Sell an expensive item to buyer in China with 0% positive?

[23quixotic23]

The potential buyer only joined ebay a few days ago.  Do I, the seller, have a choice whether to accept a successful bid?

[mr.elmwood]

You can cancel any bid. Your choice.

[momcqueen]

Bid or purchase? Was this an auction or buy-it-now?

[momcqueen]

p.s. Your 'shipping not specified' to China might prove an unpleasant surprise for the buyer. 

With an item of that value (assuming it is the one of two with bids) you MUST use a TRACKED service with SIGNATURE CONFIRMATION. If I were you, I'd set up the auction with Calculated Shipping by XPRESSPOST. You are going to need it. Even if that means CANCELLING all the bids and ending the listing early to do that. 

But I am more cautious by nature than others. Some will give you different advice.

[pjcdn2005]

While the auction is still on you can cancel a bid without being penalized. If you wait until the auction is over, it's a bit more complicated. If it were my auction, I would probably cancel that buyers bid and put them on my blocked bidder list. I've heard quite a few stories about camera sellers being scammed by overseas buyers and I've personally had bad luck sending items to China.

Obviously people do sell expensive items overseas but I personally would be uncomfortable sending either of the items you have listed outside of Canada or the U.S.   If a buyer claims that they didn't receive an item a seller has to show online delivery confirmation to prove the item was received. If the item was more than C$850, both ebay and paypal require you to also have signature confirmation if the buyer puts in an item not received claim.  Very few Canada Post services have signature confirmation for international countries and even if it is available, I've heard that there is not always a guarantee that a signature will be obtained.

I notice that you show International parcel air for overseas shipping but that only covers certain countries. Many countries have xpresspost international instead.  I've always thought international air parcel did have delivery confirmation but it is not mentioned on the CP site  so you really should doublecheck that.

On the listing that has bids, there are very changes that you can make but on the other listing, you might want to make some changes to where you ship.

[pjcdn2005]

I think that you are usually more cautious than I am but I would still be uncomfortable selling items that expensive to some countries.

[sylviebee]

I wouldn't be concerned about the zero FB.

When you created the listing you had it in mind to accept bids from China so why change that now that the auction is going well?

You asked if you could cancel the Chinese bid without repercussions, and the answer to that is yes, but is there really any good reason to do so?

You can ship with delivery confirmation for about $150.

You still have 6 days to go and anything could happen so why jinx it now?

[femmefan1946]

the answer to that is yes, but is there really any good reason to do so?

Let's say the bidder is an honest buyer, but at this point does not realize that the shipping will be in the range of $150.

That's a lot of money in China. Someone who can afford that, could also afford to buy locally.

So the buyer asks to cancel, or cancels unilaterally. And now the seller has to start all over again.

And that's an honest buyer.

[#9]

the answer to that is yes, but is there really any good reason to do so?

Let's say the bidder is an honest buyer, but at this point does not realize that the shipping will be in the range of $150.

That's a lot of money in China. Someone who can afford that, could also afford to buy locally.

So the buyer asks to cancel, or cancels unilaterally. And now the seller has to start all over again.

And that's an honest buyer.

[zee-chan]

I would cancel that bid because the buyer may not know that shipping from Canada could be $150+ CAD...

[maximus7001]

Why would you set yourself up for trouble.

You need to exclude really risky destinations especially with such a low feedback you have. This will just paint a big target on you for scammers. China, Afghanistan, Nigeria? Really?

What were you expecting by doing this?

[momcqueen]

The original poster, the seller, was probably thinking that common sense would prevail when it came to unknown future customers placing bids on his/her items without knowing in advance their postage costs should they win. This, however, is ebay and those of us with a few additional feedback numbers behind our user names know differently. Plus, ebay encourages users to set low opening bids, few shipping restrictions etc and those starting out accept that advice at face value. 

And, again, there are experienced members here who will provide different advice than me and that's totally okay BUT I am less of a risk-taker than others. This is an expensive item and the seller appears to be new which, you're very correct, does place them at a higher risk of being exploited by less-than scrupulous buyers.

If this were my item, I would:

1. Cancel the existing bids

2. End the auction

3. Relist it with Calculated postage via Canada Post Xpresspost to ONLY the countries that accept it as a service option. And mention in the listing that import fees, taxes and duty as assessed by Customs are the buyer's cost and not included in the postage quoted. 

That alone should exclude the buyers from high-risk areas. This seller is absolutely going to need a traced service and one that includes full insurance and signature. 

I have read some absolute horror stories about rare, high-value items being intercepted at Customs in questionable destinations and swapped for counterfeits and/or broken and returned to the seller that way for a full refund. I don't know how accurate those stories are but, if they are to be believed at face value, some Customs allow the receivers to open the parcel and thoroughly examine the item before deciding whether or not to accept it.

The potential exists for so much to go wrong here, it makes me nervous. I would say cha-cha right out of this one and start fresh with restrictions. 

[23quixotic23]

Thanks everyone.  Lots of good advice.  

I just did a search of countries not to ship to.  Seems like half the globe.  But in future auctions, I will at least put together a list of some of the names that pop up more than usual.

I think I'll let this auction go ahead.  None of the current bidders makes me unusually nervous (all positive feedback and based in U.S., Canada, France, and Thailand).  And I'll be sure to ship via some method which ensures a signature at the other end.

The person which prompted this thread has not made a bid; they were just asking about postage costs to Canada.  So I think I'll just ignore their message, and hope they go away.   

[23quixotic23]

Thanks mjwl.  I particularly like stipulation #3.  Would I be OK at this point if I edited my auction text to insert this message?  (although I notice now that the xpresspost page has China sitting at the same level as the UK, Germany and Norway.)

[23quixotic23]

I see that "tracked packet" is a bit more exclusive than Xpresspost (ie, it excludes China).

[23quixotic23]

I've just now added the following stipulation to both auctions. Please note that I can not ship to countries which are not listed in the "tracked packet" list here

[maggiebvintage2010]

Putting in that caveat means nothing, since your have not excluded all the countries that don't have tracked packet.  Besides, you cannot use Tracked Packet for your items, the first one exceeds the weight limit, and the service does not offer signature confirmation, which you need for PayPal protection due to the value of the items.  Do you realize that shipping to Thailand for your 1st item is $331.69 with signature confirmation and $187.54 for International Air?  The second item (with bids) costs $254.76 to Thailand with signature confirmation and $147.68 for International Air.  Canada Post has conflicting information about international air - their delivery services descriptions say it has tracking and delivery confirmation, but the "find a rate" does not state this.  Shipping to France with signature confirmation is $315.45 for 1st item, $242.05 for the second item ( bids).

You can add to the item description but cannot edit the listing description on items with bids.  Also, I do not understand why you expect potential buyers to do the work that you should be doing.  This is a big turn-off to shoppers.  You should be using calculated shipping and entering your own postal code, parcel dimensions and weights.  In addition to saying where you ship to, you need a shipping exclusion list and you must indicate that eBay exclude buyers from countries you don't ship to.

[maximus7001]

You need listen to what maggie said. Adding words to a description does nothing and means nothing. You need to deselect all the countries that you are not going to ship to. Once that is done then they can not bid or buy in the first place.

You need to end all of your current auctions and pick the explanation to ebay as there was an error in the listing. Then start over.

If you send that package to china you will loose it and the money.

Do you realize that you are shipping regular parcel to Canada which is not insured?

Also do you realize that you have no shipping cost for USA ? Americans are not going to take to kindly to that and you are going to get a negative feedback. You need to be clear or you are going to have problems.

Why would you not specify a shipping cost to USA? Was there anything preventing you from doing so?

That 

Hasselblad

could go expedited parcel to usa with $1000 cdn insurance for about $30 if you bought the postage through paypal and printed it.

[ladybug2785]

You need to do more research before selling.

Also you need a bigger text size in your descriptions like this, it's not that hard to do. The words are too small to read on a mobile. You need to get with the times.

[maximus7001]

You are going to end up giving that ARCA away for free to someone in nigeria. You are not protected by ebay or paypal for that one and no company is going to insure that for you.

[maggiebvintage2010]

I hope you will take all the good advice you have received.  IMHO, you would be doing yourself a big favour if you cancel the bids, end the listings, and do some buying plus a lot more research before you start selling here.  Selling high value items internationally with no eBay selling experience is simply asking for trouble.  Your response to previous suggestions indicates that you do not know what you are doing. This is not a put-down, and I hope you will not feel insulted.  It is an honest attempt to assist you before you lose your items, and find you are not protected by eBay, PayPal, or the shipping service you used because you have made choices that are not in your best interests, and have been taken in by a scammer.  Buy a few low-cost items from a few different countries and from Canada.  Get some feedback, it will do a little bit to protect you from those scammers.  Read the Canada Post website, then read it again, then read it again.  Hang out on these discussion boards and read, read, read the buyer and seller posts.  Go to ebay.com and read the discussion boards there.  Become familiar with the Sell Your Item forms (basic and advanced) and make sure you have read through the policies for sellers.  Set up your preferences to protect yourself, and make absolutely certain that you have set up your shipping correctly.  Ask questions here before you start selling again.  Good luck to you.