Why does Italy want my RAM so much?

[juventasone]

Years ago I sold some used computer RAM.  The winning bid was in Italy.  Buyer disputed as not received.  No tracking, so I lost the item and the money.

Yesterday I list some used RAM.  This time I offer free shipping to North America, and $50 shipping for Europe (to cover international tracking).  Despite this, Italy is currently the highest bidder.

Considering how tiny Italy is, this is an unlikely coincidence.  Am I going to loose my money again?

[juventasone]

Thanks!  500 shipments to Italy or international?

Yes, I realized after that Italy has a surprisingly large population.  I wouldn't have guessed that they have a much larger population than Canada or Australia.  Including all of the Americas, Europe, and Japan, Italy represents 3% of those combined populations.  However, all other things being equal, the chances of Italy be the winning bidder both times would be about 1 in 1,000.

[ted_200]

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@thallidguy wrote:

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

I 'm another international shipper, I don't get many sales to Italy any more because many buyers avoid eBay because they are blocked so often (at least by US Sellers).

While the Postal service (actually customs) went through a REALLY bad period from about 2006 - 2009, shipments were taking forever (3 - 4 weeks) just to clear customs but the bottom line for me is more than 500 shipments sent and never a refund. The most recent few things I've sent there took about 2 weeks, just a couple of days longer than most other European destinations.

Everything I send is by First Class with declared values below the free limit.

As far as Italy being a "small country" the population (61M) there is just a few million less than The UK (66M) or France (67M).

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Similar here; I can't honestly say that my rate of loss is much higher for international shipments is much higher than for domestic. And in any case, it's certainly just a fraction of a percent.

I can't say that my rate of problems for Italy is any higher than anywhere else, but maybe that's just me.

I do know for certain that I've benefitted greatly from selling international. What I sell, there's an audience for it throughout most of the world, but the products are often not available locally (or hard to find, or marked up horribly because they're imported). eBay is a very good place for those fans to shop for them. And I know for a fact that I have benefitted greatly on eBay from being willing to use letter mail instead of insisting on shipping light, inexpensive items as parcels. (Who are they going to buy from, someone who charges $2, or someone who charges $12 because he insists on tracking for an item priced at less than $5?)

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I won't ship to Italy anymore, I had several problems.  But my international (excluding Canada) is under 5% these days, it used to be 35% ('08-'10).  I think what hurt it more than sellers refusing to ship there (there have always been a lot of those) was the GSP.  The site was suddenly flooded with international eligible items that cost, not $12, but $30! to ship there, I think the Europeans just gave up on eBay.com.  Post Office didn't help any either, FC Int'l parcel used to start at $3.05, now it's $12.  I still ship international for $2.39 most of the time, but it doesn't do much good, most of the international buyers have hit the exits... and I don't think eBay is showing my items to them much either. 

[rolenboy01]

They WANT to STEAL IT.

[slippinjimmy]

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@juventasone wrote:

Thanks!  500 shipments to Italy or international?

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500 To Italy over 19 years, most of that prior to the big postal issues when sellers really started blocking and then killed off by GSP which made shipping insanely expensive (it's not as dramatically different today because USPS rates have also gone through the roof).

My overseas sales at their highest approached 70% of the overall, in recent years it's +/- 60%.

The real key to International and at the same time dealing with returns and other thypes of losses is to have a very acquisition cost for what you are selling and budget an allowence for losses going in.

I'm fortunate to have VERY low acquisitions costs, I always assume I will have x amount of write offs but the only year I ever came close was during the Iceland Volcano incident in 2010 when all European airspace was shut down for several weeks, I lost quite a few packages during that time.

I've been a merchant for 45 years, had plenty of bad things happen, eBay has been a cakewalk by comparison.

Obviously it's tough for those with slim margins but I do think that many sellers lose perspective and have a very low tolerance for even a single loss (recent post "10 years great, one problem....end of the world"). The other thing people do is put the loss at the selling price and not the cost of the item, If I have to give out a refund for a $40 sale for an item I acquired for next to nothing or even literally nothing it's not really a big deal.

[ted_200]

500 To Italy over 19 years, most of that prior to the big postal issues when sellers really started blocking and then killed off by GSP which made shipping insanely expensive (it's not as dramatically different today because USPS rates have also gone through the roof).

Yep.  My margins are plenty high, so I can eat an occaisonal loss, but my ASP is way under $20, and people buying items in that price range simply will not pay more in shipping cost than the item is worth.  Mine may be $2.39, but every other one on the site is $12, with many at $30 (GSP), so they just stopped looking at these types of items entirely.

[thallidguy]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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@juventasone wrote:

Thanks!  500 shipments to Italy or international?

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500 To Italy over 19 years, most of that prior to the big postal issues when sellers really started blocking and then killed off by GSP which made shipping insanely expensive (it's not as dramatically different today because USPS rates have also gone through the roof).

I hate to admit this because I predicted at the time that it wouldn't be a big deal. But I have to admit that the steep and continual rise in USPS' international rates has taken a chunk out of my sales.

I've been a merchant for 45 years, had plenty of bad things happen, eBay has been a cakewalk by comparison.

Obviously it's tough for those with slim margins but I do think that many sellers lose perspective and have a very low tolerance for even a single loss (recent post "10 years great, one problem....end of the world"). The other thing people do is put the loss at the selling price and not the cost of the item, If I have to give out a refund for a $40 sale for an item I acquired for next to nothing or even literally nothing it's not really a big deal.

Some people can't see the forest from the trees. Others just haven't learned that important skill, but may yet over time. But I also think that that's kind of what happens when you lower the barriers to ecommerce, as eBay has done: You get a lot of people who just aren't cut out for being a merchant at a serious level, and if it was still the old days and the barriers to entry were still higher, they wouldn't be selling at all.

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[ted_200]

Obviously it's tough for those with slim margins but I do think that many sellers lose perspective and have a very low tolerance for even a single loss (recent post "10 years great, one problem....end of the world").

There's a couple of thing at play there... one is "it's business, don't take it personal".  Hobby sellers, and this place was built on them, know enough to realize the single loss isn't the end of the world, but they take it personal.  They are taking a stand on based on principle, not profit/loss sheets.  Business has no principles.

The other thing, that OP we later find out has been here for 10 years, but only sold "about 50 items" over that entire time.  If it's a typical year, 20% of his sales ended in a scam, he's not going to find "you can make it up in volume" a very compelling argument.

[luxe_auto_parts]

I don't think you somehow protected from being scammed here. It might be some US based buyer who decided to keep an item and the money. Sellers can't prove anything here. You can protect yourself from INR case if you offer shipping with signature confirmation, but you won't be protected from ISND-type of cases, when buyers would claim item arrived damaged/not working.

[ted_200]

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@luxe_auto_parts wrote:
I don't think you somehow protected from being scammed here. It might be some US based buyer who decided to keep an item and the money. Sellers can't prove anything here. You can protect yourself from INR case if you offer shipping with signature confirmation, but you won't be protected from ISND-type of cases, when buyers would claim item arrived damaged/not working.

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Unless it's over $750, the signature doesn't buy them anything extra, except shipping expenses.  If it disappears in transit, it disappears regardless.  The SNAD situation exists no matter where he ships it, that ship already sailed when the decision was made to click "List Item".