Selling eBay internationally?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I am a newbie eBay seller (been buying on it for many years) and listed a saddle for UK buyers only but have have two enquiries so far from international folk, one in Europe and one in Asia. The concept of tracked delivery internationally and potential delayed delivery scared me off. Am I being a nervous nellie or is ‘here be dragons’ a reasonable approach?

[fuaran]

You could use the Ebay Global Shipping. Then you just have to post it to the UK shipping centre, and they will send it on as required. So you should be covered, if you use tracked UK postage.

[Gattopardo]

The last few international sales I sent the item off to an ebay center in the UK for them to send on.

[Little Jim]

The Global Shipping Programme works really well. You just need to post it to their shipping centre in the UK and once it is there ebay take over and take responsibility.

[grams]

Imagine the item goes missing. Or just takes a long time. Which postal service do you deal with? How much harder is it going to be to resolve?

If it's a low value item that you don't mind the worst case scenario happening, then go ahead, because as with most transactions it will probably be fine.

But if you want a quiet life, ignore.

(On preview: Maybe global shipping solves this)

[rogerzilla]

Ebay GSP is massively expensive for the buyer.  It would need to be something really desirable.

I buy from the EU a lot.  Maybe not after 31 Dec, as it may be as bad as buying from the US after that.  Thanks, lying gammon!

[LittleWheelsandBig]

It will probably go for close to £100. Is that something sufficiently desirable or low value to justify international shipping?

[Gattopardo]

Imagine the item goes missing. Or just takes a long time. Which postal service do you deal with? How much harder is it going to be to resolve?

If it's a low value item that you don't mind the worst case scenario happening, then go ahead, because as with most transactions it will probably be fine.

But if you want a quiet life, ignore.

(On preview: Maybe global shipping solves this)

THE GSP has a barcode so registered as sent, but that doesn't seem to work on returns.

[phantasmagoriana]

I've used the Global Shipping Centre a few times (unintentionally in the first case - I hadn't realised that eBay seems to add it as a default!) and it's really no different to posting to the UK. No idea how much buyers have paid, but I've sent some pretty low value stuff overseas and never had any issues.

[robgul]

I've sold quite a bit abroad with no issues - an ancient tandem to someone in California, a Raleigh Policeman bike to a New Yorker (who insisted on sending me pix of him riding it on 5th Ave and in Central Park) - and the most lucrative result was a Pashley Moulton to someone in Taiwan .. and other bits and pieces into Europe.

Organising the shipping is a slight faff, and expensive for the buyer.   Paypal sorts the money for you, albeit at a cost (I usually built in more cost for the shipping to offset that)

 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Well, I can’t seem to modify the listing to allow international shipping now, as bids have been made. Such is life.