Why do people selling on ebay are only willing to ship to specific continents?

post #1 of 7

6/4/12 at 12:40pm

Thread Starter

Alfred001

Posts: 88
Joined: 3/2012
Select All Posts By This User

This doesn't apply only to ebay but any online trade between individuals, but mostly I'm curious about American folks because it is with them that I ran into this mostly:

Why is it that people limit where they will ship to? For ex. I just bought something on ebay from someone in America and they told me they wouldn't ship internationally. Is there some extra hassle at the post office to send internationally?

Reply

post #2 of 7

6/4/12 at 12:42pm

marmottan

Posts: 96
Joined: 4/2012
Select All Posts By This User

Customs issues mostly (filling papers...), security and problem about payment, etc.

Reply

post #3 of 7

6/4/12 at 1:04pm

Thread Starter

Alfred001

Posts: 88
Joined: 3/2012
Select All Posts By This User

Well, the security, that's on the buyer isn't it, I mean it is understood that the buyer takes on that risk, he can choose insured shipping.

As for payment, that can't be the issue, it's usually done through paypal.

So it's customs, then? You guys have to fill out some forms?

Reply

post #4 of 7

6/4/12 at 2:27pm

div25sec9

Posts: 276
Joined: 6/2011
Location: Canada
Select All Posts By This User

There are numerous reasons why I don't ship outside of North America; most of these reasons are ebay related, but some applies here as well
- Scammers are prevalent outside of North America; you get screwed because they take advantage of ebay buyer protection rules and paypal loopholes.
- Shipping is a pain. I know pretty accurately what it costs to ship the items I sell in North America; international rates require getting extra shipping quotes. If you're dealing with higher numbers of items; dealing with lots of one-of quotes is time consuming.
- Shipping rates internationally often are a deal breaker. Shipping costs can easily outweigh the cost of the actual item, so it isn't worth bothering to attract customers who will probably back out when they find out how much shipping is.
- Dealing with other postal systems is a crap shoot. Some countries have incompetent and/or corrupt postal systems; so I cannot guarantee a package will arrive

...hope this helps answer the question

Reply

post #5 of 7

6/4/12 at 11:11pm

Thread Starter

Alfred001

Posts: 88
Joined: 3/2012
Select All Posts By This User

Quote:

Originally Posted by div25sec9

There are numerous reasons why I don't ship outside of North America; most of these reasons are ebay related, but some applies here as well
- Scammers are prevalent outside of North America; you get screwed because they take advantage of ebay buyer protection rules and paypal loopholes.
- Shipping is a pain. I know pretty accurately what it costs to ship the items I sell in North America; international rates require getting extra shipping quotes. If you're dealing with higher numbers of items; dealing with lots of one-of quotes is time consuming.
- Shipping rates internationally often are a deal breaker. Shipping costs can easily outweigh the cost of the actual item, so it isn't worth bothering to attract customers who will probably back out when they find out how much shipping is.
- Dealing with other postal systems is a crap shoot. Some countries have incompetent and/or corrupt postal systems; so I cannot guarantee a package will arrive
...hope this helps answer the question

Thank you!

Reply

post #6 of 7

6/5/12 at 12:05am

stevent

Posts: 5,702
Joined: 2/2010
Location: The Yay / LA
Select All Posts By This User

I usually ship but sometimes it's an item $500 or over, and the buyer wants me to send using a super cheap shipping service with no tracking, mark item as gift and $20 and a bunch of other stuff. All the buyer then has to do is say he never received it and I'm screwed

Reply

post #7 of 7

6/23/12 at 11:50am