posted on January 1, 2004 08:59:18 AM new
Is there any way to limit auctions to USA only, besides stating it in tos?
I have 2 bidders that I suspect are in Germany, that are bidding on my auctions.
posted on January 1, 2004 09:03:42 AM new
I dont think there is any other way, Max.
Except for canceling the bids and then blocking specific buyer/bidder user name?
posted on January 1, 2004 09:27:36 AM new
Max, check their feedback rating it will tell you where they are registered. It is in the upper right hand box underneath their USER ID
You need to go into the feedback page and it will tell you sorry.
[ edited by Libra63 on Jan 1, 2004 09:29 AM ]
posted on January 1, 2004 09:29:58 AM new
I do not know of any way for auctions.
Not that this is something you would want to do, but: If you had a fixed price item,
You could have immediate payment required, PayPal Only, and limit your PayPal to accept only confirmed addresses, that should do the trick.
This is not something I would do, even if I did not want International Bidders, but the question was, "...is there any way..."
Some have found it helpful to put a very large handling fee on International Purchases. (To get customs form correct, and stand in line at Post Office, ...)
Then put in TOS, that International Bidders must get permission to bid, BEFORE Bidding.
If they ask permission, tell them, "No" and put them on your blocked list.
If they do end up bidding hit them with the high International Handling fee if you choose to complete the sale.
A big hassle, but it seems to limit our International Inquiries when we have done this.
posted on January 3, 2004 04:26:44 PM new
And the only problem with the PayPal only
idea is that, well, you have to accept only
payments through PayPal. And we all know
how safe that is, and how they stand behind
sellers when they get scammed, right?
---
"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not
know, so cannot say". -- Zathras (Babylon 5)
posted on January 3, 2004 04:31:31 PM new
I sell internationally but postage to those countries is okay but no insurance. I just sold a high ticket item to a buyer in France and he does have an american address. Lots of sellers have contacts in the USA where you can mail their items to and then they mail them to the person. A jewelry item I sold to someone in the UK who had a daughter living in Florida. Mailed it to her and she forward it on.
Max, if they do get outbid, at that point you can put them on your blocked bidder list and they won't be able to bid again. Their first bid will stay in place.
If you cancel this first bid, the high bid will drop down to where it would be if they hadn't bid at all.
I've done this a couple of times, not because of where they were, but because of their feedback.
Hope this makes sense...
Lucy
I grow old...I grow old...I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. T.S. Eliot
posted on January 3, 2004 06:12:37 PM new
Libra.....you can insure Internationally, even jewelry. The amount of insurance available varies country to country. To Western European countries the average amount of available insurance is $3000. Items generally need to be shipped USPS INSURED PARCEL POST, and the cost starts at $16. Every ounce adds to the cost, and insurance is $1 per $100. Generally I love my International customers, heck, I like any customer these days. I think it's crazy to block any bidding. Let anybody and everybody bid. You can always cancel a bid if you decide to.
posted on January 3, 2004 07:26:17 PM new
Ebay is suppose to be working on a way to block international bidders according to their message boards.
The only problem is that many international bidders, especially Canadians, have access to US PO boxes or family/friends in the US that forward the items to them. Even though they are international bidders they have US addresses.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on January 3, 2004 07:51:24 PM new
Why would you want to block international bidders.???? they are great customers. it is no more trouble to ship. their money is good . i for one welcome them. I probably ship about 2,000. parcels a year. keep coming guys, your welcome on my auctions.
posted on January 4, 2004 03:32:41 PM new
eBay offers no direct way to do so, but there are several technical means of warning off non-US bidders. You could do like us and post a message in very large letters* in all your listing using CSS in conjunction with your server settings .htaccss file. Advanced knowledge of Apache or MS server is required, but full details can be found on many server forums.
We are actually in the opposite situation of having blocked bidders from within our country, but the technique is the same for all IP blocking by country. (Reason: overseas bidders pay three to ten times more than domestic ones, plus we tend to buy our stock locally, and sell it internationally at a tidy profit.) Our eBay listings are stylesheet-based (CSS) and contain hidden sections that are only revealed to internet surfers within our country (who are IP blocked and can't see the images or view the page as formatted by the style sheet).
* H1 heading in red
Bacon Buttie also had a similar technique that was javascript based that warned bidders to contact the seller before bidding, if their feedback was zero or negative, or they were outside the permitted countries zone for bidders. I think it was pulled after all the eBay security breaches he revealed (only long after warning eBay and they not fixing the loopholes)...
