Is shipping internationaly safe?

[Chargersfan57]

I just recently listed my very first item for sale on ebay, and I kind of have a dilemma.

I have a buyer who seems very interested but he lives outside the U.S. He asked me to let him know if I changed my mind about shipping outside the U.S.

I am new so what should I expect? Is it really not worth the sale? How much more expensive will shipping be? What about customs?

Would it be strange of me to ask him if we could finish the deal through paypal outside ebay to save me the fees or would that scare him away?

I've heard some people say they won't sell internationaly so I'm trying to figure out if I should go for it.

Thanks fellow freaks!

 

[creecher]

Not enough information. Where is the buyer? Some places are decidedly dodgey to send any parcel to.

You need to make sure you send it by air and have it able to be tracked. Customs is the buyers concern. Do not fill out the customs slip for a lesser amount. Have the item insured, again, this cost is passed onto the buyer.

 

[Chargersfan57]

He's from Dublin, Ireland.

 

[duck of death]

What is the item and where is the buyer?

Does the potential buyer have good feedback?

If you know the weight of the item plus the dimensions of its packaging, you can calculate the shipping using the USPS calculator on the usps website. Depending on the weight and size and where it is going international shipping can be hugely expensive, but if the other guy will pay, that's up to him.

I would strongly advise not trying to avoid eBay fees. If you don't want to pay the fees, don't list your stuff for sale there. Suck it up and build the cost into your price. As a buyer, if a seller tried to get me to close the deal off-site, I would say no and I would report the seller. It's just a bad idea and will get you kicked off very quickly. It's also not to your benefit because you won't get any feedback from the sale and that doesn't do you any good for future sales.

 

[creecher]

I don't see a problem sending items there. Maybe an Irish member could shed some light on whether there are any particular problems to the region.

It's their money, as long as you communicate and make sure they are aware of the costs and responsibilities, i.e. customs duties that may be applicable, that you won't underquote the value of the item etc. Take pictures of the item, and more as you pack it. The only thing that can really bite you on the bum is they say they never received the item. That's why you have it tracked. Make sure the tracking requires their signature, otherwise have the parcel registered, so that a sig is needed. Registered items, depending upon your particular mail service, may have a trackable number, but not necessarily allows for the item to be tracked on line.

 

[Chargersfan57]

Thanks for the info guys!

There's an office depot by me that handles UPS. I'm going to call them tomorrow and hopefully they can set my package straight. I was reading information for doing this on Ebay and it seemed like there was so much to have to worry about and deal with. They can probably help me out right?

I would strongly advise not trying to avoid eBay fees. If you don't want to pay the fees, don't list your stuff for sale there. Suck it up and build the cost into your price. As a buyer, if a seller tried to get me to close the deal off-site, I would say no and I would report the seller. It's just a bad idea and will get you kicked off very quickly. It's also not to your benefit because you won't get any feedback from the sale and that doesn't do you any good for future sales.

Good advice duck of death. But for the record he hasn't purchased it yet. I would only ask him if that were okay before the sale. I wouldn't do that after he's already committed to the purchase.

I'm actually trying to look out for both of us because I am wondering if paypal itself would protect both buyer and seller. You see if paypal won't (I thought I read somewhere that it would) protect the seller and if I shoot him an email asking if he's still interested and if we could do it outside ebay, and such taking away protection, he will worry and back out. Which makes sense. Especially since I would be shipping out of country. I've had sellers on this site selling items through ebay, and they asked me if going outside ebay was okay. That was only when I was in talks with them on their item. Out of the country seems like it could be a different matter though.

If anyone else has any advice I'd really appreciate it.

 

[thenammagazine]

I'd be careful. I sold an item to an overseas buyer, received the paypal payment and shipped the item with a tracking number. A week later, the buyer reported to paypal that the box I sent was empty and notified his credit card company that his credit card had been stolen (his purchase of my item being the fraudulent charge). In the end, paypal reversed the payment and I got ^^^^ed. All they would suggest is that I contact the buyer and ask him to ship the item back. He ignored my requests and with sellers unable to leave feedback, I got double^^^^ed and he was left free to continue his scam.

 

[Chargersfan57]

I'd be careful. I sold an item to an overseas buyer, received the paypal payment and shipped the item. Came back that the buyer had reported that the box I sent was empty to PayPal and reported to his credit card company that his credit card had been stolen. In the end, paypal reversed the payment and I got ^^^^ed.

Yeah, I actually read about what you went through. Your story is one of the stories that make me nervious.

I think another seller said that the item was being returned to him for some BS reason, but he recieved an empty box. Paypal coudn't do anything about it because the overseas buyer sent tracking!

Sorry to hear about the trouble you went through man.

 

[LordAzrael]

Its not really any riskier than shipping domestically provided its not to one of the dodgy countries. I've bought from overseas over 300 times with 1 lost shipment. And I think the seller forgot to send it as he was quite happy to send me a replacement free of charge - for a DiD samurai.

 

[tnaig001]

I'd be careful. I sold an item to an overseas buyer, received the paypal payment and shipped the item with a tracking number. A week later, the buyer reported to paypal that the box I sent was empty and notified his credit card company that his credit card had been stolen (his purchase of my item being the fraudulent charge). In the end, paypal reversed the payment and I got ^^^^ed. All they would suggest is that I contact the buyer and ask him to ship the item back. He ignored my requests and with sellers unable to leave feedback, I got double^^^^ed and he was left free to continue his scam.

sorry to hear about that. we should have a sticky for these SOB

 

[thenammagazine]

This was a few years ago though so, live and learn I guess. I just don't sell internationally anymore because of it. Might be a good idea to utilize one of the escrow options. Definitely stick with ebaY though vs. doing a private sale, if you go through with international sales. These bastards will always be out there but at least you'll have some sort online verification. Take pics and track everything. If I had to do it over again, I would've sent a copy of the postal receipt showing the weight of the box (4lb. box isn't empty) highlighted.

 

[-Super Hans-]

I can understand why some of you guys dont like to ship overseas but as long as its tracked (never ship overseas without it) its usually pretty safe ive done quite a few transactions with american sellers without any problems.


Its sucks being an overseas collector sometimes cause we dont get all the cool statues made in our country and the only way to obtain them is from america which involves custom charges and we end up paying twice as much as what the statue is worth just to get it to our house. luckily sideshow give us the oppertunity to buy these awesome collectibles but for the stuff that we miss the only way to get it usually is from american sellers.

 

[Chargersfan57]

Thanks for the help guys.

I just got off the phone with UPS and I feel a little better.

I'm going to take a chance on this one, I'll let you guys know how it goes

 

[DPrime]

I'd be careful. I sold an item to an overseas buyer, received the paypal payment and shipped the item with a tracking number. A week later, the buyer reported to paypal that the box I sent was empty and notified his credit card company that his credit card had been stolen (his purchase of my item being the fraudulent charge). In the end, paypal reversed the payment and I got ^^^^ed. All they would suggest is that I contact the buyer and ask him to ship the item back. He ignored my requests and with sellers unable to leave feedback, I got double^^^^ed and he was left free to continue his scam.

That sucks, but couldn't a domestic buyer do the same thing?

(Tell me he didn't live in Canada, at least...)

 

[holtrax]

dude ship it to him. I wouldn't worry. Im from ireland, the tracking system is good so you can track the item when it hits the national post office over here, even the seller can. Its easy. So if you ship to him just make sure its registered post the safest form. I talk to the guys at customs over here on a constant basis and once you go registered post insured its very rarely to never that a package is lost, not recieved etc. If you get him to pay insurance you won't have to worry about that problem in the usa and once it hits ireland the guys have told me that they count each registered item and all registered items bascially come in in a big locked bags so items can't go missing between scans.


It'll drive the charge up so make sure he's willing to pay that also and doesn't cancel after you give him a big shipping bill which often scares off international buyers. If your in the usa then shipping to europe ireland u.k etc usually only takes a few days to a week depending on the shipping service i.e usps priority express etc.

 

[Mesa]

I've had less problems shipping internationally than I have shipping domestically. Just do a good job packing your items for international journey. I wouldn't recommend selling statues internationally because they are more fragile unless they are fully insured and double boxed.

 

[Chargersfan57]

So my item sold a couple days ago to a lady in Germany!

Everything seems cool, she responds to my emails, and I just received a pending paypal payment from her.

I have 2 questions though...

It doesn't say how long pending will last till confirmation. It does say after thirty days it will be cancelled, so is it just clearing the funds with her bank?

Also she has an unconfirmed address, however paypal says that most non-U.S. addresses cannot be confirmed at this time. So that's prob nothing to worry about?

 

[creecher]

I have 2 questions though...

It doesn't say how long pending will last till confirmation. It does say after thirty days it will be cancelled, so is it just clearing the funds with her bank?

Also she has an unconfirmed address, however paypal says that most non-U.S. addresses cannot be confirmed at this time. So that's prob nothing to worry about?

Not sure about the pending confirmation. I haven't sold through ebay much. It's either awaiting transfer, which may be due to the time zone differences. The banks may be closed, or there may be some other delay. It could be some funds in the buyers account haven't been cleared to allow the withdrawal. It could be a number of possibilities. Give it a week. Be patient. More than likely you'll get confirmation within days.

The unconfirmed address is nothing to worry about. It's not as if any international users can force paypal to incorporate this feature. It's solely up to paypal.

 

[yodasan]

I learned the hard way about one potential problem with selling
internationally. Often people from overseas ask you to write a
low value on the customs form so they can avoid paying duty -
this is not unreasonable. The problem is that you cannot get
insurance for such shipping, so if something happens to the box
you shipped - damaged, or lost - then you are screwed. PayPal
will not take into account the fact that a buyer asked you to put
the low value, so no insurance. Since this happened to me I am
no longer willing to put down low values on customs forms.

 

[LOTRFan]

Well aside from it being mail fraud, it isn't necessarily too safe. But you are automatically insured to a certain value when you use International Priority Mail, and not dependent on what value you list (of course you can add more).