Why Does eBay let you send offers to Buyers in Countries you Don't Ship to?

[antiquehokie]

I just sent some offers to interested buyers and 2 of them were in countries that my profile says I don't ship to.  eBay doesn't let them bid, why would they let an offer go to them?  The sellers send offers, we can't see who the buyers are or where they are located.  Very frustrating. 

[gracieallen01]

Well, it could be that ebay's programming isn't always up to snuff or it could be that, as far as ebay is concerned, they have no problem if you sell to buyers in countries that you have excluded - FVFs are FVFs.

[dbfolks166mt]

I suspect it is a combination of multiple things but mostly the latter since eBay's number one priority is making money regardless of how they do it. 

[pikabo-icu]

So those watchers can contact a freight forwarder, to facilitate them buying your item from farawayistan even though you don't wish to sell there. 

[mtgraves7984]

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@pikabo-icu wrote:

So those watchers can contact a freight forwarder, to facilitate them buying your item from farawayistan even though you don't wish to sell there. 

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@pikabo-icu, @antiquehokie 

This is the very reason that I don't send offers. I'm not sure how much I'd lose by doing it. 😐

[slippinjimmy]

Just because a buyer is registered in a country you do not ship to doesn't mean they won't want to buy and use a forwarder in the US.

I ship orders to forwarders VERY frequently (even though I ship worldwide), this past week was probably some sort of record because 75% of my sales went to forwarders in Miami or Portland. The Final Destination for these sales were Chile, Malaysia and China. These buyers use forwarders because it's cheaper and much faster than shipping direct via USPS.

[dnasilver]

Does that make you liable if you sell a forbidden item to a specific country or eBay or freight forwarder?

[downunder-61]

I wouldn't think so, it is the buyer's responsibility to know the prohibited item restrictions for their country, not the seller's.

Also, any decent FF will know the restrictions and it would not leave the US and should be returned to seller.

[jonathankirkland]

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@pikabo-icu wrote:

So those watchers can contact a freight forwarder, to facilitate them buying your item from farawayistan even though you don't wish to sell there. 

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... and then claim SNAD the instant it reaches the freight forwarder and get refunded before the item even reaches them from the freight forwarder. 🙄

[jonathankirkland]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

Just because a buyer is registered in a country you do not ship to doesn't mean they won't want to buy and use a forwarder in the US.

I ship orders to forwarders VERY frequently (even though I ship worldwide), this past week was probably some sort of record because 75% of my sales went to forwarders in Miami or Portland. The Final Destination for these sales were Chile, Malaysia and China. These buyers use forwarders because it's cheaper and much faster than shipping direct via USPS.

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Curious, now that ebay has seemingly laxed their guidelines on FF and are allowing them to claim SNAD and such, have you had any uptick in scams or SNADs or anything from FF buyers?

[slippinjimmy]

I have literally shipped thousands of packages over the years via forwarders plus many times that amount directly.

I don't have ANY problems with scams of any sort. On the Internationals that I ship myself I do get the occasional INR claim especially from countries that are well known for poor service, the rate of these INR claims is about 1 in 500, Covid bumped that up quite a bit, my INR rate for International in 2020 was 1 in 100.

Other than a couple of particularly nasty buyers about 8 years (think Feedback Extortion), 99% of the small number of SNAD claims I've had on eBay (22 years) were totally legit (seller error or damaged in transit).

I'll happily ship direct ANYWHERE but I do like it when I get a large order from Asia or South America and the buyer uses a forwarder.

I pay a lot less for International shipping that most eBay sellers so it enables me to have a fairly high handling fee and still be cheaper than sellers using USPS, this extra handling fee is a very nice profit center and way more than covers any losses.

For domestic shipping, my handling charges have dwindled to almost nothing so that is the one downside of shipping to forwarders but the peace of mind is well worth it when you are talking about orders in the mid to high 3 figures.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Actually it is not cheaper than shipping directly since they pay twice for shipping once to the freight forwarder and then again from the forwarder to the destination country, if they actually ship the item. 🙂  The reason most of the countries you have listed that you shipped to use the freight forwarders is to get around the fact that a lot of sellers will not sell internationally and those that do often have several countries blocked. 

     I sell internationally but there is no way I am shipping anything to China who is tops on the list for internet scams both through eBay as well as other online ecommerce sites.  They are closely followed by Russia and the FSU countries and most of the South American countries. 

[dbfolks166mt]

It may make you liable and the item may also get seized by customs as it enters the country. The buyer then can file a INR case and will probably win it. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     Actually the burden falls on the seller. If you are in doubt try to ship something illegal through USPS to anywhere in the U.S. and see what the outcome is. Try fireworks, pressurized spray cans or any of a number of things that it is illegal to ship. 

     There is a high probability that the freight forwarder has no clue, nor do they care, what is in the package. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     Curious does the buyer pay sales tax on the items you ship to the freight forwarders and is it based on the tax rate of the state in which the freight forwarder is located? I wonder what the freight forwarder is charging the buyer for the international shipping and how much sales tax they are collecting from the international buyer.