Advice For EBay Sellers From An International Bidder
I have been bidding on eBay for over 7 years now. It is a great place to find things that are not readily available to me when I'm in Sweden. Especially with the Viking Market and Riddarspelen (Renaissance Festival) on the horizon. When I am in the United States, this bidding thing isn't a problem at all. I really do not understand why there is such a reluctance to ship to Europe. I have watched so damn many pairs of flat, thigh-high pirate boots go without bids at all. Boots that I would have paid the Buy It Now Price on. Some had no shipping to Europe listed. Others had as much as 124 dollars listed as the shipping price on a 30 dollar item. That is just insane... and against eBay's stated policies.
Now look here. I know pretty much exactly what a given item is going to cost to ship to me. I know the prices of packing materials. I also know it takes you a few extra minutes to fill out a customs form at the post office. That is a pain in the butt for you. I realize that. I am willing to pay fair handling costs for that... notice I said 'fair costs.' I am not stupid. Don't treat me like I am. If real shipping is going to cost 7 dollars, charge me 14 for your time and materials. That is fair. Charging 40 and up for items shipped in a manila envelope at an actual cost of 8.50 is gouging. I will turn you in for it. I actually had that happen. With a feedback of 3, when this seller sent me a combined bill with shipping higher than he had listed on the two individual items, I paid it out of fear of negative feedback. I did turn him in, though. Don't pull this crap.
One thing I have a hard time understanding is this gouging mentality for International bidders. Would it not be better to charge a fair price on the shipping and handling and perhaps make a repeat customer? I would have bought a lot more from the eBay seller above had he not been a jerk. In the long run, he lost out. So be fair about it. I like giving business to sellers who do not gouge me. It seems like such a basic idea. If more sellers had a repeat buyer mindset they might actually make more money.
Don't make me have to email you for a shipping price. I have done this, but it is a pain in the butt. Plus, like I said earlier: I am Id-driven. If I see something I want, the chances are great that if I cannot buy it immediately because I have to wait on an answer to my email, I probably will have bought something else from a different seller by the time you answer me.
When a buyer asks for a combined invoice, send them a combined invoice. I have a seller right now that I liked very much from our email exchanges, so I bought 5 items from her for over 100 bucks. Getting her to send me an invoice now is like pulling teeth, though, and I probably will not buy from her again because of it. I do not understand this at all. Is she dragging her feet because she hopes I'll keep adding to the order? I won't. I'm damned irritated with her over it right now. I hate having money owed. I want to pay for it. Now. It drives me crazy to look at my Paypal balance and know I really do not have that much, since I have things I still need to pay for. So please, be prompt about sending those combined invoices.
So, to recap:
List International Shipping charges right up front
Don't make me email you for it
Promptly send the combined invoice when asked for one
Don't gouge us, we are not stupid
It all comes down to business sense. Think Globally. Why turn away potential customers? I have read the forums on eBay, and have friends over here that are running into the same problems. I am not the lone European bidder on eBay. You are costing yourselves potentially thousands of dollars every week by not recognizing a huge buyers market, or by gouging us. What's up with that? Sell smart... remember all of your potential buyers the next time you list something on eBay.
Published by Lori Leidig
US citizen living in Sweden; Retired shrink cum criminologist who is now trying to string two coherent words together for various publications. View profile
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- Think globally
- Do not gouge on shipping
- Don't make me email you
24 Comments
Post a CommentIt is a super pain in the butt to ship internationally. If you don't ship express (very expensive) you can't get confirmation which leaves the seller with no recourse of a shady buyer. Most of us sellers don't go to the post office at all, we print and ship from home so the trip and the forms also suck. I wish they didn't make it so hard for us to ship out to you guys but they do. I'm sure we could make a little more to open up to the international market. If you have ever sold and do it solo you know how much work and time already goes into it. If your trying to move a lot of stuff you just don't have the time for this or want the risk for a little 20$ item.
Clearly? Actually, I have sold on eBay. I never minded the minute extra to fill out the customs forms... but that's just me.
Overall, good article except "List International Shipping charges right up front" and "Don't make me email you for it". Depending on the country ship to, Ebay does NOT list the cost. I listed packaging size, weights and shipping options but still have buyers (Italy) email for cost because, for some reason, Ebay can't show cost.
So, it's not always the Sellers fault and emailing is needed. Buyers can't expect we list prices for every items, different weight and countries.
Also, most Sellers don't charge handling cost since it's a turn off. And like others said, it does not take a few minutes to ship an item, especially when it's are breakable.
Still, I would recommend this article even if its 2 yrs old. But the author clearly never sold anything on Ebay before.
OK let's be fair, bottom line is time is money, while YOU say it is only a few minutes to fill out the customs forms and take it to the post office it is not a few minutes. It can take a few minutes to find the forms, then a few minutes to glance them over, only top find the item you are shipping is listed on the form as not to be exported, it contains animal fats or was manufactured in another country. Then the seller is now liable for not being honest on the form, is the seller at risk or the buyer, so the seller is going to chance it anyway, hoping the the buyer does not retaliate with bad feedback. Now has to go into the post office. Stand in the line for 45 minutes all so the buyer can get a fair price on handling, a few dollars of course. Then the buyer does not want to pay the expedited shipping that Paypal requires, they want book rate. A few weeks later they still do not have the product, they complain to Paypal. paypal not offering buyer protection to many non-us countries,
Good points. My brother had a successful eBay shipping experience to Australia, although the buyer flooded him with emails about questions and preferences for shipping a product valued over $1500. He sells mint condition N-scale trains and train sets. His frustration with being more specific in his advertising is that different countries and buyers have different rules for shipping high--dollar items apparantly. But, you offer some good reasons to attempt to better communicate the terms. Thanks for the suggestions.
You are so right - and I am one of those who's guilty of only listing US and Canadian prices most of the time. However, about 1/3 of the time, my international buyers change their mind or I never hear from them and never get paid. :-(, which is a big pain in the bootie. Though when I do ship internationally, my prices are pretty low. Looks like I'm going to have to rethink my policy.
I used to sell on eBay. The reason I didn't do International shipping was the hassle at the PO. :-(
Many eBay'ers are just as inadequate and over-priced with their domestic customers - but I get your well made point.
I used to sell on eBay, and the reason I stopped shipping to international customers was their crazy demands. And if I had a penny for every Canadian that claimed that their package never arrived... sigh.
'Course, this was back in the day when PayPal wasn't international and I had to wait a couple weeks for an international money order to arrive. It was all such a pain.
Great advice. Terrific. I sell on Ebay and try to keep prices and SH low and fair.