Wow! I just went through this whole exercise with a seller in South Carolina.
We must have exchanged 25 emails to finally get it straightened out in his mind.
Most US sellers who sign up to use this International Selling that eBay offers, do not understand the consequences of doing so. This particular seller told me that he is unable to sell to buyers out of the US as per eBay I explained that this was not true, but with the fees that eBay charges, it is really no wonder that he can't sell his low priced items outside of the US. I explained that for me to purchase a single coin from him valued at US$2, to ship to me it was going to cost very close to C$20. He mails to the US under a special deal that eBay anyone who signs up using this International Shipping Program. For items being sold under $20, he is charged by eBay, based on the item price ($2) plus $1 mailing. This gives him tracking on the envelope to the US customer, but the US buyer is charged shipping at $3.95 as posted on sellers site. So eBay scoops up the other $2.95. To demonstrate this to this seller, I purchased this US$2 coin from him and paid the approximately US$14 shipping (total close to C$20) and he received, from eBay, a notice that the sale was complete and that seller's buer paid $2 plus $1 shipping and that the envelope would be sent to an address at Glendale Heights, Illinois, which is the eBay distribution centre. That confused the heck out of the seller because he though he was sending me the coin directly. I explained how to opt out of that ridiculous Internation Shipping Program (disguised from the GPS designation as most knew it before). He did that as he has thousands of 'foreign' coins that he his unable to sell in the US and for the most part, anywhere else because of the high shipping being charged by eBay. He was wondering why he didn't even get an inquiry outside of the US, until I happened to see one of his listings for a Canadian coin, that had errors in it. I contacted him to let him know of the error and we got talking.
He is so grateful for receiving that information on his listings and how he can do something about selling his hoard of coins. Grateful to the point that he wants to buy me a brand new 2025 Lexus ES350 --------- or not. :-), or send me a picture of one.
A number of US sellers are catching on to the whole Canadian market for selling Canadian coins, as they realize that Canada is their largest market for them. Now if only the rest of the US sellers would understand that why do you need tracking for a $2 item??
Yes, a few (very few) get lost or GET LOST (wink, wink). In the over 22 years that I have been selling on eBay, and another 25 prior to that, I have had only 3 lost shipments and one of those was my fault with an incorrect addressed envelope.
Anyway, I hope this clarifies, at least somewhat
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