceable and tracked at EVERY post office it lands in.[/QUOTE]

agreed. packages are only insured for $50 thou.
 
DO NOT send anything to Italy that has to go through its postal system. You should ship it with something like UPS, DHL, or FedEx. The second poster is correct, Italy has a notoriously bad postal system (one of the worst in the world). Shit takes FOREVER to get delivered there. When my parents visited relatives in Italy they were told this and sent a few postcards back to our house in the USA. It took EIGHT MONTHS for them to arrive.

For future reference when you set up an auction on Ebay you can exclude foreign bidders - I would do this on future options to avoid the hassle of international shipping.
 
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