eBay

dutch-vintage · ‎03-07-2024

I sold my first item on Ebay as something of a test and the first problem arose: The items is sold but the buyer was able to select domestic shipping. I am a seller from the Netherlands and the buyer is from the United States and as much as I would like, the domestic shipping fee is not able to cover the cost.

When I try to follow the shipping trail on Ebay, I am at one point forced to change the "ship from" address to a location within the US to make domestic shipping available, unfortunately this is also not possible.

1. How do I fix this quickly for the buyer? I am okay sharing the difference but I need tools, I am unable to get the chat bot to connect me to an agents or give me anything helpful.

2. How do I prevent future buyers from selecting the cheapest but unavailable options?

3. Can I list items without shipping cost and calculate it afterwards? The amount of options (distance, insurance, express) makes listing worldwide rates impossible and I can only make a rough estimate for default shipping.

Thanks in advance, I like selling stuff, and the people here are nice, but I wish Ebay was a bit more helpful.

Arne.

wastingtime101 · ‎03-07-2024

When you list on the .com site, domestic shipping is shipping to the US, regardless of where you are located and where your items ship from. International shipping is shipping anywhere outside the US, including to your own country if you are located outside the US.

You need to set up shipping on your listings accordingly. For domestic you will chose something like "standard shipping from outside the US" or economy equivalent, depending on the service you're using.

For the item you already sold you either have to ship it and take the financial hit, or cancel the sale and take an account defect and possible neg feedback from the buyer.

You cannot set up listings without shipping stated upfront. For worldwide you don't have to use a single rate. You can set up different rates to different countries. @pjcdn2005 usually has great advice in this area and will probably help if she sees this post later.

GLORIOUS!

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-07-2024

You are limited to the amount of rates you can list when listing on .com from another country. As @wastingtime101 mentioned, domestic shipping on .com always refers to shipping to the US. For international shipping you just have one rate now but you could break it up a bit. For example, your first international rate could be for ‘expedited international’. Instead of choosing worldwide click on destination and then check off Europe and the UK. If you want to ship to places other than the US and Europe you could do one rate using economy International or standard to regions such as Asia, South America etc.

dutch-vintage · ‎03-12-2024

Thank you both for providing the details ebay does not make readily available. The .com / .nl positively amazes me. That the URI you use decides how shipping is calculated and not, I don't know, actual locations?

I am not really liking the proces, already had my doubts about selling on the platform and this adds to it. Mistakes can be made but I do expect that either ebay allows us to fix them or, beter yet, tries it's best to prevent them.

Well this was a test and I still do not know what to do, swap shipping rates or find a local ebay? I'll sort the sale and then decide whether it is worth it to keep using ebay as a seller. I understand that once everything is set up right it will be easier but I just do not know if I want to put in that effort.

But I just want to thank you for the help and what I do should not bother you and I know ebay does not read or reply to anything.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-12-2024

Many people from other countries do list here but the shipping part of it is a learning curve. Have you looked at listing on eBay.nl? You should be able to use calculated shipping there. EBay doesn’t guarantee that all listings be seen on each site but there is a chance that your listings will be seen here if your listing specifies a cost fior shipping to the US.

mikeystoyz · ‎03-12-2024

Do you have ebay shipping selected for internatinal shipping? That is one reason shipping might be cheaper. Does the person have a US address to ship things to?

Wherever you go, there you are. Please remember, when you are asked if you are a god, you say yes.

marnotom! · ‎03-12-2024

@dutch-vintage wrote:

Thank you both for providing the details ebay does not make readily available. The .com / .nl positively amazes me. That the URI you use decides how shipping is calculated and not, I don't know, actual locations?

@dutch-vintage, eBay.com is considered "eBay USA" and its infrastructure and support are based on sales made by American sellers. eBay.nl is tailored to the markets in the Netherlands and EU in general.

When eBay was first conceived it was a "universal" site. As the internet economy grew, many nations' governments wanted to get their slice of the pie from both sellers and buyers and this necessitated eBay creating the many "national" sites it now has to ensure that proper taxes are charged and remitted to those governments and that national laws regarding commerce in general are followed by both parties.

I think at least some of the difficulties you're having on eBay would be resolved if you listed on eBay.nl rather than eBay.com. If you grow comfortable with the process on .nl, then you can decide if adapting to selling on .com would be beneficial to you.

(For what it's worth, any site asks for my ZIP code rather than a postcode or postal code is a tip-off to me that it's US-centric.)

marnotom! · ‎03-12-2024

@mikeystoyz wrote:

Do you have ebay shipping selected for internatinal shipping? That is one reason shipping might be cheaper. Does the person have a US address to ship things to?

The OP currently has a vintage board game listed that shows a shipping price of US$6.95 to the US (or local pickup) and US$56 to the Netherlands and everywhere else.

That $6.95 shipping charge should be for the Netherlands, but as @pjcdn2005 points out, "domestic" shipping on eBay.com means shipping within the US.

dutch-vintage · ‎03-13-2024

Thanks all for clarifying. It does not make the case for ebay any better. I work with other sites and do a lot of international shipping and it should really be a matter between two addresses. the site should figure that out and suggest rates or at least options that fit the situation.

Splitting the site into geographical area's makes no sense to me, taxes can be handled by directly charging the buyer according to his country of residence, taxes for the seller should be handled normally by his income.

Last question, if I list it on any localised website, will the listing be visible worldwide? Marktplaats.nl has my country covered so I am really trying to use ebay to get a global audience. If I have to use ebay.nl fine.

marnotom! · ‎03-14-2024

@dutch-vintage wrote:

Thanks all for clarifying. It does not make the case for ebay any better. I work with other sites and do a lot of international shipping and it should really be a matter between two addresses. the site should figure that out and suggest rates or at least options that fit the situation.

The eBay sites are based on code that is nearly 29 years old. The Canadian site can't even get shipping calculators for carriers such as FedEx and UPS to work properly on the site. I don't think the .com site would be able to handle shipping carriers and calculators for a multitude of countries.

@dutch-vintage wrote:

Splitting the site into geographical area's makes no sense to me, taxes can be handled by directly charging the buyer according to his country of residence, taxes for the seller should be handled normally by his income.

The site isn't being split into geographical areas. The workings of eBay are split amongst multiple sites. The US site is a different website than the Netherlands site which is a different site than the Singapore site and so on and so forth. For whatever reasons, eBay and its big brother Amazon have separate websites in a number of countries that are administered separately but have a common user database. It's just how it's done and whether or not we feel there's a better way of doing things isn't going to mean much.

@dutch-vintage wrote:

Last question, if I list it on any localised website, will the listing be visible worldwide? Marktplaats.nl has my country covered so I am really trying to use ebay to get a global audience. If I have to use ebay.nl fine.

In theory, yes, your listings should be visible on other eBay sites if you've selected "worldwide" shipping. If what you're selling is the same as what a domestic seller is selling, however, your item will likely get pushed down in search results if the buyer is searching by "best match." Listing on a non-English-language site such as eBay.nl may also affect your visibility in search results on English language sites.

You'll need some time and patience to determine what seems to be working best for you. If you haven't already asked for advice on the eBay.nl discussion boards, I suggest you do that, too. Good luck, @dutch-vintage!