Where are the International Buyers?

[12345jamesstamps]

It's been a few weeks since I had a buyer from UK or Canada.

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing this?

I had one International Buyer in weeks...from Poland...that's it.

It's nothing but domestic buyers weeks now.

I do get quite a bit of buyers every day.

But, to get 0 buyers now from other countries is not looking good.

I usually get about 10+ International buyers a week...UK especially.

Canada buyers...plus my 'repeat Canada buyers' has dried up weeks ago.

[chevymontecarlo88]

Buying a furnace during winter will end up costing more (generally). If i had a qualified person that not only could source parts for the repair but also confirm safety, i would still have it patched up now and wait till prices go down. If you don't have qualified people to fix it than it does sound like you're going to have to bite the bullet on this one. 

[johnrj1226]

Have you considered the exchange rates  of the USD to the foreign countries currency, plus all the  custom fees, shipping  labels, VAT, tariffs etc.?

For example  Canada currency exchange - https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=exchange+rate+us+dollar+to+canadian+dollar+calc....   

Shipping  services within Canada and most other countries ain't no bargain either. 

In the  early 1990s  had  6 cousins from Sweden visit the US for the first time - the  luved going shopping  here in the States - two examples I recall  - they bought  arm fulls  of Levi 501 denims jeans   US price then about $5.00 cost  in Sweden then about 50 US bucks.  Those Radio Shack wireless home hand sets price in US 50 bucks tops.  $600 in Sweden (that is not a typo) - they all bought 1 and where going to sell some to their friends at a bargain $ to help pay for their travel expenses.  They  traveled around and wanted to visit Graceland - they based out of Michigan and like to drink a whole lot.

[fbusoni]

@gurlcat 

Yes, India has its own platform:  https://www.ebay.in/n/all-categories

I've never sold anything to India.  The closest to India I have ever gotten is China (several orders from there, in fact, mostly hard to find LPs).  

[toysaver]

Seems international sales will drop as tariffs go into effect and the economy plummets.  It will be a vicious cycle and people will ask which came first the tariffs or the recession?   It won't be pretty.  

[fbusoni]

I had a few this week.  One from Canada who, in a lengthy message attached to his order, thanked me from the bottom of his heart for selling to a Canadian.   (What wouldn't I sell to a Canadian buyer?  I mean, what have the  Canadians done to us? 😁 They are far too smart to want to take over the USA.)

The other was to an overseas destination via a freight forwarder in Delaware.  

For THAT package, I used FedEx, since USPS no longer provides tracking to freight forwarders, as I found out the other day, courtesy of @ittybitnot (thank you!).

[ittybitnot]

since USPS no longer provides tracking to freight forwarders

@fbusoni 

They provide tracking,  but in more and more cases no DELIVERY scan.  They still might, but seemingly have declared they don't have to if they don't want to do so if the recipient is a "third party" shipper.   They don't have to pay out insurance claims for parcels to F. Forwarders that never say "delivered".  You take your chances.   Do let us know if you get a delivered  scan with FedEx. 

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@fbusoni wrote:

I

For THAT package, I used FedEx, since USPS no longer provides tracking to freight forwarders, as I found out the other day, courtesy of @ittybitnot (thank you!).

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Did not know that and missed @ittybitnot post about it. 

Nice highlight! 

[12345jamesstamps]

I had India buyers but had to block the country.

Years ago...had too many items not received that I believe were never lost.

[styx999]

Typically Canadian orders account for about 10% of my sales, or about 1 or 2 orders a a day. I have had zero orders from Canada since the beginning of March. The UK and Australia have continued to order from me at their usual rate though.

i avoid political news these days, but I believe this is a geo political issue. Canadians currently have a negative view of supporting American businesses. The tariffs are a big part of this. It’s unfortunate as I have always bought and sold with Canadians and have found them to be overwhelmingly honest and kind. 

[ocean-state-mint]

Funny thing is, just got an email from someone in Canada, he asked my why the shipping and tax came to more than the item. It essentially killed the deal. It's unfortunate it has to be this way. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@fbusoni wrote:

I had a few this week.  One from Canada who, in a lengthy message attached to his order, thanked me from the bottom of his heart for selling to a Canadian.   (What wouldn't I sell to a Canadian buyer?  I mean, what have the  Canadians done to us? 😁 They are far too smart to want to take over the USA.)

The other was to an overseas destination via a freight forwarder in Delaware.  

For THAT package, I used FedEx, since USPS no longer provides tracking to freight forwarders, as I found out the other day, courtesy of @ittybitnot (thank you!).

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I'm getting heartfelt messages from Canadians who are happy to find out I'm in Canada. I'm advertising that when I send out offers that I'm in Canada and there's no tariffs on their order. (I ship all non-Canadian orders from NY as per the listing, but Canadians see that and don't buy).

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@ocean-state-mint wrote:

Funny thing is, just got an email from someone in Canada, he asked my why the shipping and tax came to more than the item. It essentially killed the deal. It's unfortunate it has to be this way. 

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Shipping to Canada from the US is always high. I buy dresses regularly for around $25-30 and then pay $25 shipping EIS (now there's going to be 25% tariff on top of that). Still cheaper to buy a used Ralph Lauren dress on eBay than to buy a new one in Canada. Lots of US retailers aren't shipping to Canada anymore either.

Think I'll have to go to the outlets in Niagara and shop there.

C.

[cardxcraft]

@12345jamesstamps 

Did your iternational sales return?  It's now going on 3 weeks for me; one day, they just stopped.  I sell to buyers from Shangai to Santiago to London to Timbuktu, so I know it's not some subconscious, concerted effort.  

[chariot_badges]

They'll be back folks.

Canada, Mexico, The EU ... they're all sore about the cut-off of the flow of sweet milk from the US Teat.   

They'll get used to the idea that they can't charge us 100% tariff on wine, and have to pay close to nothing to ship their crap in (Cali wine is better anyway).

They can't charge us 50% or 75% tariff on the cars we ship to them ... and almost nothing to bring their cars to us.

I know there are many here that really don't like the USA, and they're citizens too.   Sad.

But, a majority of us elected him (just like the last guy) to do a job.   

Watta ya say we give him a chance to do it.

The Canadians and the EU have been living under our protection from the big bad USSR, and not even paying their agreed upon share for UN.  Canada doesn't have any kind of standing military.    They don't need it (wink-wink) ... they got a big friend right next door and HE pays for all that.  Cool, eh?  

Don't worry.  Let em throw their tantrums.   We'll change their nappies and get their belly full in a few weeks and they'll come back.    They got no choice.   Who else is there?   They gotta get used to changes though.   

[gurlcat]

Last night I wanted to provide a link to the Australian eBay Community page, for an Aussie that posted a question here by accident.  While I was there I took a very brief scroll down the front page, and within the top 5 or 6 posts I saw this:

-It would be naive to think that only buyers in tariff countries might be consciously refraining from buying from us, or that price increases due to tariffs are the only thing turning off international buyers.  There are bound to be many who are just ambiguously nervous and disgusted by the whole of America at this point.  And anyone who wants to argue with ME about it would be missing the point by a country mile.  But go ahead, spin your wheels at me if it helps maintain your sense of hope.