As a lot of auctions on e-bay states that they send only domestic - without caring for the rest of the world - and here instead we are a global community of collectors, bound by the same desires and the same (at least I hope) attitude for collecting, what would you think of voluntarily helping others Acaeans by giving our home address for their auctions in abroad countries, so resolving the problem of partecipating to Usa, Uk and european auctions?



In this way, to make an example, an Uk seller would ship - at minimal cost (a citizen of Uk WOULD know about excessive shipping charges) to an Acaean Uk citizen, who would - on his part - receive the goods and do the shipping to his fellow Acaean from abroad who won the auction in the first place.



That is, a League of Free Traders



As we all are equipped with Paypal accounts, that would be simple to put up - paying each other for the shipping charges, sure that we all would employ the least expensive option to ship our beloved goods, and finally having the possibility of partecipating in auctions we could not attend instead.



All we need is a little bit of time and some informations about packet shipping to other countries.



Me, on my part, would be very happy of volunteering for something like that.



Any takers?



The discussion is open.

I can only answer about shipping: on my part as an e-bay seller, I use trackable shipping methods ONLY. If the item gets lost in the universal void, and there's a trackable system behind, you're entitled to a refund. Sad consolation, but the only one I can think of.



When you place a bid to someone who doesn't accept international shipping, you just send him a mail via e-bay telling that you possess an address in his/her home country. Who doesn't have an uncle in Usa?  :wink:



For the rest, well, I believe in honor code.

I know I'm one of the last, tho.  :)

And once you've got the first question and the formalities out of the way, move on to the 2nd question.



Do you have a BIN?  :wink:

bclarkie wrote: ...First fact is, a lot of times if a seller lists domestic shipping only and he/she sees a non-domestic bid on his/her auction, then the seller will cancel the bid outright. The second problem I would anticipate is the trust factor. It seems we don't even trust each another enough around here to try to set up an effective system for a price guide, let alone trusting someone enough to ship them their item(s)....

There are a few members here with whom I would lay out that level of trust, but only a very few.... Of course, I am far more trusting than most, and perhaps less cynical... lol



That is until I am burned. After that re-gaining any level of trust is very tuff.



And I do agree that there are MANY easily seen problems inherent in anything of this sort. Such as those you have listed, for starters, and others as yet unforeseen too.



Of course, on the other hand.... if there were a smallish tight nit group of collectors who truly wanted this sort of system to work, it could be worked and tweaked in ways that would do that group some good.



I have seen many others who (On this forum) have brought up similar joint effort ideas and joint collecting methods. This is not a new idea.



That sort of thing takes a great amount of patience, and a vast amount of trust for those involved. Trust is not an easy thing for situations that can easily involve hundreds or even thousands of dollars.... obviously, money and the fear of loosing it with little or no recourse is the key. If you harbor fears of loosing large sums of money with little or no means of regaining it, then you will quite naturally avoid this sort of cooperation too.



Patience on that level is rarer than a Mint Pre-Pub Woody, and Trust on that level is not easy to come by either, and even more difficult to maintain.



But quite possibly worth the efforts.

I've done it for people, and people have done it for me. Here and outside the forum.

Not wanting to put dampen the spirit of cooperation here but has anyone looked into something like Mailboxes etc. or their ilk. They have shipping services and the like. It is possible that they might have some sort of forwarding service. Though it is also possible that given the current state of the world there might be security concerns with packages being forwarded through a third party.

Nope. They used to call me Death Lord when I was winning constructed tournaments with a zombie deck during my Magic days. I shortened it to Deadlord when i was, you guessed it, 36.

i've never had a problem sending anything from the UK to anywhere else in the world - not one thing has gone missing (waits now for the impending doom) - have sent to italy many times with no problems, so it doesnt bother me in the slightest - was amazed when my items actually got to japan and australia, so its cool with me



as for favours n stuff, i would gladly do that for the ppl i have dealt with and am getting to know well - they know who they are, so i dont need to mention their names. as i said, trust is everything and i would have no problem helping out.



my motto is that if you are fair to others, they will be fair to you - doesnt always work as you will always have one or two who will exploit a situation to the fullest for their selfish selves, but the world is made that way and there isnt a thing you can do about it, other than not deal with them again



i will always stay the same, and as with Aneoth, i AM a very trusting person - too much sometimes, but once you lose that trust, you will also find that i am one of the most stubborn ppl you will ever come across and nothing short of a miracle will get it back.



have a nice day peeps! back to work now,



Al