posted on October 8, 2003 05:43:03 AM new
This seems to be a constant point of contention with some selllers and I am just curious as to why?
For those that do not sell overseas, other than post office time, what are the objections to international sales, especially considering that opening your items up to world wide bidding can result in higher bid prices and sell thru rates. BTW - I do realise that some items , IE: heavy or fragile, logisitically clash with the concept but paper items, jewelry and media items etc can easily be shipped with only an extra minute or two of effort.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 8, 2003 06:12:36 AM new
I discourage internation bidding on my auction, unless the prospective bidder emails me first. I have had a number of auctions won by bidders overseas who then didn't follow through with the purchase due to mailing costs, etc. My terms ask prospective international bidders to email me first so that we can discuss payment and shipping costs.
posted on October 8, 2003 06:27:44 AM new
I take international sales. The items I have up the buyers usually know the cost, but If I have a different object that I will sell internationally I ask them to please email me before bidding. I have had no problems.
posted on October 8, 2003 06:39:47 AM new
I ship international. But I was looking at some prohibitions and restrictions on the USPS website last night and I'm thinking I would be better off listing jewelry as U.S. only.
There are a lot of places where registered mail is required to ship jewelry and that would just make it too expensive.
posted on October 8, 2003 07:53:41 AM new
Cherished - The countries that I have seen that have restrictions on jewelry basically just require a customs declaration. I ship jewelry overseas all the time and have never had a problem with a delivery. I have had more lost or mangled packages within the US than I have had overseas. My old company used to ship about 1000 pieces every six months overseas and offhand, I don't remember any problem shipments. I'm sure that there had to have been but I can't recall any.
The only place we ever had problems shipping to was Canada which at one point became so problematic we started looking into freighting all of our shipments once a month to a Canadian mailing service but our fulfillment house apparently sold their souls to Candian customs to avoid the paperwork involved
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 8, 2003 08:01:45 AM new
I don't mind the postal problems and paperwork at all.
What I do mind is:
1. The large percentage of my international bidders who never followed through.
2. Dealing with the language barrier (I know I can use the webpage to translate but it annoys me and I just don't want to do it)
3. Waiting 3 weeks for payment to arrive or paying extra through Paypal. (I know some require bidpay, but I don't like their system either and it costs the bidder even more money)
4. Most will request ground shipping then start emailing me in two weeks because their item hasn't arrived and then continue to send frantic emails for 4 more weeks until they finally do arrive!
Edited to add #5.
5. Items can be opened at customs and then some things can disappear. Case in point: Sold 7 sets of lobby cards to a buyer in Australia. When they arrived, three of the sets was missing. I know I put them into the box because I check off each item and they were not in my box of pending pay.
I might slip up and miss one set, but 3 just wouldn't happen and they would have to still be here if it had been my error.
I refunded his payment immediately with no questions asked and still got three neutrals from him about how disappointed he was that some were missing. Something I could not control!
Ok, guess that just about covers it. I don't need the extra 2 or 3 sales a week I can get from international bidders! Postcards would be Ok because they just fit into a postcard mailer and are off. But, since I sell a variety of items it is just easier to state "No shipping outside the USA" and let it go at that.
Maybe some have great luck, but I found a Christmas sweater sitting in a box in the top of my closet where the purchaser never followed through last year (from India, so I wondered about that one). Of course, by time I knew they were not going to pay it was too late to relist last year so now I will try again. Now, If I could just convince them to NOT bid! I did put $25 shipping in my items for a while and have to admit I didn't get a single international bidder for that period of time. So they must be able to read English! But, I really didn't like having it there so I took it out. It looked tacky and unreasonable.
I actually have no requirements in my TOS other than no shipping outside the USA. I don't say you have to pay me in xx days, I don't limit payment options, I always refund if requested (which has only happened once out of thousands of sales), and am really easy going!
[ edited by lindajean on Oct 8, 2003 08:16 AM ]
posted on October 8, 2003 08:09:05 AM new
I LOVED the English & the Japanese bidders -- but I've recently stopped shipping internationally on my drop-ship auctions due to the...CANADIANS!
They neither read nor unterstand the auctions (probably intentionally) & I keep losing moola and hair due to their rude antics!
Wish feeBay had a box: "Will ship worldwide, EXCEPT to CANADA"
Ralphie loves Mr Blonde:
"Are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?"
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/vidrat/
[ edited by tomwiii on Oct 8, 2003 08:09 AM ]
posted on October 8, 2003 08:50:29 AM new
If you have followed this board for any length of time you would have seen this topic come up frequently.
The arguments for/against are always the same, and nobody is going to change their minds about it. One side doesn't want the aggravation; the other side is "I'm so clever and enterprising blah blah blah.."
It all boils down to the following: sellers can decide how they want to run their business in a way that is comfortable for them. If that means no international sales, no listing on Tuesday mornings, or only selling purple and green items, so be it.
posted on October 8, 2003 08:59:32 AM new
lindajean,
for the very reason you stated about the missing items, is the reason why I do ship Internationally, but sale is Final, no refunds under any circumstances...
They pay I ship and as far as I am concerned it is a done deal... I don't leave feedback for international winners unless they leave some for me.
I don't have a shipping listed for international winners because no matter what I will not ship for the same price as in the US, but they have only once not paid because of it... they were soon naru'd so they had other problems also.
AIN'T LIFE GRAND...
[ edited by Twelvepole on Oct 8, 2003 09:06 AM ]
posted on October 8, 2003 09:03:02 AM new
Hello
It really is what are you selling. selling a twenty pound rock? Forget about international buyers. Selling a Philatelic cover which weight is 1/2 Oz? Sell international.
posted on October 8, 2003 09:33:56 AM newWhy not ship international?
Fenix, I love ya, but do we have to go 'round this mulberry bush again? Someone surely has archived the past threads on this subject.
I endorse the points already expressed and add a few of my own:
1) Distance seems to encourage inattention. The farther away your buyer is, it seems the less likely it is the transaction will be completed.
2) There are USPS restrictions on mailing jewelry internationally which you are apparently not complying with. I cited these in an earlier thread. I am not going to do it again. I just don't have the time.
3) Issues with Customs opening and badly repackaging goods.
4) Unavoidable shipping delays caused by post services of other countries, for which the seller will be held accountable.
5) Incompatible monetary units, as in the French woman who wants to pay in Euros.
6) Inappropriate expectations born of cultural differences. A collectible item that an American wouldn't expect to be in perfect condition might bring howls of rage from someone in Belgium or Singapore.
But in the final analysis, mostly because:
7) There's just no need to. My business is not IBM or Intel or General Mills. I don't indulge in wishful thinking about "Chinese marketing".* I haven't even BEGUN to scratch the surface of the potential buyer base in the United States.
*Chinese marketing: The tendency of marketing majors to dream about and make plans to sell their particular widget to every one of the teeming billions in the huge untapped market that is China.
Our motto: Bright and shiny baubles for persons with low impulse control.
posted on October 8, 2003 09:39:56 AM new
"It really is what are you selling. selling a twenty pound rock? Forget about international buyers." I sell lapidary rocks to international buyers and shipping costs are high and the buyers know it and they still buy because they can't find the items in their own country.
posted on October 8, 2003 09:40:31 AM new
"It really is what are you selling. selling a twenty pound rock? Forget about international buyers." I sell lapidary rocks to international buyers and shipping costs are high and the buyers know it and they still buy because they can't find the items in their own country.
posted on October 8, 2003 11:02:14 AM new
::*Chinese marketing: The tendency of marketing majors to dream about and make plans to sell their particular widget to every one of the teeming billions in the huge untapped market that is China.::
LOL!! I have a background in marketing but not even I have those aspirations
I basically started exploring selling directly to international sites when I was cleaning the office and was forced to deal with the remaining inventory of body jewelry I had been ignoring since January in what I had nicknamed the "drawer of dread". You may remember my numerous rants concerning the winning bidders that were rarely actual buyers of these items.
I had to try something new, I had even tried your start everything at .01 method and was losing money listing them in the US due to oversaturation
I did a quick ebay search and while the number had dropped from the January totals of over 10k listings, it was still in the mid 7k. The ebay.uk site on the contrary was hosting less than 400 listings (i just checked again - ebayUS - over 5000, ebayUK - under 200). The drawer of dread is now just a plastic container of bits and pieces I find when cleaning under sofas and such (2 cats + hardwood floors + bright and shiny baubles = much batting about), and I think I had maybe three deadbeats.
Come to think of though...is it summer in China? I've got a container full of toe rings whose presence is starting to annoy me
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 8, 2003 11:11:58 AM new
i did a casul marketing survey a few years ago to chinese in china,asking them what consumer goods do they want from us??
most cant think of any they want,as most are made in china and they can get them cheaper in china.so i mentioned the european luxury goods such as chanel,gucci,rolex etc.
one told me may be many years ago when there was this bamboo curtain,they craved imported goods,but now NO,what they really want,is the mighty greenback,everywhere you go,they offer black market rate to buy your us dollars.
they also like to come and live and work in usa,and buy a house here.
oh,may be a lexus,mercedes or bmw.
posted on October 8, 2003 02:14:08 PM new
Unfortunately Fluffy there are only a few that are sterling most are plate or illusion. The cool sterling ones I kept for myself
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by Twelvepole on Oct 8, 2003 09:06 AM ]