Shipping out of country?

david12795

david12795

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Like most of you guys, I have been a long time eBay seller. Since then, I have NOT offered shipping out of country and I should, since I tend to sell high priced items, and been getting asked a lot from the people of ebay. But my question here is how is it? Is it hard? Does it require extra work where you have to go to a USPS store? What's the cheapest price you guys usually pay? Are there any country you're uncertain to ship to?

I feel like I may be missing out since I'm sure I could get my steelbooks (monsters Inc and toy story 3) for more, or at least get rid of it.
 
I've shipped internationally before. Had aboot 50 or so international sales. Mostly to Canada but some orders were all over the place, France, Spain, Brazil, Russia, Malaysia.

I used Stamps.com, I believe you have to wait on line if you don't use Stamps.com, Endicia, etc. It's easy with postage printing services, addresses and customs all on one printout, no need for filling excess customs forms or sticking envelopes for them.

However...

It was basically a high risk for me since I shipped out things either using First Class International or Flat-Rate International. Buyers overseas were willing to pay more since the S/H was fairly cheap to them (It costs pretty much the same to ship First-Class International as is does for Domestic First Class). I lucked out and had no problems.

After reading some international shipping horror stories I have stopped shipping internationally unless the buyer is willing to pay for more expensive shipping options with 'true' tracking and confirmation.
Delivery Confirmation is useless overseas, they only scan it when it reaches the post office or leaving overseas or sometimes never. They never scan it when it is delivered.

After a few times when USPS did not scan my international packages, I made sure to bring them to clerk even if they were pre-paid and made sure they scanned them and I had a receipt for them.
It turns out that in eBay's eyes, it does not matter if you have proof of sending, you need proof of delivery.
So if you plan on shipping internationally and want profit, make sure the item is high demand overseas and that buyers are willing to pay for more expensive options.

If you plan on shipping internationally, don't go with First-Class International or Flat-Rate International despite the temptations of cheap S/H. It may come back and bite you in the butt.
 
Yes, I have gotten screwed before on International shipping, and now only offer expensive shipping options with tracking, etc. And again, just today, I got someone who sent me an email *after* winning the auction complaining that my shipping was too high and "teaching" me how I can ship it to them cheaper using Air Mail. Problem is, I used to do that until I had someone ask me my shipping method a few days after winning an auction. When I told them airmail, the *next day* they filed a dispute with Paypal saying they didn't get their item and I instantly lost since I had no proof of any kind to produce. I lost about $100 that day... :whistle2:( No more!
 
I've shipped packages to Canada, Brazil, Europe and to FPO/APO. Although I've never lost money on those transactions I decided it was too much of a hassle and risk.

As someone mentioned, in a dispute over an Item Not Received the only thing that matters is delivery confirmation. And only the most expensive shipping methods offer that service.

Then you have the problem of buyers asking you to declare it as a gift or lower the actual value of the item on the customs form so they wont have to pay the proper import tax, which is illegal.

So all in all if you're able and willing to take a higher risk of a loss by selling internationally don't do it.
 
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[quote name='david12795']wow thats horrible! how much did you guys have to pay for tracking?[/QUOTE]

For tracking on an international package you need to have it Registered, which is about $30-$40 per item. If you ship internationally, you'll have to go without tracking unless you want to charge $40 to ship a game.
 
I sent a game to Germany earlier this year, and the buyer said it never arrived - and of course the useless delivery confirmation didn't say anything. Not surprisingly, Paypal gave him a refund.

And then, THREE MONTHS later, the game arrives back on my doorstep from Germany, saying it couldn't be delivered.
 
yeah....not gonna do int. delivery then. too much risk after reading from this thread. im surprised its not even cheap when you track it in canada! :eek:
 
I ship internationally fairly regularly, and I've never had a problem. The biggest hassle of International Shipping is that it's expensive, and it's hard to get an accurate shipping cost for international unless you send it international priority, so sometime you lose some money on shipping because you didn't charge enough. Always estimate more rather than less, if nothing else if the buyer puts up a fuss, just refund the difference.
 
[quote name='dinovelvet']I sent a game to Germany earlier this year, and the buyer said it never arrived - and of course the useless delivery confirmation didn't say anything. Not surprisingly, Paypal gave him a refund.

And then, THREE MONTHS later, the game arrives back on my doorstep from Germany, saying it couldn't be delivered.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that happens every once in a while. At least you got lucky and are only out the postage. I've had lots of items "lost" overseas. A recent one was $118 for a game. It pissed me off because paypal only gave the claim about 2 weeks and it takes up to 4 weeks for some items to arrive in other countries.

[quote name='david12795']yeah....not gonna do int. delivery then. too much risk after reading from this thread. im surprised its not even cheap when you track it in canada! :eek:[/QUOTE]

Unless you sell 100+ items internationally a month, then it's not really worth it. You actually have to sell in quantity to offset the couple of packages that are going to get lost or never delivered. It will happen to everyone, eventually. At least, that's been my experience. Losing a package worth $100+ really sucks big time. It's happened to me twice so far. $128 Vesperia guide and this $118 game recently.
 
Just use UPS (or FedEx). Make it clear that the buyer is responsible for the full cost of shipping and any other fees, and don't send them an invoice until after you know how much it'll cost you.

I wouldn't feel comfortable using USPS to ship internationally.
 
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