Railfan Technology > ebay question

I have an inquiry via ebay asking if i would be willing to ship the item(s) (if this person is the high bidder) to Australia. Any thoughts? Is it advisable and what would it entail?. Bidders feedback score is 250. Positive feedback is 100%. My auctions currently say shipping to U.S. Person stated they will pay via PayPal or via International Money Order.

Thanks for any information!

Well first place to check is USPS or some other carrier to determine shipping costs. Don't know what the item is or cost but shipping may turn out to be prohibitive even assuming you could have 100% faith in buyer. He may not be aware of cost, if it is very high and he agrees then that could signal a problem.

Second you placed auction and said ship to USA only for several reasons. You have to judge whether this particular buyer overcomes the reasons you wanted to ship to US only.

Of course this should be his registered address. I think if you have a good item and feel you are going to get a fair offer, why ship overseas.? when you may get a USA bid and be more confident on the buyer. If item is more obscure and you are unsure of other bids then it may be OK???
I think any sale, Ebay or not, is usually a judgement and involves tradeoffs.

Bob

Thanks for the help Bob. Your response helped me decide. The book is selling well. Also i felt that i would be giving the person an unfair advantage. Perhaps there were others who would've bidded before if they thought i would ship overseas. I respectfully told the person no.

Kevin

I have shipped items to Europe and one to Australia in the past without any problems. I have found, however, that UPS is very expensive. It may take a while to get there, but shipment via the U.S. Postal Service is cheaper.

I've been shipping to Australia since the 1980s and have not had any problems.

john c. benson

<http:www.bensonrailphotos.com>

westernrails Wrote:
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> Thanks for the help Bob. Your response helped me
> decide. The book is selling well. Also i felt that
> i would be giving the person an unfair advantage.
> Perhaps there were others who would've bidded
> before if they thought i would ship overseas. I
> respectfully told the person no.
>
> Kevin

My thoughts exactly, I wouldn't sell to somebody from any foriegn country that wanted me to bid on a US Shipping Only item. My line of thought is, if this person wants "special" consideration on something as basic as who the bidding is open to, they may down the road wants more "special" consideration. If the item doesn't sale to a US buyer, then you can always re-list with international shipping allowed (make sure to list the buyer to pay actual shipping cost) and then send them a message stating the item is now available for them to bid on.

To summarize, my problem isn't with shipping to a foriegn country (Australia is no problem for me, now Pakistan or Uganda would make my think twice) is the buyer asking for something that was specifically not allowed in the listing that concerns me.

And lots of sellers are lazy and don't want to bother with the hassles to going to the post office, filling out the customs form, etc.

But, if someone is willing to pay the $$ for shipping halfway around the world, I'd imagine they're pretty serious about wanting the item, and would accomodate them. I don't see a hang-up with shipping overseas, apart from estimating ahead of time what the shipping cost is.

I usually quote "high" and then if the actual shipping cost is lower, refund the difference in their paypal (yes, I actually do this. Go figure!)

The Chinese had the same concerns when President Nixon begged them to open trade with the USA in 1972. Would Americans buy anything made in China? Seems to have worked out very well for both countries maybe too good for China.

As a sometimes ebay seller, I've shipped stuff to Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Germany, England, and, Australia. Did I mention Canada, too? I've use the US Postal Service for all of it, simply because of cost and convenience to me. FEDEX, UPS, and the others all want to get it there in 2-5 days. Two WEEKS is fine for most buyers! In most cases, you'll find their Global Priority Mail rates pretty good. Simply go to the USPS.COM website and click on the "calculate postage" tab and go from there. It's easy to use.

As for the customs forms, etc, they're easy. All that's needed is your name and address, the buyers name and address, a description and quantity of what's in the package, and the value. Depending on the value of the item, they may have to pay some customs fees when they pick it up. In all, it's about 2 minutes of printing to fill out the customs form.

And, by the way, I've bought stuff on ebay from Canada, Mexico, and even China without a hitch!

Just shipped a 5.00 OER to aussie $37.00 priority flat rate box, arrived in 5 days, but no insurance or dely confirmation available. I prefer dely conf just to prove it got there. dave j

SANDPATCH1 Wrote:
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> Just shipped a 5.00 OER to aussie $37.00 priority
> flat rate box, arrived in 5 days, but no
> insurance or dely confirmation available. I
> prefer dely conf just to prove it got there. dave
> j

thanks for the feedback, good to know, but what is an 5.00 OER. Not to be nosy, just wondering how heavy that was, and the value. I assume buyer paid shipping?? I know what you mean about confirmation. I mean if person claims he didn't get it, what evidence do you have, at least you have the info that you shipped it with priority.

Thanks,
Bob