eBay's International Shipping is killing my purchases of Postcards

[geoplu-60]

eBay International Shipping is intended to save Sellers (and Buyers to some extent) the headaches and costs of clearing Customs. Great idea.

Except, for some products, it not only makes no sense, but it's a barrier to sales. If you're buying a $120 item that faces customs charges, then $15 International Shipping is a good deal. But if, like me, you're buyin a $10 postcard that fits in a letter envelope, has no customs charges, and can be sent by USPS for $2 or $3, then it's a crazy charge.

As far as I've been able to ascertain, speaking with some Sellers, there is only one option - you turn on International Shipping for all your products or none at all. Now, I may have this wrong, but when I've asked Sellers to turn it off for the products I'm interested in, they say they can't, either at the individual product level or at a Category level... maybe they just don't know how. Similarly they seem unable to turn it off by Country either (I'm in Canada and postal rates to here are very low, etc., but shipping a postcard to Bulgaria might be more costly even without International Shipping).

Anyway, I've been noticing more and more Sellers using International Shipping, to the point that almost 75% of all Postcards I'm interested in are not worth the cost of shipping.

I'm writing this here because - incredibly - I've been told by phone support that there's no way to email eBay... it's either Chat or Phone. But maybe this is better anyway, as I'm hoping others are having this issue and we can convince eBay to do something to provide options.

I'm starting to message Sellers to explain that I'm not Buying or Bidding on their Postcards because of eBay's International Shipping option, so hopefully that might provide some incentive if Sellers start complaining to them as well...

[flipistics]

There isn't a whole lot that they can do. In the past, rules weren't well enforced but that has changed. You cannot send commercial goods (and yes, a postcard you bought from a seller counts) across an international border without customs paperwork. That means no lettermail. The cheapest option I know of for that is Pirate Ship Simple Export Rate at $10 USD, but they would have to exclude Canada from the international shipping program (which I think they can now do) in order for that to be an option.

I don't know where you live, but if it's within reasonable driving range of the border you might consider getting a cross-border address and have the items shipped there. Pop over once every few months and pick them all up at once. If you have friends or family in the States, that would be an even better option.

[geoplu-60]

Thanks for your response. I'm curious, when you say "You cannot send commercial goods (and yes, a postcard you bought from a seller counts) across an international border without customs paperwork." do you mean "under the eBay International Shipping service"?  

Because the postcards with reasonable shipping rates that I do buy, are all done via USPS (in the case of American Sellers), and sent lettermail, with no customs declarations, etc.

I have on occasion gone the "buy through an American friend's account" route and that works great, but I buy a fair bit and it would be in imposition over time, so I save it for important cards. Sadly, not near enough the border to make it cost effective to go the mailbox route, but again, a good option for some.

[flipistics]

Any item that you pay money for (to collect, for example) cannot be sent lettermail across an international border. It has to have a customs declaration. In the past this wasn't enforced. It is now. You can still send a postcard to a friend when you're on vacation lettermail, those are exempt. They're personal items and not part of a business transaction.  Some sellers try to get away with sending commercial goods via lettermail anyway, but it is illegal. You don't want to mess with the border agents (from either country).

eBay's International Shipping program (eIS) handles all of the border stuff for US sellers (plus added protections), but it comes at an inflated cost. Sellers can apparently opt out of that program for specific countries if they wish. Your postcard sellers could opt out for Canada and then send the items with something like Pirate Ship for less. I doubt most of them would want to deal with filling out customs forms though. For low value cards in a smaller market, it may not be worth their time.

Depending on the volume you buy, maybe you could pay your friends to open a UPS Mailbox or USPS PO Box and then have them pick the items up once a month or something.

[marnotom!]

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@flipistics, my understanding is that sellers using eBay International Shipping can tweak with their listings individually to determine whether or not the service is used, but don't quote me on that.  This can only be done at the time the listing is created.  As you note, it can't be edited after the listing goes live.

As for the inflated cost of eIS, the example that @geoplu-60 posts as a screenshot shows a shipping cost of about US$13.00.  I don't know if the seller has a charge for shipping within the US or to the eIS hub that's part of that US$13.00, but it's less than what USPS would charge for First Class Package International.  Having said that, you're right that there are mail consolidators out there that can beat both eIS and USPS in price.

[reallynicestamps]

Because the postcards with reasonable shipping rates that I do buy, are all done via USPS (in the case of American Sellers), and sent lettermail, with no customs declarations, etc.

Yeah.

That's illegal.

You are a smuggler.

I doubt you will ever get challenged on it, nor will your seller.

But the seller would have to put some virtual pennies into a virtual Cookie Jar as a sort of self-insurance premium against occasional losses or delays (or even more occasional scams) in those untracked shipments.

The seller may from time to time have a few of those "letters" returned as underpaid because they used letter rates instead of international parcel rates.

Our Canada Post Tracked Parcel rates start at $7.18 but USPS starts around $20.

And sellers are charged fees by eBay on those selling fees.

It will likely be worthwhile to chance it and smuggle away.

[pjcdn2005]

As others have said, sellers are not supposed to send merchandise with lettermail as that doesn't have a customs form. Some people still do it though it can  be tough to find someone who will send anything without tracking.  

EIS can not be set up on a listing per listing basis like GSP could. However, sellers can set up a listing to use a second method of shipping to a specific country such as lettermail if they are willing to do so.  If you can find a seller that has a few postcards that you want and they are willing to put them all in one listing, the shipping cost may be more reasonable.

[marnotom!]

@pjcdn2005, my recollection of the GSP is that it couldn’t be set up on a listing by listing basis, but sellers could exempt its application to specific countries.

I've seen a number of sellers that have a mix of eIS listings and non-eIS listings offering international shipping but I'm not sure if they set it up that way deliberately.