What are the risks of offering WORLDWIDE SHIPPING WITHOUT EXCLUSIONS if all parcels tracked?

[momcqueen]

I'm looking for thoughts from other sellers about this idea: 

If a seller offers only tracked shipping services what is the actual risk of offering Worldwide Shipping without exclusions?

Is the risk that the order will get caught in Customs and held, and never delivered? Or getting lost in the cracks regardless of tracking?

I find myself asking the question due to a goof I made yesterday, blaming the ebay bogeyman for someone I think in hindsight that I did myself. http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/SELLERS-DOUBLE-CHECK-YOUR-SHIP-TO-EXCLUSIONS/td-p/349974

But that got me wondering: what risk am I taking by selling items valued at between $10 and $700 (mostly about $20 - $100) to places if they are only shipped with the buyer's choice of tracked packet (if available) or Air Parcel or Xpresspost if they are not?

I agree that a buyer would have to be fairly desperate to pay $40 to ship something that costs $20 but it's possible that any buyer can trigger my free shipping promotion by buying ten eligible items so it may be a feasible thing for them with a larger order.

Thoughts? I'm fairly risk intolerant so I would appreciate a full-blown best- and worst-case scenario here. 

[ricarmic]

I always have shipped worldwide.

What I have done to protect myself is ensure that my problem countries (China, Brazil would be examples for me) have specific shipping rates that are trackable.

Making everything international with tracking serves the same purpose.

Your stuff is probably not too high risk anyway*.

As a note, for the problem countries, I do still get the odd person purchasing material (recent example, item cost $14.99, tracked shipping $17.50). Generally they know they're in countries requiring tracking and they don't mind paying to make sure it gets there.

*You've been around here a long time so you've already seen this but for others, here's where you look to see if your stuff is ok to get through customs:   https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGintdest-e.asp 

[ricarmic]

For some reason the link isn't automagically working and I've run out of time to edit it. If you copy the link into the search bar it will get there ok.....

[momcqueen]

I've got that one bookmarked already thanks to the last time you posted it. 

[mr.elmwood]

There are no risks.

Going to your own bathroom is riskier.

I reliably lose maybe 1:1000 small packets, no tracking, no insurance, no nothing.

[dutchman48]

You sell different things and may have higher risks.

You can also not get tracking to all countries and no insurance to all countries.

You may also have to deal with return issues which would be costly as well.

Think very hard about this prior to jumping in.

[widgetc]

I ship everywhere and have few problems.

But a risk you run is for an item like $20 item $40 shipping. Buyer says INASD...and you have to refund the full amount including the shipping...plus you lose the item because likely it will cost too much to bother paying to have it returned. You now have lost the item and the $40 or whatever you paid the post office to ship it.

Solution...seed your cookie jar with $40. Add $1 to the price or shipping charges and throw it into the jar (real or figurative) after each sale. Eventually you will have a surplus even if you do have a few losses and you can pull your $40 seed money back out.

Life is not without risks. You may get killed in an accident on the way to the post office to mail an item. You can't eliminate risk...you can only reduce and manage it.

[femmefan1946]

I keep mentioning Hugh Wood International, a British insurance company with offices in Toronto, who specialize in collectibles.

We know them through stamps.

They insure both dealers and collectors.

They do insure other hobbies, but are probably best known for insuring the American Philatelic Society, including their shows, which usually have millions of dollars in value on display against theft, fire, vandalism, water---They even insure their customers while travelling.

And they do insure shipments in transit.

I don't think I can post the Toronto phone number, but call them and ask for Gina. (It's a small office.)

They do annual insurance contracts, btw, not one offs.

I haven't used them, but there are one-off insurers.

One of those has a list of places they will NOT insure shipments to.

Those are the countries you should also exclude.