GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM

[justplanephotos]

Does eBay understand that some buyers would like to decide whether or not  their purchases are shipped via the Global Shipping program or via regular mail ? I recently won an auction and the difference between shipping via Royal Mail and shipping via the Global Shipping Program was fifteen times...$30 for Global Shipping and about $2 for Royal Mail.  The seller was prevented from shipping via Royal Mail.  Hey eBay, do you know anyone who would pay to have four vintage airplane cards which had a value of $2 and which weighed two ounces for $30 ??  I cancelled the order, not because I couldn't afford the overcharging, but because your policy is nonsensical.

[marnotom!]

You'd think that by now, sellers would be clued into the fact that if they list an item on eBay to be forwarded through the Global Shipping Program, they can't change the shipping method after the sale has been confirmed.  Unfortunately, this isn't the case, and in fact, some sellers don't even realize that their items may have the GSP applied to them until somebody from outside of their country purchases one.

You may have dodged a bullet.  Two dollars strikes me as being ridiculously cheap for international letter mail from the UK.  Maybe more like two quid rather than two bucks.   I think this seller may be a few chips short of a newspaper full.

There's a few reasons why the GSP pricing seems out of line here.  The first is that the GSP tends to be price competitive with parcel post, not letter mail, which has a different price structure and is obviously more expensive.  The second is that if an item is listed without information on its size/weight, the GSP "bot" is forced to calculate a shipping price based on a category average.  Since collectibles can get pretty heavy, this skewing unnecessarily drives up the shipping price of smaller, lightweight items.

Also consider that as a forwarding service, the GSP's shipping price is actually the seller's domestic shipping price added to the rate the GSP bot calculates for shipping the item to your Canadian destination.

I'm not trying to defend the program.  I'm just trying to shed some light on why it operates the way it does.  I find it useful to know and understand the ways of the enemy, as I can deal more rationally with it when I need to confront it.

[femmefan1946]

buyers would like to decide whether or not their purchases are shipped via the Global Shipping program or via regular mail ?

That's not going to happen.

The Global Shipping Program is a Seller Protection.

It offers nothing for buyers.

It does not make the item move faster.

It does not protect the item from damage in transit.

If the seller gets the shipment to the US or UK plant of the GSP, her responsibility for delivery has ended . The GSP also takes responsibility for customs and sales taxes and charges the buyer a small (~$5US) service fee for this.

But the important thing is that the seller chose the GSP because it offered her PROTECTION against:

• false claims of delayed or non-delivery
• refusal to pay duty or sales taxes, resulting in the item being returned to the seller, and possibly charges for return shipping
• damage claims (covered by GSP rather than seller)
• tracking

A buyer does have a choice about shipping. He can choose not to buy from sellers who use GSP.

I used this :

https://www.royalmail.com/price-finder

to estimate the cost of tracked shipping from Britain to Canada and the cheapest tracked service is L10. or about$17.40.
It does not cover duty or sales taxes, although if the cards cost less than $20CDN they would not be dutiable anyway.