posted on October 28, 2003 08:50:42 PM new
Have sold on eBay, only a short time, for about 7 months...250 or so auctions. So, thought it would be productive to test international waters. I deal mostly in used clothes, designer names.
Have had great buyers from western Europe...the Pacific Rim....but one place is a problem, Canada. Seem to almost always want a change in shipping costs, or something.
Believe me, I certainly have nothing against Canadians, as a nationality. But, would it be bad business, poor taste, politically incorrect, to list that I ship just about everywhere in the world (sent one shirt to Uganda), but Canada?
posted on October 28, 2003 09:05:08 PM new
Rather than trusting that a Candian won't bid on your auction, it's probably better to strengthen the wording of your terms in regards to international bidders. State you pricing and state that in answer to numerous recent questions, these charges are not negotiable. If you get question after that, simply refer bidders back to the actual auction. Nothing is going to eliminate the issue completely, the best you can hope for is to lessen it.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 29, 2003 02:56:15 AM new
The really sad thing about this, is that we state 'Will ship to United States only' and we still have Canadiens bid frequently anyway! ... once in awhile an overseas eBayer will ask us permission to bid on an item, but Canadians don't ask us; they just do it. And yes, they then usually balk at the s/h charge.
posted on October 29, 2003 06:33:01 AM new
A couple of years ago when I was selling regularly on eBay I had quite a few international sales with few problems. No one ever questioned shipping charges even when I shipped a pretty heavy toy to Australia. What I did have were the constant "Mark it as a gift on the custom form." I don't like long and complex terms but I finally added a disclaimer that said all custom forms were filled out with the exact final bid and that international shipping was quoted at the end of the auction. I marked the section with ***Attention International Bidders in bold red. I know that some bidder don't read or ignore what they do read but this seemed to solve my problems at the time.
I retired from my full time job last week (HOO RAY!) so plan to get back into selling on eBay. I expect I will find it is a changed world and will have to see if my old system still works.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
[ edited by photosensitive on Oct 29, 2003 06:52 AM ]
posted on October 29, 2003 06:46:13 AM new
Interesting, I've had the opposite experiance, Now I've gone from doing international-- europe, australia etc, to US and Canada only, Usually they ask to mark shipping papers as gift, but other than that they've been great, I do have it stated in my auction terms-- Canadian Bidders, Shipping costs $45 for snowboards $25 for boots/bindings, makes it very clear and cuts down on the questions
posted on October 29, 2003 06:47:13 AM new
I sell both to Canada and Internationally and I have had no problems. I tell them the shipping rate, that I do not lie on customs forms. They still bid but what I do say in my TOS is Canadian and International Bidders are welcome but must email me before bidding, and they always do. I don't want a surprise when I go to do my WBN. I sell men's preowned ties, preowned sweaters and jewelry. The only thing I don't like is that you can't get insurance on air letter posts and some jewelry I send is rather high priced.
posted on October 29, 2003 09:05:25 AM new
On the ebay board on a thread about proposed changes to the future page layout there was a mention by an ebay employee about having a popup come up any time an international bidder tried to bid on a USA only auction. At least ebay is thinking about the problem.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on October 29, 2003 02:46:34 PM new
I list shipping to Canada and UK as well as US in the description. This cut down all the Canadian shipping dickering post-sale, and most shipping questions during the listing.
posted on October 29, 2003 04:25:27 PM new
Congratulations on your Retirement, Photosensitive!!!! ... a well-earned less pressure life you've earned ... my hope is to not be homeless when I want to retire in 15 years, AND to have all our antiques sold by then, so our kids don't have to go through what we're doing with our inherited antiques [ebaying it all] ... ... the stock market's plunge from a few years back never did rebound [yet] ...
posted on October 29, 2003 08:41:45 PM new
Thanks to all. Great advice. I sometimes get a little grrr with Vendio, but the great tips and help I receive from you make it well worth it. And yawl are free! Thanks again. Tam
posted on October 30, 2003 06:10:24 AM new
When I sold a couple of years ago I always stated "exact postage" would be quoted at the end of auction. I sold near 100% of my listing (good old days?) and never had a complaint about postage. Is there experience from others that this does not work now? Do I have to list exact shipping charges for all possible cases to get bids? Seems to me this might cause the problem with international bidders sending US postage even if you state they must get a different quote.
AintRichYet, thanks for your congrats. I am lucky that an unplanned benefit of marring a younger man is that he has a few more years to work so there is still income. Boy is he jealous of me but I have found the last week to be really busy and have yet to get anything listed.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on October 30, 2003 06:46:13 AM new
I believe listing the exact amount of shipping relieves a lot of pressure on buyers that have received unpleasant surprises in the form of very high shipping terms that were not in the description. For heavy items the ebay shipping calculator works very well but the seller can only select one form of shipping. For international shipping I find that it works best to add a sentence similar to ( International bidders please write me for a postage quote before bidding ) unless the item is small like music CD.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
