What about eBay makes people stupid??! UPDATED

[tafkadixie]

I recently put my sealed Hasbro blue ring on ebay and CLEARLY stated that it was a US auction only due to the size of the package and thus the cost of shipping.

I had 26 bids from 7 bidders. 3 of the 7 were from Europe. One Germany, one Denmark, and the winner was from the UK. Now she is trying to argue with me over the shipping charges saying it can't cost more than $5-10 to ship the ring to the UK. I can't even ship it for less than $10 in the States, much less across the Atlantic Ocean. So in a word........ARGHHHH!!

cgi.EBAY LINK NOT ALLOWED/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1170&item=230187052368

[GoldenHulk]

Ebay does not make people stupid, it just makes stupidity more obvious. And a lot of them don't read the item description, either. HOWEVER, it states at the top of the listing: "Ships to: N. and S. America, Europe, Asia, Australia". The difference between that statement and what is written in the description no doubt caused the problem. I use the listing option that restricts bidders from countries to which I don't ship and this never becomes a problem.

With that written, it IS ridiculous to think a package that large would ship overseas for $5-10. I'd be surprised if it wasn't closer to $20, really.

[tafkadixie]

goldenhulk said:

Ebay does not make people stupid, it just makes stupidity more obvious. And a lot of them don't read the item description, either. HOWEVER, it states at the top of the listing: "Ships to: N. and S. America, Europe, Asia, Australia". The difference between that statement and what is written in the description no doubt caused the problem. I use the listing option that restricts bidders from countries to which I don't ship and this never becomes a problem.

With that written, it IS ridiculous to think a package that large would ship overseas for $5-10. I'd be surprised if it wasn't closer to $20, really.

Touche.

[vandutch]

lol. there are people that don't listen on ebay, however, your auction contradicts itself with the shipping rules, so you can't blame them this time.

[addam]

i had the same thing happen to me on ebay. someone asked me how much it was to ship something to the uk so i looked it up on usps.com and gave them the answer and then they argued with me for 3 or 4 messages about how it should cost no more than 5, but to be fair they'd pay 10. it was just silly, and it ended up costing me like $5.75 to send it 2 states away which is a hell of a lot closer than the uk. i don't like selling things on ebay, it's too much hassle to deal with stupid people's s**t.

[JCWBobC]

When dealing with people in the UK I tell them I'm going to charge them between $20-$30 for shipping and refund the difference if it is less than that once they receive the item. They either accept that or they don't have to bid on my items.

Bob

[Ruby Fusion]

Well, as mentioned, your auction does contradict itself. In your defense, the winner should use common sense and realize it ain't cheap to send such a piece.

Out of experience: sellers often charge too high: they tell me it's like $15.00 and when I get the package, I see they paid like $8.00

[Mastermind]

ive had that happen to me before..i had a huge lot of loose figures.it ended up costing me around $50 to ship them..i also had it clearly written that i shipped to the u.s. only...oh well lol

[LeighD]

I laughed when you said the buyer thought it would only cost $5-$10 to shipp over to the UK. With a box that size it is going to be more like $20-$25.

[STOMWIJF]

I often encounter sellers who for some reason refuse to ship outside the USA. I fail to see why as the buyer should be any shipping charges., so what's the problem?

On topic though: you should have set the auction as 'will ship to US only'. This would have prevented international buyers from placing bids as eBay will not let you place a bid. You have yourself to blame.

[Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai]

stomwijf said:

I often encounter sellers who for some reason refuse to ship outside the USA. I fail to see why as the buyer should be any shipping charges., so what's the problem?

STOM, in defense of us American eBayers, a few reasons why U.S. bidders may opt not to ship outside of the U.S.:

-- Less paperwork to fill out (even shipping to Canada from the US involves a few extra minutes per package, in my experience)
-- Perceived easier tracking of package (may or may not be true, but it's perceived that way by many)
-- If there's a dispute before or after the package arrives (or if it never arrives), some sellers feel that dealing with an out-of-country buyer will make it harder to settle a problem... after all, non-US bidders are not necessarily subject to the same legalities that we are as US citizens, and vice versa. It's hard to make a buyer obey a US anti-fraud law if they're not a US citizen.
-- U.S. Priority Mail packaging is far easier to come by than international packaging is in many post offices here... both are free, but many post offices don't keep international packaging in stock

I sell on eBay every now and then, and I usually make my auctions U.S. only. If a foreign bidder asks me to reconsider and they have decent feedback I will usually reconsider, but only if they agree to the adjusted shipping charge beforehand.

I also realize I could be sacrificing a higher final bid by shutting out foreign bidders who sometimes can't find my items as easily. But the flipside is that the only times I have ever been completely cheated in a deal (meaning I failed in all follow-up efforts to recover the item, recover any of the money at all, or to get law enforcement after the fraudulent buyer/seller/trader) were because the other person lived in another country. So I've come to view it as a risky situation.

[Dyamez]

Exactly, my first and only international deal was ,sadly, done here on WF, up until now that person still has the nerve not to pay for the remainder of the full amount, and it's already been a year!! he keeps telling me "well you said that it's ok to pay whenever" Jeezus, i never thought it would even get close to three months without payment!!

up until now i'm 99% decided never to ship internationally.

[ultim8customs]

elden said:

stomwijf said:

I often encounter sellers who for some reason refuse to ship outside the USA. I fail to see why as the buyer should be any shipping charges., so what's the problem?

STOM, in defense of us American eBayers, a few reasons why U.S. bidders may opt not to ship outside of the U.S.:

-- Less paperwork to fill out (even shipping to Canada from the US involves a few extra minutes per package, in my experience)
-- Perceived easier tracking of package (may or may not be true, but it's perceived that way by many)
-- If there's a dispute before or after the package arrives (or if it never arrives), some sellers feel that dealing with an out-of-country buyer will make it harder to settle a problem... after all, non-US bidders are not necessarily subject to the same legalities that we are as US citizens, and vice versa. It's hard to make a buyer obey a US anti-fraud law if they're not a US citizen.
-- U.S. Priority Mail packaging is far easier to come by than international packaging is in many post offices here... both are free, but many post offices don't keep international packaging in stock

I sell on eBay every now and then, and I usually make my auctions U.S. only. If a foreign bidder asks me to reconsider and they have decent feedback I will usually reconsider, but only if they agree to the adjusted shipping charge beforehand.

I also realize I could be sacrificing a higher final bid by shutting out foreign bidders who sometimes can't find my items as easily. But the flipside is that the only times I have ever been completely cheated in a deal (meaning I failed in all follow-up efforts to recover the item, recover any of the money at all, or to get law enforcement after the fraudulent buyer/seller/trader) were because the other person lived in another country. So I've come to view it as a risky situation.

STOM: Another reason is international buyers who use PayPal to pay have unconfirmed addresses...SOOOOO that means if there is a dispute about an item shipped over seas that is not received the US seller is not covered.

[schellshocker]

People are stupid, or trying to take advantage I think

[Ruby Fusion]

ultim8customs said:

STOM: Another reason is international buyers who use PayPal to pay have unconfirmed addresses...SOOOOO that means if there is a dispute about an item shipped over seas that is not received the US seller is not covered.

Well, I've experienced this twice as a buyer: once I bought a CMLL figure, paid for airmail and never received it, after six weeks I complained I still hadn't received it; seller's answer "I shipped over sea, this takes a while..." So the seller had my money (from figure + airmail), send supposedly over sea, and I lost $14.45...

second time: I bought LJN Ultimate Warrior and never received it, my loss: $63.89

So, seller is not covered doesn't apply: both sellers had my money, I had no merchandise!

[Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai]

Yeah, it can definitely work both ways. I think I just feel better knowing that the entire transaction takes place in the same country, where the same laws will apply to both of us and tracking of packages is a little easier to put faith in (far from perfect, but still, much better).

Back on topic, TAFKADixie: When I list U.S. only auctions, I sometimes put one of two things in the description:

1) U.S. bidders only. I reserve the right to cancel international bids.
2) Bidders outside the U.S. MUST contact me through eBay and agree to the shipping cost for their destination in writing before bidding. If this is not done, I reserve the right to cancel your bid. If I do not respond to your inquiry, that means no international bids are being accepted.

... I figure if I put that info in my description, then in theory, the bidder should be well aware of those terms before bidding. So if they bid, I can just cancel it, and if they complain to eBay, they'll have no legs to stand on since it was in the description that I would do that, and they still defied my wishes.

[GoldenHulk]

These examples all illustrate why I refuse to ship to certain countries. First, a lot of the people aren't completely aware of the rate of exchange right now. A certain dollar amount to ship a package seems like a lot to them, but it is what it costs us in U.S. dollars to ship. So they bid, knowing full and well what the shipping costs are (in my case, as I always state it in the auction listing), then when they win they think it's time to haggle over the shipping.

More importantly, a lot of people touch these packages in several different countries before they get where they are going. Sometimes they take a LONG time to get where they are going and, apparently, sometimes they just don't get there at all. It's a feeling of complete helplessness when a person ships something, assumes it got there, then starts getting harrassing emails two weeks later demanding to know why it hasn't been received. I've dealt with that before myself and it's just not worth the headache to earn a few extra dollars.

If I send something within the U.S., I can easily track the package, it USUALLY gets to it's destination in a reasonable amount of time (saving me from dealing with the "where is it?" emails), and if there is a problem both the seller and buyer are more easily protected from loss or theft. With international shipping, usually the lower dollar amount items are just not worth going through the extra troubles for a marginal profit. On higher dollar (or potential higher dollar) items, I've allowed international bidders, but I insist on having them pay for insurance for an added measure of protection.

[hollywood06]

I also do my fair share of shipping out of the US and usually with US only auctions. The reason for that as stated earlier is that 1) shipping out of the Country has become very expensive and people tend to know wanna pay that much. 2) The USPS has become a very annoying with all their extra paper work, not to mention the crappy lines you have to wait in.

[tafkadixie]

FYI, the cheapest shipping rate was $26.40 - now we wait and see.

[3Lephant (Naptown Icon)]

rubyfusion said:

Well, as mentioned, your auction does contradict itself. In your defense, the winner should use common sense and realize it ain't cheap to send such a piece.

Out of experience: sellers often charge too high: they tell me it's like $15.00 and when I get the package, I see they paid like $8.00

I do that.

I won't lie that most of it is handling charges though. It's just a hassle to wait 3 extra days to get the money to clear our checking account, then finding a time in the schedule to go to the PO, pick up a Priority Box, then have to ship out something will all paper work filled out for 20+ dollars. Shipping in a priority box these days, the MINIMUM for outside of the States is 20.00. That isn't a big deal to you guys overseas because the value of the dollar is so depreciated.

And also, I've found that the USPS switched the Mail Boxes so that now ALL priority mail boxes can go overseas in the same box.

-3L