Ok, what is the deal with international buyers complaining about shipping prices from USA to their locale.

I have always shipped overseas and have had very few complaints about the cost. I charge actual cost via USPS plus a buck or so to pay for materials. I really try to be fair and indicate this clearly in my listings.

And then, bingo, here come the complaints. I have at least three or four guys trying to weasel cheaper shipping, yet same service right now. One guy is trying the old "the other guy shipped it for half that price" routine. Of course, the other guy probably used his bosses postal account and paid nothing - his company or boss did.

I am thinking about going back to the US/Canada only method of selling.

Yeah, I am the same bbarsh.

I am not trying to accuse all international buyers. Most have been great all the way around.

Just a recent group of complainers spurred this thought.

I had a lot of those customers last year - some even left poor feedback.  The solution was to stop being a nice guy, and ban all of them from my auctions.  I basically passed them off to my rivals, which is mean but highly effective.  I suggest you do the same ...


Right now I have an excellent representation of quality repeat customers who happen to be international.  I'm very happy with the way things are right now.  But I've felt your pain before.

If I make a profit on shipping, it is usually about 10 cents or so, if my weight estimate is off. Sometimes I take a loss. I've never charged "handling", and as a rule I don't bid on auctions that do.

I tend to charge extra for international shipments - when I'm spending 3-4 hours a week filling out customs forms, haggling with the PO clerk over rates and security issues, explaining currency conversion issues, weighing packages and calculating individualized rate information, and answering various questions from people whose fluency in English varies as much as mine does in foreign languages, I'm going to charge for my time.  I currently work for $0.00 per hour, plus invested income, plus risk bonus/penalty, minus eBay and PayPal fees, so I always factor that into the price.

Charging straight shipping with no handling is nice, but when you're shipping (to date) 2,800 items a year to the tune of $18,000 spent and $XX,XXX earned, spending 960+ hours a year, it adds up.  I understand buyers refusing to pay handling.  But I also understand that few buyers have really experienced the deep end of the pool, so I do charge it.


Conversely, when my scale and the post office's have a profound disagreement, I eat the loss without recontacting the buyer.  I've paid $50 out of pocket before on a $200 order.  I tend to spend about $5,000-$7,000 on shipping a year.  I don't keep track of handling vs. expense charges until the end of the year, but the last 5 years they've ranged from $800 loss to $300 profit.  Ideally, every package would be weighed and charged individually, but volume and the realities of a 65-hour work week prevent me from taking things to that level anymore.  I admire sellers who manage to charge only exact shipping on every package and still make a profit, but I can't imagine how they do it.  Economies of scale have catastrophic effects on 1- (and in this case 2-) person operations.  I've tried to maintain an equilibrium between international customer desires and realities of time and money, and in most cases, I've succeeded in building great relationships.  I know some are dissuaded by this approach - but that's OK.  Unless they're willing to pay me an hourly wage, I really don't have the time to give those additional individuals the extra customer service they need.  So on they go ...

The international eBay sites are actually of higher quality in some ways, in that they're designed to integrate cleanly when you want to draw in broader searches.  The mentality among Americans that eBay US = the only eBay tends to limit the international functionality of the US site.

beyondthebreach wrote:By the way. . . do those of you outside the U.S. usually go to the eBay US site?  I guess I have never really thought about it before. . . I guess I just list my items on ebay U.S. only, but I get a very large amount of international sales.  

How does that work?  Is it because I list my shipping as worldwide?  Are these users still going to the ebay US site?  

As a Canadian, living just slightly north of the US, I find it very annoying when people list items as "US Only".

darkseraphim wrote:The international eBay sites are actually of higher quality in some ways, in that they're designed to integrate cleanly when you want to draw in broader searches.  The mentality among Americans that eBay US = the only eBay tends to limit the international functionality of the US site.

I did not realise that US ebay has different functionality. Well the only difference I saw is that you have to click on "show more search options" under advanced search to get everything. IIRC on ebay.ch or .de you get all options right away.

That search option  "Show only items that ship to country XYZ" is about the most usefull thing for us, as well as the option to only show those that accept PayPal

I have had a mized situation with international bidders. I use the shipping calculators, and some times they are just totally off, and I get accused over overcharging. Sometimes the items take alot of time to get to certain places, which scares international bidders, which I understand. Most often I have problems because they think I am trying to bilk them out of some cash, but I'm not. I was only selling Canada and US for a while, but changed my mind back, and have since then mostly had good experiences. International bidders I deal with now seem to understand.