posted on August 29, 2000 08:25:45 PM new
I have an auction that, much to my surprise, is drawing a bit of interest. The top bidder (who was also the first bidder) appears to be from a foreign land. This is just fine with me!
But I had a question. The auction has five days left to run. Since I saw that I had an international bidder, I went ahead and picked up a handful of global priority envelopes (a few small and a large.) Happily, this lot will fit into the small, which is a flat-rate $5. About as cheap as it gets for shipping to this country.
If you were the top bidder, would you appreciate being told this now? Or would you consider it pushy/creepy?
edited to add : I JUST thought of a third alternative -- I could add a statement to the auction stating that the item does fit into a small global priority envelope.
[ edited by wordgirl on Aug 29, 2000 08:29 PM ]
posted on August 29, 2000 08:35:59 PM new
wordgirl,
Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
Global priority is not available to every country. In some countries, you can only use Global Express & there's a BIG difference in the price. For example, I can send global priority to Australia for $5 but can only use Global Express for Bulgaria which is $19.00.
Even if you are told you can use Global Priority for a particular country, that does not mean it is available to every city in that country. Another example, I had a buyer in Mexico & was originally told I could use Global Priority.
However, when came time to mail it, they told me Global Priority was only available in the BIG cities, like Mexico City, not the smaller city in which the buyer lived.
So, before you quote a price, you need to find out the EXACT city in which your buyer lives or you could be eating some shipping charges & have a very unhappy buyer who has to wait a lot longer.
posted on August 29, 2000 08:39:31 PM newEventer Good point -- I checked usps.gov for a rate when I first saw I had an int'l bidder (which is how I found out that global priority for shipping is the cheapest option for this destination.) Then I went to e-mail her/him and thought...hey....is this creepy? So I thought I'd ask y'all.
posted on August 29, 2000 08:46:36 PM new
It's not creepy, just good business sense. Even if it doesn't turn out this time, always good to know the options BEFORE you have a buyer in hand.
There are so many pitfalls to international shipping, good to know some of them upfront.
Strange things like it taking 2 months for packages to reach Australia but the same package is in the Ukraine in less than 2 weeks. Go figure!
Insuring & registering work differently for international packages, so another thing to check out.
Good luck! In spite of all the extra hassles, international selling is really a great way to go. And don't forget about your custom's forms.
posted on August 31, 2000 02:56:33 PM new
I've found that Surface shipping is the same for Australia & the European countries, so I list not only US, but s/h to Canada & AU/EU on all my auctions. I also say to contact me for other methods or other countries.
It seems to have encouraged bids from foreign buyers when they know what their total cost will be. And they already know it will cost more if sent by air (duh!), but in most cases, they are glad to get the affordable s/h rate & wait a bit! I've gotten a few buyers from countries not listed, too, but at least they have a ballpark on cost before bidding. And on a weird note, in some cases, it's cheaper to send items by surface to Canada than within the US!
Keep in mind you cannot use Priority boxes out of the country, so I allow for an extra 1-4 oz. in total weight, depending on the item. I printed out a list of US shipping rates for 1st class & Priority to make listing easier & next to each weight, I note the CA & AU/EU rates as I look them up so they're on hand next time I need that rate. In fact, since all methods are listed when you look up a weight/destination on the USPS site anyhow, I make note of Air rates, too. Whether I use Small Package or not depends on the size packages of that weight usually are in the types of items I carry. Now that I found out about I'national book rate, I'll be adding those to my US Book rate chart, too.
