eBay

12345jamesstamps · ‎09-13-2023

Hello everyone,

Had a buyer from El Salvador and one from Indonesia today. El Salvador has no zip code and the address to Indonesia looks like a short story.

Anyway, I don't want to block half the world🌎 so I decided to do things outside the box.

I actually took a photo of each envelope and emailed the photo to each buyer and stated it has been mailed today.

Strange, 4 hours later both buyers emailed me at the same time...at the same time and said thank you.

This will be my new norm.

If this works I will unblock India and Thailand which I have had problems with.

mam98031 · ‎09-13-2023

You had another thread recently on international shipping. The information shared there didn't help?

If you don't want to ship internationally you don't have to. Have you considered EIS and let Ebay take the risk, or will that just not work for you?

But if you want to only ship to the US, then Make sure you have your Buyer Requirements set to only allow buyers with ship to addresses in the US.

While the pics you took will hopefully make your buyers feel better and more secure, it won't help you when it comes to Ebay if an issue arises.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

stuffygrotto · ‎09-13-2023

Oh, were you asking for advice? You could you know. But you don't have to. Think about it. Or not. But you're gonna get it anyways. So you might as well. 😂

mam98031 · ‎09-13-2023

@stuffygrotto wrote:
Oh, were you asking for advice? You could you know. But you don't have to. Think about it. Or not. But you're gonna get it anyways. So you might as well. 😂

This is a discussion Forum for Ebay members. The OP regularly posts on various threads and created a few on their own.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎09-13-2023

For years I refused to ship Internationally. I was not going to learn the customs regulations and mailing requirements for a multitude of countries.

When Ebay offered Global Shipping and the EIS, and took all of the export and international shipping paperwork and risk off my hands, I jumped at it.

It is my intent to never be the International Seller of Record again. Never do a customs declaration and never worry about whether an International shipment arrives at its buyer.

dbfolks166mt · ‎09-13-2023

Unfortunately most of your items not eligible for the EIS program since most of your listings are for stamps and that is one of the restricted items under EIS. You are pretty much on your own if you want to sell internationally. Fortunately most of your items are not high dollar items and even the international shipping is relatively cheap so if this works it sounds like a good alternative.

richard1rst · ‎09-13-2023

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:
For years I refused to ship Internationally. I was not going to learn the customs regulations and mailing requirements for a multitude of countries.

When Ebay offered Global Shipping and the EIS, and took all of the export and international shipping paperwork and risk off my hands, I jumped at it.

It is my intent to never be the International Seller of Record again. Never do a customs declaration and never worry about whether an International shipment arrives at its buyer.

Well I hate to burst your bubble but you will find in time there are alternate problems with EIS that you would not have shipping it directly by USPS. Things that I can legally ship through USPS will be intercepted by EIS.

I've been shipping internationally pretty since I started here. You do NOT have to " learn the customs regulations and mailing requirements for a multitude of countries."

Something about the nose and the face comes to mind.

"Laissez-faire capitalism (AKA The Great Material Continuum) is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships." ~ Ayn Rand

cardxcraft · ‎09-13-2023

I sell stamps, postal history, postcards and airmail covers, all are allowed through EIS. I've been enrolled in EIS from inception, and I've sent dozens and dozens of the above mentioned via EIS.

Can you post your source location? Thanks.

dbfolks166mt · ‎09-14-2023

I

sell stamps, postal history, postcards and airmail covers, all are allowed through EIS. I've been enrolled in EIS from inception, and I've sent dozens and dozens of the above mentioned via EIS.

Can you post your source location? Thanks.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/ebay-international-shippin...

Following from the policy, list is a bit longer but stamps are at the bottom.

Restricted items and categories

Items included in eBay's hazardous, restricted or regulated materials policy, or that don't follow our International trading policy, can't be shipped using eBay International Shipping.

Due to export limitations and restrictions, items listed in the following categories also can't be shipped with eBay International Shipping. This is not an exhaustive list and it may be updated based on transportation regulations and export laws.

Any category or items containing Radium or other radioactive materials
Dangerous goods requiring hazardous handling labels & documentation
Export-controlled items requiring license > Ex. Military vehicle parts
Business & Industrial > Heavy equipment & attachments
Collectibles > Knives, swords & blades
Stamps, coins & paper money

I also looked at a number of your listings and the ones I looked at were not shipping through the EIS program. One example.

laststopgeneralstore · ‎09-14-2023

I don't know why you wouldn't, their isn't a lot of work or regulations or requirements or paperwork that you think. Mostly it's just the obvious stuff like drugs, weapons, etc...

I use pirate ship for shipping internationally and at most all i have to do is enter a harmonization code if they're from the EU. Which is super easy to do.

If you do your own international shipping using pirate ship you can charge what you want for the international shipping and because you you're taking all of the risk, eBay only charges the final value fee on what you're domestic shipping cost is for that item and not what you charged for international shipping.

Not to mention the simple export rate up to 4 pounds were you can ship anywhere on the planet for $35.99. Since I started using it last year, my international sales are now anywhere from 10%-15% of my total sales and I make a lot more on those sales as well.

For example, I had an order this morning that sold for $56.99+$29.99 shipping to Australia, It's going to cost me $19.99 to ship it and it will get their in less than 3 weeks at most a month and all I gotta do is print the label.

I've only had 2 issues come up and that was because 1 person never picked it up & the other got rejected because for whatever reason Sweden is brutal. Other than that it's great.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎09-14-2023

@richard1rst

Of course you have to know customs regs if you ship on your own. Brazil will seize many items if you ship them there. They have even been known to seize used books. A variety of countries have complex protectionist import policies.

Of course, not all countries have end to end tracking on shipments, making every sale an INR risk.

And uneven postal service makes delivery times to some countries totally unpredictable. How many sellers have seen their shipments to Italy go astray. And our friends in Canada have to live with Canada Post's Service.

EIS is not perfect but it provides LONG delivery estimates, which are required because of its reliance on DHL.

Never had a buyer complain about the long delivery times on EIS. Had many in the past complain about the post office, or the exorbitant UPS customs clearance charge in Canada.

Some people think they are making more because they handle their own International Shipping. They are usually people who price their labor and stress at nothing. Noses, faces, brains.

cardxcraft · ‎09-14-2023

Thanks for posting. I don't use EIS on lower value item, I ship regular mail, without tracking. The information must be old and Ebay never updated it. Still, I'm glad you brought it up.

Here are some examples of stamps that are set-up through EIS:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325807533964

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802622735

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325805344540

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802622752

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802621545

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802622903

dbfolks166mt · ‎09-14-2023

Thanks for posting. I don't use EIS on lower value item, I ship regular mail, without tracking. The information must be old and Ebay never updated it. Still, I'm glad you brought it up.

Here are some examples of stamps that are set-up through EIS:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325807533964

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802622735

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325805344540

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802622752

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802621545

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325802622903

I think some of it also may have to do with the growing pains of EIS. When the program initially started stamps, coins and paper money were not on the restricted list except for sales to China. They have apparently updated it to include stamps, coins and paper money shipping to any country however, I am not sure the program is catching every listing and some things are winding up in the EIS program anyway.

It is good that you can currently utilize EIS the seller protections are far beyond what you can get with domestic shipments and for your high dollar items that has to provide some added peace of mind with international sales. However, you may want to keep an eye on this in case they make code adjustments at some point and your items magically get excluded from EIS without notice.