shipping when item is in a foreign country

[meadowscollection]

I have been asked to sell some items for an older American relative. The items are physically located in France, but the buyers will be in the US.  I have experience sending packages with the French postal system including customs regulations.  I would like to know how to go about listing the items. Do I make note of this within the listing or do I need to join French eBay ?

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@meadowscollection,

Your best bet would be to get the items shipped to you in the U.S. and sell them on this site. Trying to do what you suggest would be very hard because you cannot purchase French postage from outside of France. Even if you used an international shipping partner of USPS, UPS, FedEx or used FedEx/UPS directly, you would need someone in France to actually purchase the shipping labels and fill out the customs declaration forms, to ship the items to the U.S.. 

  Getting the shipping costs for the international service would be the problem since you do not know where your buyers are located. Paying or repaying, someone in France to do the shipping would be another. You would also need to list the item location of the items as the city/region in France.  Which may dissuade buyers from making the purchases if they see you are registered in the U.S. but are shipping from France.

Beyond that, since you have not bought or sold on ebay in over a year, you will run into the 21-30 day hold ebay will place on your received funds, because you have not used the site in over a year.

This happens with all new or returning sellers first few sales. Read the articles in the 2 links below.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/getting-paid-items-youve-sold/payments-hold?id=4816

https://export.ebay.com/en/fees-and-payments/payments/payment-holds/

[meadowscollection]

Thank you mudshark61369 for your prompt reply.  My wife is there in France with the items and she and our son will be sorting things out, so buying the French to US postage, the customs paperwork and careful packaging won't be a problem. What we thought of was listing the items with a flat fee for shipping to the US...and not charging the full amount, but noting that it is a contribution toward the shipping and insurance. France charges the same no matter whether it's to Maine or California, so the weight of the boxed item would predetermine the charge. Having to wait for any proceeds to be released is understood and ok. So does a flat shipping fee and noting that the item comes from France sound like a possibility ? thanks again