ebay is not like it used to be,its better because of the USPS

[1tuna]

just wanted to put that out there and give  people something to think about

doing lots of reading here this morning on the boards and it gets tiring after a while

I sell plenty of stuff overseas and I have to say its way better than it was 10-15 years ago with USPS and international DC.The post office does a gret job with the EDELCON service and I thinks its better than priority service,I mean why spend 40-50 on international  priority when spending $12.19 on edelcon works faster.I think its better.International low cost tracking with 1st class has made my ebay profits go to the moon with certain countries

[luckythewinner]

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@1tuna wrote:

I sell plenty of stuff overseas and I have to say its way better than it was 10-15 years ago with USPS and international DC.

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10-15 years ago a vinyl LP or two by small packet air to Europe was  ~$4.00

It now costs ~$24 at the counter and ~$21 via eBay labels. 

IMHO that cost is what has caused the international share of my LP sales to drop from 50-60% of my business down to 5-10% of my business. 

[1tuna]

I get bumped up to the $21 cost when my package goes above 8 ounces.I have TRS+ and get a super discount of $2.06 or 14 percent off the regular price with ebay shipping.I used to spend lots of money shipping to Italy and sweating bullets years ago.Now I love shipping to Italy since they are such active watch buyers and the tracking is smooth compared to what it was 15 years ago when I was using small pack priority for $5 with no tracking on it.the ones for $9 I could really cram a lot into,in those days the rates were good but not the tracking

[bigdeals.etc]

Yea regarding price, anyone who sells items 8 ounces or less can really benefit. Myself included. 

One semi-related question though. I do get the occasional FC international package either get lost or take over a month to arrive to the buyer. I haven't spent time to figure out if there is a pattern... like certain countries are susceptible to this or not. Have you had this happen to you at all and maybe figured out which countries are more prone? Btw, I still get queasy when I ship to Italy. 

[chapeau-noir]

I've shipped international since 1999 and there are certain countries that are a bit more 'complicated' than others. Italy has some problems, and at times Germany's customs gets really backed up (depending on what security measures they're using), sometimes customs in Blaine and Sumas get really backed up for packages going into Canada coming from west of the Mississippi. But on the whole I haven't had problems - China is easy and I even shipped a child's kimono to someone in Saudi Arabia (not my first package to go there). Generally, the only countries I block are those with internal problems that are creating difficulties with mail transmission - I hate to do it, but stuff disappears.

I think the USPS could do a lot better with the small packet (or what the they cutely call 'first class international' unlike the rest of the world) tranches - right now it's 1-8 oz, then a huge jump to 9 oz - 2 lb.  I really think it should be simply a pound rate - 1 - 16 oz, then each pound after - it's just crazy to have a 9 oz package cost the same as a pair of shoes to ship.