Found some goodies I wanted to throw up there. I haven't listed anything in over 6 months so I was reviewing the new terms et and stumbled across the global shipping program. http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html
Basically it sounds like you ship to a service center and they handle it for you from there (and take the risk of non delivery).
I'm sure it's not worth it for cheap cards, but for stuff like fetch lands et would it be cheaper/better than registered mail?
Anyone used it? Know anything?
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Yeah, I have. It's pretty much all automated so you don't have to think much about it.
Any idea what they charge the buyers? I just listed some stuff so I guess we'll see.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
$40+ since we are forced to pay full import taxes, VAT and fees.
Basically the actual shipping starts from about $25, then huge amount of added fees, like 30% of item value.
So if you want any international buyers, don't use it.
Outside of the shipping charges themselves, aren't international buyers obligated to pay those fees regardless? Or is there something I'm missing? I haven't shipped internationally for years due to customer complaints over properly declaring items and them having to pay such fees, or the cards taking a while to get there or even supposedly not getting there, etc etc, and the high costs of trackable/insurable international shipping.
Hi
As an Australian card buyer,this Global Shipping program is a massive pain.
Regular first class international postage is $7-$9.
Global Shipping is $25-$40.
So I`ve switched over to TCG,where I`m not obligated to spend an extra $15+
in postage fees.
Hi
As an Australian card buyer,this Global Shipping program is a massive pain.
Regular first class international postage is $7-$9.
Global Shipping is $25-$40.
So I`ve switched over to TCG,where I`m not obligated to spend an extra $15+
in postage fees.
Ori
The problem for sellers with using first class international is the lack of being able to get proper tracking/insurance on the packages though. As a seller, I don't see the reward being worth the risk (Which is why I don't sell internationally anymore), obviously other seller's willingness to deal with more risk for greater reward still allows some decent availability for international customers from sellers within the US at least. Personally I think the global shipping program is an interesting alternative, but still not sure whether I will choose to participate or not, will have to think about that one way or another. Based upon the feedback from international buyers thus far though, I may just decide to keep doing what I've been doing and leave it at that.
I just used it for a few auctions, I'll post this here for others in case they need it.
I had three auctions finish with international buyers, two were fine. The third was an unmitigated disaster. My buyer lived in a VATS exempt UK territory.
the Global Shipping Service (GSS), apparently couldn't handle it. The problem was, since his territory was a UK owned territory, GSS thought it could ship there, but in reality it can't.
So what was happening was the buyer would go to do the paypal, and paypal would throw an error "Shipping fees not specified, contact Seller".
When you do GSS, you can't invoice a buyer, so there was *nothing* I could do.
So I called Ebay...5 times...
Call 1 - "It's a GSS problem, you'll have to contact them directly" (GSS: It's an Ebay problem, contact them)
Call 2 - "All you have to do is manually invoice the buyer, message him and ask him for his paypal address, it'll link up to the auction" (Against Ebay ToS to setup the transaction that way, and it will literally block you from asking for the person's paypal address, or giving it to someone else)
Call 3 - "It's a Paypal problem, you have to call them", when I asked "Aren't you Paypal? Ebay owns it", "Oh, um, it's a separate number". When I called into Paypal, the automated voice system routed me right back to Ebay customer service because it was an Ebay problem, never even talked to a Paypal rep.
Call 4 - "All you have to do is invoice the customer", after 5 minutes of explaining that Ebay doesn't allow that, "Ship the package to Kentucky, once it gets there they'll collect the fees and you'll receive your money". When I asked if he was instructing me to ship without getting paid, "Yes, they'll collect the fees". When I told him that Ebay doesn't let you print the shipping invoice without payment "Oh, um...hold on one minute". I asked for a supervisor at this point and was told "I'll connect you with a supervisor after I'm finished helping you" (It was pretty apparent he could not help me)
Call 5 - "It's a GSS problem, let me connect you to an Ebay GSS specialist". 5 minutes later the nice lady confirmed the problem was GSS doesn't service his address, and reset my auction so I could manually invoice. She was knowledgable and efficient.
So if you use GSS, and you run into a problem like mine, ask for the Ebay GSS specialist, the first line of customer service doesn't seem to understand the GSS at all.
Gatt's problem seems unique to that particular territory. Remember that the Global Shipping Program is still new, and so it's expected to have a few kinks in it.
I've used it a few times, and I absolutely recommend it. At least for higher-value items or collections you would ship with tracking.
Now, the foreigners do pay a hefty amount. I had one guy in Australia who paid as much to ship the playset of commons he bought as the actual collection itself. But it saves you, the seller, the hassle of dealing with all of the International issues.
I'm sure it's wonderful for sellers, but I'd never buy from a seller using the GSP. Fees are determined by the final value of the sale, which isn't necessarily reflective of the item's true value. I also don't like how I can't even filter out sellers that use it.
For example, in this auction (mods, please delete if I can't link to eBay auctions) the import charges are $11.77 for a $60 item in addition to $10.50 to actually ship the cards, which means I'm actually paying more than SCG or anywhere else. I can understand why sellers would want to use it to relieve themselves of the liability, but it's just not worth the price.
Semi-unrelated: the one time I did buy something with the GSP, I was charged import fees at the door anyway. I can echo Gatt's concerns that the low-level eBay help desk doesn't know a thing about it, and it took several hours of phone calls and explaining the situation for me to get the fees refunded.
Basically, if you want to open packs to get cards for Standard and Modern, the simpler approach is to just buy all the singles you need and then set some money on fire to make up the difference.
Yeah, I have. It's pretty much all automated so you don't have to think much about it.
I would just like to clarify that I still don't sell internationally, even with this program available. The whole point of the system is to give sellers more potential customers, but I've always found that shipping internationally is never worth the potential headache, even if 95% of the time it's fine.
Most of the time customs just ignore smaller shipments.
And as Yomako stated:
"GSS forced me to pay customs twice though, plus it is a massive hike in price in general."
But on the topic on international shipping, you could just exclude the troublesome countries (basically Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Russia, South America) and keep the good ones (Northern EU= UK, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Japan, S Korea, Australia, Canada)
How would one be forced to pay the same customs fees twice? Perhaps if that aspect could be expanded on/explained more it might shed some additional light on the issue.
I used to exclude certain countries, but still have packages come up missing to countries like Canada, Germany, etc, in order to protect myself, I started using a method that included proper insurance/tracking (since the buyer is always protected regardless), using that shipping method however cost the international buyers too much, and my sales trickled down to nearly zero internationally, so I just inevitably scrapped the whole selling international thing altogether due to the constant worry of an issue cropping up, or complaints over things that had nothing to do with me (like customs fees, etc.). Shipping within the US is simple, easy, and practically risk-free, with cheap/free tracking/insurance/etc. and though I could make more on the items if I included selling internationally, the additional headache that would cause just isn't worth it to me. Just as it seems clear that the more headache free method for sellers via GSP isn't exactly super popular with the international buyers.
Upon further pondering, is it that, built-into the price of the GSP there are charges that are practically customs fees, in addition to being hit with actual customs fees when the package gets to your country?.
Thankfully, every seller has been amicable to my request after explaining the situation.
As they should be. The Global Shipping Program is a total mess for buyers. eBay implemented the system to make sellers feel more comfortable sending an item to an airport in KY, USA and being done there but it completely takes advantage of the person receiving. The worst one a buyer told me was $117 for shipping on 6 card listings totaling $29. Most just say between shipping, tax, and import fees they end up paying $25 - $40 on top of the $6+ bubble mailer for $20 worth of cards. Every one of them that has talked to me about this says it is driving them away from sellers who are in the program (which is everyone who didn't manually opt out).
Once again, without the GSP, I simply wouldn't ship International. I don't have the time and money to send stuff overseas with fees and without any protection. I absolutely understand it's ridiculously expensive for foreign buyers, but the alternative is less selection. Yes, some other seller might sell you what you're looking for at cheaper rates. Good luck to them. This is no reason to complain about the GSP. It's not like I'm choosing GSP in lieu of cheaper shipping internationally, so it's not costing me customers.
I honestly don't think its worth it to have that kind of shipping cost if your shipping to Canada from the U.S. There is a 0% import charge for the card in Canada, which means that ebay profits from it and this adds unnecessary charges to the buyers.
I honestly don't think its worth it to have that kind of shipping cost if your shipping to Canada from the U.S. There is a 0% import charge for the card in Canada, which means that ebay profits from it and this adds unnecessary charges to the buyers.
There's no import duty, but last I knew Canada charges 5-15% tax on anything over $20CAD that varies per province, as well as an $8.50 charge for the tax.
Why not just have the high priced registered shipping, at least then you don't have to worry about customers having to deal with high shipping and 2x customs fees.
I don't have the time and space to handle the overhead of having individual shipping solutions for different foreign territories, nor the money to risk on shipments that disappear. This way, eBay handles all of that for me.
No, the cost and risk is not covered by the high-end registered shipping.
eBay's system is not inherently flawed, merely expensive. Is it more expensive than it probably needs to be? Sure, because a third party is handling it and they're trying to make a profit.
You want to fix the problem? Get your country to drop all import duties and taxes for such packages. They're called barriers to trade for a reason.
Why not just have the high priced registered shipping, at least then you don't have to worry about customers having to deal with high shipping and 2x customs fees.
For a few reasons. Registered mail is great for when both parties want it. I've done it a few times at the buyers' request for special occasions and I'll touch up on my experiences:
Overall, Registered mail is a hassle and is probably the hardest to streamline in small or mass quantities out of all the USPS mailing services. USPS First Class mail requires very little information from the sender (weight, contents, value) and going economy via envelopes literally needs nothing more than the appropriate postage. Registered has physical paper forms you have to manually fill out. In addition, eBay doesn't even support that service as an alternative mailing option. This is probably because USPS is so particular with how you send Registered mail (you can only use the brown paper tape, for instance). All of this means you need to find time to go to the post office in person, fill out the forms and have them wrap up the package for you. If you are sending a lot of high-end items overseas you would probably want to get really good at packaging your items to meet regulations and have some of those forms and brown paper tape & glue at home to reduce time at the post office, but you're still spending time on it at home.
Moreover, adding $10 for shipping on to each item makes it virtually impossible to sell competitively unless the item is something of high value ($100+) or is extremely rare (pack fresh foils, misprints, etc). So you're left with small parcels that start at $6.15 (and go up fast) with tracking until it leaves the US; or, sending completely blind in an envelope for $1.10.
These experiences only reflect USPS standards; I have no idea how it works for any other country.
Global Shipping Program is great for sellers. You basically ship the item to a US mailing address so you don't have to worry about customs and the potential for the item to get lost or stolen in another country which is beyond your control. Your additional risk to include international buyers is 0.
Why not just have the high priced registered shipping, at least then you don't have to worry about customers having to deal with high shipping and 2x customs fees.
I'm enjoying this discussion and people's experiences (esp those of you buying from outside the US.) My main concern was if I opted into this program and then offered an alternative shipping method the buyer would not be able to choose the alternative and I wouldn't get the sale.
I put up about 15 auctions last week and half of the ones that sold went to Europe and every buyer used the alternative shipping, so at least they can access it.
Now I'm curious what is displayed in search as price+shipping: My flat rate price or the GSS price.
For a few reasons. Registered mail is great for when both parties want it. I've done it a few times at the buyers' request for special occasions and I'll touch up on my experiences:
Overall, Registered mail is a hassle and is probably the hardest to streamline in small or mass quantities out of all the USPS mailing services. USPS First Class mail requires very little information from the sender (weight, contents, value) and going economy via envelopes literally needs nothing more than the appropriate postage. Registered has physical paper forms you have to manually fill out. In addition, eBay doesn't even support that service as an alternative mailing option. This is probably because USPS is so particular with how you send Registered mail (you can only use the brown paper tape, for instance). All of this means you need to find time to go to the post office in person, fill out the forms and have them wrap up the package for you. If you are sending a lot of high-end items overseas you would probably want to get really good at packaging your items to meet regulations and have some of those forms and brown paper tape & glue at home to reduce time at the post office, but you're still spending time on it at home.
Moreover, adding $10 for shipping on to each item makes it virtually impossible to sell competitively unless the item is something of high value ($100+) or is extremely rare (pack fresh foils, misprints, etc). So you're left with small parcels that start at $6.15 (and go up fast) with tracking until it leaves the US; or, sending completely blind in an envelope for $1.10.
These experiences only reflect USPS standards; I have no idea how it works for any other country.
I will tell you that clerks hate wrapping these and I've been told at smaller PO's that they don't have the tape. If you are going to do any amount of these just shell out $15 and buy a roll (Brown Paper not self adhesive - see pic). I mandate it on all auctions out of the US over a certain dollar value after losing a set of fetchlands not too long ago. It costs more in the US than in other countries and I haven't really gotten a good explanation. (It's an extra $12.95 btw) So had I sent those cards parcel + registered it would have been $19.11 plus the trip to the PO. If you were selling really high dollar stuff you should just pony up the $54 for Global Express Guaranteed. (First class has a $400 limit).
But on the topic on international shipping, you could just exclude the troublesome countries (basically Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Russia, South America) and keep the good ones (Northern EU= UK, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Japan, S Korea, Australia, Canada)
I'm curious about France being on your naughty list. Have they gotten worse? I used to never have an issue, but that set of fetches I lost was going to Paris.
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
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Basically it sounds like you ship to a service center and they handle it for you from there (and take the risk of non delivery).
I'm sure it's not worth it for cheap cards, but for stuff like fetch lands et would it be cheaper/better than registered mail?
Anyone used it? Know anything?
Any idea what they charge the buyers? I just listed some stuff so I guess we'll see.
Outside of the shipping charges themselves, aren't international buyers obligated to pay those fees regardless? Or is there something I'm missing? I haven't shipped internationally for years due to customer complaints over properly declaring items and them having to pay such fees, or the cards taking a while to get there or even supposedly not getting there, etc etc, and the high costs of trackable/insurable international shipping.
As an Australian card buyer,this Global Shipping program is a massive pain.
Regular first class international postage is $7-$9.
Global Shipping is $25-$40.
So I`ve switched over to TCG,where I`m not obligated to spend an extra $15+
in postage fees.
Ori
The problem for sellers with using first class international is the lack of being able to get proper tracking/insurance on the packages though. As a seller, I don't see the reward being worth the risk (Which is why I don't sell internationally anymore), obviously other seller's willingness to deal with more risk for greater reward still allows some decent availability for international customers from sellers within the US at least. Personally I think the global shipping program is an interesting alternative, but still not sure whether I will choose to participate or not, will have to think about that one way or another. Based upon the feedback from international buyers thus far though, I may just decide to keep doing what I've been doing and leave it at that.
I had three auctions finish with international buyers, two were fine. The third was an unmitigated disaster. My buyer lived in a VATS exempt UK territory.
the Global Shipping Service (GSS), apparently couldn't handle it. The problem was, since his territory was a UK owned territory, GSS thought it could ship there, but in reality it can't.
So what was happening was the buyer would go to do the paypal, and paypal would throw an error "Shipping fees not specified, contact Seller".
When you do GSS, you can't invoice a buyer, so there was *nothing* I could do.
So I called Ebay...5 times...
Call 1 - "It's a GSS problem, you'll have to contact them directly" (GSS: It's an Ebay problem, contact them)
Call 2 - "All you have to do is manually invoice the buyer, message him and ask him for his paypal address, it'll link up to the auction" (Against Ebay ToS to setup the transaction that way, and it will literally block you from asking for the person's paypal address, or giving it to someone else)
Call 3 - "It's a Paypal problem, you have to call them", when I asked "Aren't you Paypal? Ebay owns it", "Oh, um, it's a separate number". When I called into Paypal, the automated voice system routed me right back to Ebay customer service because it was an Ebay problem, never even talked to a Paypal rep.
Call 4 - "All you have to do is invoice the customer", after 5 minutes of explaining that Ebay doesn't allow that, "Ship the package to Kentucky, once it gets there they'll collect the fees and you'll receive your money". When I asked if he was instructing me to ship without getting paid, "Yes, they'll collect the fees". When I told him that Ebay doesn't let you print the shipping invoice without payment "Oh, um...hold on one minute". I asked for a supervisor at this point and was told "I'll connect you with a supervisor after I'm finished helping you" (It was pretty apparent he could not help me)
Call 5 - "It's a GSS problem, let me connect you to an Ebay GSS specialist". 5 minutes later the nice lady confirmed the problem was GSS doesn't service his address, and reset my auction so I could manually invoice. She was knowledgable and efficient.
So if you use GSS, and you run into a problem like mine, ask for the Ebay GSS specialist, the first line of customer service doesn't seem to understand the GSS at all.
I've used it a few times, and I absolutely recommend it. At least for higher-value items or collections you would ship with tracking.
Now, the foreigners do pay a hefty amount. I had one guy in Australia who paid as much to ship the playset of commons he bought as the actual collection itself. But it saves you, the seller, the hassle of dealing with all of the International issues.
For example, in this auction (mods, please delete if I can't link to eBay auctions) the import charges are $11.77 for a $60 item in addition to $10.50 to actually ship the cards, which means I'm actually paying more than SCG or anywhere else. I can understand why sellers would want to use it to relieve themselves of the liability, but it's just not worth the price.
Semi-unrelated: the one time I did buy something with the GSP, I was charged import fees at the door anyway. I can echo Gatt's concerns that the low-level eBay help desk doesn't know a thing about it, and it took several hours of phone calls and explaining the situation for me to get the fees refunded.
I would just like to clarify that I still don't sell internationally, even with this program available. The whole point of the system is to give sellers more potential customers, but I've always found that shipping internationally is never worth the potential headache, even if 95% of the time it's fine.
How would one be forced to pay the same customs fees twice? Perhaps if that aspect could be expanded on/explained more it might shed some additional light on the issue.
I used to exclude certain countries, but still have packages come up missing to countries like Canada, Germany, etc, in order to protect myself, I started using a method that included proper insurance/tracking (since the buyer is always protected regardless), using that shipping method however cost the international buyers too much, and my sales trickled down to nearly zero internationally, so I just inevitably scrapped the whole selling international thing altogether due to the constant worry of an issue cropping up, or complaints over things that had nothing to do with me (like customs fees, etc.). Shipping within the US is simple, easy, and practically risk-free, with cheap/free tracking/insurance/etc. and though I could make more on the items if I included selling internationally, the additional headache that would cause just isn't worth it to me. Just as it seems clear that the more headache free method for sellers via GSP isn't exactly super popular with the international buyers.
Upon further pondering, is it that, built-into the price of the GSP there are charges that are practically customs fees, in addition to being hit with actual customs fees when the package gets to your country?.
As they should be. The Global Shipping Program is a total mess for buyers. eBay implemented the system to make sellers feel more comfortable sending an item to an airport in KY, USA and being done there but it completely takes advantage of the person receiving. The worst one a buyer told me was $117 for shipping on 6 card listings totaling $29. Most just say between shipping, tax, and import fees they end up paying $25 - $40 on top of the $6+ bubble mailer for $20 worth of cards. Every one of them that has talked to me about this says it is driving them away from sellers who are in the program (which is everyone who didn't manually opt out).
There's no import duty, but last I knew Canada charges 5-15% tax on anything over $20CAD that varies per province, as well as an $8.50 charge for the tax.
I don't have the time and space to handle the overhead of having individual shipping solutions for different foreign territories, nor the money to risk on shipments that disappear. This way, eBay handles all of that for me.
eBay's system is not inherently flawed, merely expensive. Is it more expensive than it probably needs to be? Sure, because a third party is handling it and they're trying to make a profit.
You want to fix the problem? Get your country to drop all import duties and taxes for such packages. They're called barriers to trade for a reason.
For a few reasons. Registered mail is great for when both parties want it. I've done it a few times at the buyers' request for special occasions and I'll touch up on my experiences:
Overall, Registered mail is a hassle and is probably the hardest to streamline in small or mass quantities out of all the USPS mailing services. USPS First Class mail requires very little information from the sender (weight, contents, value) and going economy via envelopes literally needs nothing more than the appropriate postage. Registered has physical paper forms you have to manually fill out. In addition, eBay doesn't even support that service as an alternative mailing option. This is probably because USPS is so particular with how you send Registered mail (you can only use the brown paper tape, for instance). All of this means you need to find time to go to the post office in person, fill out the forms and have them wrap up the package for you. If you are sending a lot of high-end items overseas you would probably want to get really good at packaging your items to meet regulations and have some of those forms and brown paper tape & glue at home to reduce time at the post office, but you're still spending time on it at home.
Moreover, adding $10 for shipping on to each item makes it virtually impossible to sell competitively unless the item is something of high value ($100+) or is extremely rare (pack fresh foils, misprints, etc). So you're left with small parcels that start at $6.15 (and go up fast) with tracking until it leaves the US; or, sending completely blind in an envelope for $1.10.
These experiences only reflect USPS standards; I have no idea how it works for any other country.
As for buyers, it will cost them more.
I'm enjoying this discussion and people's experiences (esp those of you buying from outside the US.) My main concern was if I opted into this program and then offered an alternative shipping method the buyer would not be able to choose the alternative and I wouldn't get the sale.
I put up about 15 auctions last week and half of the ones that sold went to Europe and every buyer used the alternative shipping, so at least they can access it.
Now I'm curious what is displayed in search as price+shipping: My flat rate price or the GSS price.
I will tell you that clerks hate wrapping these and I've been told at smaller PO's that they don't have the tape. If you are going to do any amount of these just shell out $15 and buy a roll (Brown Paper not self adhesive - see pic). I mandate it on all auctions out of the US over a certain dollar value after losing a set of fetchlands not too long ago. It costs more in the US than in other countries and I haven't really gotten a good explanation. (It's an extra $12.95 btw) So had I sent those cards parcel + registered it would have been $19.11 plus the trip to the PO. If you were selling really high dollar stuff you should just pony up the $54 for Global Express Guaranteed. (First class has a $400 limit).
I'm curious about France being on your naughty list. Have they gotten worse? I used to never have an issue, but that set of fetches I lost was going to Paris.