GSP a VERY BAD IDEA

[honest-sagitar]

I have been purchasing from eBay USA sellers for nearly 10  years. I make an effort to understand the shipping program and do my best to make shipping for sellers easy. Things have been good thus far. In the past, 98% of my ebay purchases came from eBay USA sellers . The choices are a lot.

Enter Global Shipping Program, an utterly useless scheme that simply adds more cost to the item. It is also expensive, at times costing more than the product price. Add to that the woes of USPS shipping, which have increased their shipping cost by as much as 100% in the past 5 years. All this make buying from US eBay sellers VERY UNATTRACTIVE.

Still, for me the mitigating factor was the GSP shipping charges, which I absolutely do not need. Canada Customs has a good clearance program, which served me well. I do not have a need for some third party hack to clear my shipment that costs less than $100. Although most eBay US sellers that regularly sell to Canada know what to do, some that do  not I try to educate quickly. And it works.

Bottom line, I stopped buying from any eBay US sellers, who engages in the GSP program, which I think is totally dumb because I am told none of that money goes to his/her pocket.

The rise in the number of reputable and reliable Chinese sellers on eBay US has also made my life very easy. I pretty much find a Chinese seller from Hong Kong, or mainland China for just about any item I buy from eBay. Sure it takes twice as long at times. But I do not mind it because I do not need it to arrive here sooner.

Now, I get better organized and simply order items from China eBay sellers in large quantities. I manage my stock well and have well-timed good reorder points, which allow me to restock my items in a reasonably well, without having to run out of stock of an item. And Chinese sellers provide good pricing value.

So, in a way, the GSP program is voluntary. If an eBay USA seller is in it, you can avoid them like I did. Sooner they will realize that and opt out of the program, which could eventually make the latter obsolete.

But don't count on it. eBay has stagnant sales growth and the GSP offers a good sales income scheme to pad their profits. Au contraire, they will aggressively offer it, possibly to the point of making it mandatory.

It is up to USA sellers to deal with this.

[nubian_treasures]

" at times costing more than the product price."

The price of shipping has nothing to do with the price of the item even when GSP is not involved. If you purchased a bowling ball or some other heavy item for $1, the shipping would far exceed the cost of the item because of its weight and/or dimensions.

You are not alone in your disdain for the GSP. Sellers are given incentives to use it that is why so many do. All I can do is suggest that you do not buy from sellers who use it.

[femmefan1946]

You are right that for items under $100, sellers should not be using GSP. The program has been poorly explained to sellers and since it targets the least knowlegeable sellers, those who were never before willing to ship outside the USA, all too many sellers are going to be getting bad feedback and worse DSRs by using it.

And will never understand why.

A general tip, for buyers who want to avoid the GSP, look for this subtitle

Customs services and international tracking provided

From United States

which appears on all GSP-activated listings. It will make your search easier.

On very bulky or on more expensive items, which are more likely to attract the attention of CBSA and be charged sales tax and duty, the GSP can actually be a money saver.

[aln_kat]

I'm also one of those buyers who no longer will buy from sellers using the GSP because of the reasons you have stated. I communicating with some sellers most of them were unaware of the how GSP was really effecting their sales. Some did not even know that they were set up on the GSP system. Previously I did not buy that much from overseas sellers (i.e China, Hong Kong etc) but now they are getting much more business from me simply because of GSP. So US sellers are losing out.