Ebay auction MAYBE International buyer

ladytoysdream · #1 09/22/10, 06:58 PM

Okay, I have some auctions up currently.
I just got a ask seller a question. The item in the auction is yarn.
A buyer wants to know if I will sell to Mexico.
My auction states NO international sales.
I used to long ago, but it seems to be a big PITA, so I stopped.
I have however honored a few requests now and then.

So is Mexico a safe place to ship to ? Does it need a custom slip ?

ErinP · #2 09/22/10, 08:54 PM

Sure Mexico is safe to ship to. As safe as any other country, for the most part...
And yes, you'll need a customs slip no matter what country you ship to. (It's a pretty minor thing, actually)

For me, the deciding factors would be the buyer's feedback, the value of my item and if I can communicate with any past US sellers who've dealt with this person.

As an example, I had a buyer from Russia this spring who bought $1000 worth of fabric!!
I routinely sell to international buyers so I had no idea until the order came in. I panicked!! lol First I tried to convince the buyer that she didn't want to deal with me because I'm too small time for this size of order. But she walked me through how to ship it to her. So then I read her feedback (all from here in the States) and it all looked super.
Then I emailed a recent seller she'd purchased from to get her feel and she told me this was an excellent repeat buyer and she'd never had a bit of trouble.

After I did my homework, I felt much better, but I still fretted until the last package was safely accounted for. lol

**clovis** · #3 09/22/10, 09:43 PM

That is some excellent advice, Erin.

Ken Scharabok · #4 10/07/10, 11:25 PM

As long as they pay with PayPal I don't care where the order comes from. Completed one last week to Japan.

romysbaskets · #5 10/08/10, 01:46 PM

I listed my garlic bulbils on ebay last year. I sold some to Canada, Belgium, Germany etc.... No problems and seemed like nice folks. As long as the shipping is covered, I will ship anywhere too. I sold other things on ebay years ago and shipped my small sales all over the world. I never even lost any packages! I thought that was pretty cool These days my sales are more home oriented....

ladytoysdream · #6 10/08/10, 07:54 PM

Well the one from Mexico never bid.
I have a current auction with a person from England that wants to bid. I said yes.

I have been registered on ebay 11 yrs. Maybe I should sell International . I probably should try again. But then again, I like being able to track packages in the good old USA via the postal system. I have had a few international try to tell me the packages never show up. My word against their word. So I choose to sell locally. Maybe less buyers, but less headache also.

Ken Scharabok · #7 10/08/10, 08:17 PM

For sales outside the U.S. I have to use USPS International Priority Mail as the local UPS drop-pff point isn't willing to take the time to do the custom's paperwork - and I don't blame them,.

For USPS Int'l PM there is some amount of insurnance built into the base rate. Say it is $50. If you want to bump it up to say $200, you have to start from $0 - you cannot include what was in the rate.

Only problem I had was a package to England. They turned it over to Parcel Force (known as Parcel Farce) there. PF said they tried three times to delivery to a 23/7/265 business. Once the insurance claim was submitted, waaaaaaalaaaaaaa, it were able to delivery the package.

With my internation buyers I go out of my way to tell them of potential difficulties as their own system kicks in once in country. International shipping typically runs about as much as the original purchase. I have mutually terminated some sales when they found out how much shipping will be.

Buyer pays all custom fees and such - period.