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Is selling within the EU considered international selling?
Hello!
I'd like to start selling something on ebay occassionally.
I live in Finland that is part of the European Union. Obviously all my products are in Finland.
I've studied everything I can about selling on ebay and tried everything, before coming here to ask for some help. I don't know what to do.
First of all, since Finland doesn't have its own ebay platform, I've selected ebay.fr, the French platform. France also belongs to the EU. All this is OK.
I thought selling via ebay.fr would be simple. I managed to create a listing and all, but when I came to determine shipping costs, the problems started.
My problem is: everytime I try to determine the shipping costs and choose international shipping from the dropdown menu and give my price for shipping, the form is cleared automatically in a moment. Absolutely frustrating. --> Then in the preview of the listing it says that "Will arrange for collection in person only (no postage)". And you can't do anything about it.
I know exactly what postal service to use and I've calculated myself how much it actually costs. I just can't put this in the listing.
So ebay doesn't let me determine international shipping at all for my listing. Very strange.
I have a theory. Ebay has this policy:
Before you can sell internationally, you'll need to:
- Have earned at least 10 feedback points as a seller
So could this be the problem? Does this apply, even though EU is a single market?
Do I have to get 10 feedfack from Finnish buyers before selling anywhere else? The irony here is that I came to sell stuff on ebay, because Finland is such a small market!
How come is everything this complicated?
Thank you for your answers!
kh-vince
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
spectralgloom
·1 year agoCurrently trying to sell on .com and I have no idea what shipping method to pick from the list. What did you pick? These options are all american shipping.
nobody*s_perfect
·1 year ago.com is the US site so "Domestic" shipping refers to shipping in the US, and the only specific shipping services that are available are US-based services. You'd have to choose the generic international option which IIRC is called something like "Shipping from outside the US" and set a flat shipping cost which would be your cost to ship to a buyer in the US.
simfi18
OP3 years agoThanks a lot, lacemaker3!
You gave a really comprehensive answer and I will definitely try these tips next.
I chose ebay.fr, because I could manage the listing also in French (although my English is better) and they're in the EU and also use the same EUR currency. I didn't choose the British ebay.co.uk, because they both don't belong to the European Union (anymore) and use GBP currency. Obviously, I would like the platform to have the same parametres to begin with.
You're suggestion for the Irish ebay is definitely worth a try! It's EU + EUR (+ English). I didn't even know ebay.ie existed.
If I still can't get it done, then I'll try the European communities to resolve the issue, as you suggested.
You're answer gave me new motivation. I was already numb with this after trying everything I could ever think of.
Thanks again!
slippinjimmy
·3 years agoSomething to keep in mind, when you are a seller in your position, listing on a site which is not your own country (no domestic site exists) there are shipping matters to consider.
Any shipping calculator that eBay may have assumes you are shipping from the country where you are listing. This means that you must use generic shipping services and flat-rate pricing because the calculator won't work since you are shipping from a different country. I don't know about the EU sites but in the US there is an option to use "shipping from outside xxx" (xxx is the country you are listing on).
simfi18
OP3 years agoHi slippinjimmy, thank you for your reply. Could you still come back for my new message on the forum, please. Thanks!
slippinjimmy
·3 years agoI'm going to take an "educated" guess on the the issue with shipping.
I suspect it is related to VAT, the difference between €19.90 and €23.88 is exactly 20% which is the UK VAT rate. I do not know why the VAT is being added to the UK shipping but not for EU countries (I check a couple of countries), perhaps there is a special situation for the UK because it is not EU anymore.
Wish I could give you a specific answer but I'm pretty sure the VAT is at the root of the issue so maybe there is some information in the eBay.ie help pages that would explain it.
I used to do a lot of business with Europe so I have a basic understanding of VAT and how it has been applied but there have been so many changes in recent years plus the Brexit situation to add confusion that I know longer have a good grasp of the situation.
simfi18
OP3 years agoYou're most likely right about this. It has to be the British 20 % general VAT that increases the shipping. There's no other reasonable explanation, really.
I can either leave it like that and offer the shipping for 19.90 without VAT for UK buyers or 16.60 EUR in order to give the same price as to others with VAT.
This then arises another (more technical) question: if the UK buyer pays me the full price 23.88 EUR of the shipping with tax, how is the tax accounted to the UK goverment, then? Does ebay maybe deduct the VAT during the process before paying me the actual 19.90 while still taking its own comission of 1.2 % of the VAT included figure (see the chart below, where Finland is considered an "EU Unsited" country)?
This is fascinating, actually. I don't complain about the practices, I just want to be aware of everything when selling online in order to make everything easy and clear for everyone.
Once again, I want to thank you for your precious help!
______
pjcdn2005
·3 years agoEBay will deduct the VAT before you are paid as they look after the remittance to the UK government
lacemaker3
·3 years agoHi, welcome to eBay!
I;m sorry, but no, your theory is not correct. That policy is on eBay.com (eBay USA) and it's badly worded, rarely enforced, and confusing at best. It isn't applied to sellers that are not based in the USA. I don't even know if there is such a policy on the European eBay websites, or how it would be enforced, if ever.
That sounds more like a display glitch, which may be a device or browser issue, or something related to the eBay site you're listing or an interaction between them. But, it is not related to the international selling policy you quoted.
I would recommend that you post your question on one of the eBay websites in the EU. The primary website there is eBay Germany, www.ebay.de where the community website is: https://community.ebay.de/. That website is primarily in German, so if you don't speak German, there may be issues for you. You can also try eBay Ireland, www.ebay.ir, where the community website is: https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/eBay-Ireland/bd-p/22008, which is in English. Your English is very good, so that may work out better for you.
By the way, eBay has been known to restrict the visibility of listings if they are in a language which does not match the eBay website the potential buyer is using. So if you list on eBay France, your listings may be less visible to buyers in countries which do not use French. You may be better off choosing to list on the main eBay website in Europe, ebay Germany.
simfi18
OP3 years agoFirst of all, thank you very much for your answers. With the help of your answers, ebay chat and my own detective work and trying, I have managed to get very close to succeeding. It seems that a lot of the hustle with the shipping was in fact caused by the fact that the products are outside the actual country-specific platform (as "slippinjimmin" mentioned). All this means some juggling in the listing. But like I said, I believe I've managed this now!
I've created a test auction on the Irish ebay (which was a good idea, lacemaker3) and I already thought that I'd be ready to create an actual listing, but there's still one detail that really confuses me.
I offer shipping to the United Kingdom as well. I give it the same cost as I give for shipping to the European Union. Strangely, this cost changes by itself in the actual listing.
19.90 EUR mysteriously becomes 23.88 EUR. And I would like to offer the shipping to the UK for 19.90 EUR.
This is a detail and in the end I can always leave it like that, but I would really like to get some help with this.
See the photo for a clarification of the situation.
My theory: ebay interprets the shipping costs in GBP currency and then converts that into EUR (the amount is so close to the exchange rate). On the other hand, my 39.90 EUR shipping costs works just fine with the US (no dollars involved).
If I can get this resolved, I'm finally ready to sell stuff internationally from Finland. 😊
Thank you!