[SEL] Ebay shipping costs

[Jim Hardman]

Our family occasionally "unloads" extra stuff on eBay and dealing with 
international shipping can be a hassle.  "How much to ship to Italy?"... 
"How much to ship to Singapore?"

I go to the Post Office to get a quote especially when insurance is desired. 
Then I write the guy and often get a reply like "That's too much, how much 
First Class International?"

The final packing and filling out customs forms is almost the easy part. 
But for a $35 item, it's not worth the trouble.  And PayPal gets into the 
act... it's 3% for receipts in dollars and normally 4% for other currencies.

When an international bidder wins an item, upon notification of payment, the 
seller ships to the Pitney-Bowes hub in Erlanger, KY.  And the seller is NOT 
told what the "Global Shipping Program" costs the buyer.  The seller just 
gets reimbursed the postage to Kentucky.

>From a seller's standpoint, this is a good program.  The buyer ponies up a 
lot extra for the re-sending.

If I know the buyer, if I have dealt with him before or if he's a brother in 
bronze bearings and hot oil, I ship directly.  But not all the animals in 
the forest are cuddly.  Friends have shared horror stories.

And so I sell "US only" and let eBay take care of the occasional 
international buyer.

By the way... eBay has again upped their fees, the combined "take" by eBay 
and PayPal is now about 14 percent of the hammer price.  If we can't make 
$40 to $50 on an item, it would be better to put the thing in somebody's 
yard sale.  Or give it away.

eBay takes time.  Photographing, uploading to web storage space (we like 
eBay's new uploading system, but self-hosted pictures have greater impact), 
writing descriptions, pre-weighing packages, answering questions, packing up 
for shipment and keeping records for taxes owed Uncle Sam... well, I can 
understand why some friends no longer choose to sell on eBay.  It's still 
the best for us, but don't write it off as "easy and no-hassle".  That is 
just not so.

Like everything else, there's a learning curve and efficiency improves with 
experience.  We don't do enough to become efficient, but it's a blessing to 
move stuff out and make room.

Hope to see some of you at Coolspring... and on this Memorial Day, we all 
owe a debt of thanks to those who serve in uniform.

Jim in Vermont


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Brueck" <b2 at chooka.net>
To: "The SEL email discussion list" <sel at lists.stationary-engine.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2014 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: [SEL] Ebay shipping costs


> As an active USA seller I can say it's overly complicated and intimidating 
> to ship to a foreign address, thanks to some combination of our own postal 
> system and international customs requirements.  But if you stick with it 
> for a bit it becomes manageable.
>
> I, too, saw these eBay offers to manage my international shipments and 
> hadn't checked the offer out yet.  Sounds like it's not a good deal for 
> anybody but eBay.  But they've got a ready market of folks out there who 
> don't want the hassle of international shipping, presumably folks who 
> without the eBay service wouldn't offer their goods for international 
> sale.
>
> When I first started eBay selling the USPS international rates were 
> reasonable and I had a fair percentage of international sales.  About 5 
> years ago USPS restructured their rates and the international ones took a 
> big increase.  That pretty much killed my international sales.  We are 
> concerned about our balance of trade and then make it impossible for small 
> exporters to do business...typical government logic.
>
> Edd has the right answer.  I'll work with guys like you anytime to get 
> around the system.  Even when I do get burned occasionally with a crooked 
> seller or buyer.
>
> Bill Brueck
> Pine Island, MN, USA