Let me start by saying I know the answer. But you asked anyway. 😀 I like that. Couple comments.
The old thread from way-back-when-2021 was closed today "due to the age of the thread", so I have started a new one with the same paraphrased subject (also to mess with people who didn't like that I had resurrected a valid-but-old thread).
There are certain items I have manufactured and sold for 20+ years that I would prefer to sell internationally while excluding sales in the United States (where I am located and ship from). These are not scam items, but they are valued and useful outside the US, whilst there are various reasons to not sell them here, legal and otherwise. I make, sell, and ship them daily (thankfully not many on ebay). And frankly, do I even need a reason, if I am doing nothing illegal? Ebay will not let me open an account(s) in other countries without a residence and bank account there, so that would be very difficult, nearly impossible option.
To the best of my knowledge there is no way to be a US seller and eliminate the US as one of the countries you don't ship to. Even if this was possible you would cut off foreign buyers what are using US based freight forwarders.
Also there are many items that I would like to sell everywhere inside the United States except for some states, like California, along the same reasons. In this instance it has to do with different laws from state to state, which seem to grow wider daily these days, and CA has laws that make sales of certain items technically illegal to sell/ship there, but the other 49 states are okiedokie/AOK with it. (and if you don't think CA will come after you and your business, I consider you very naive)
Other than Alaska, Hawaii the US Protectorates and US APO/FPO you cannot exclude any other states but I understand you dilemma especially with regards to the CA restrictions. About the only thing you can do is put notification in the item description and hope the buyers read it. If a buyer in a state purchase an item you cannot ship to that state because of current laws you could contact the buyer and cancel the order due to a problem with the buyers address.
Another reason to exclude certain states would be for shipping reasons. Ebay loves to encourage "free shipping" (despite there being no such thing in reality), but if I were to offer "free shipping" on an item (I never do) on the east coast, my next-door neighbor who orders it from me would get the same "free shipping" that someone 3000 miles away in Seattle (et al) does. If I had to offer "free shipping" I would prefer to limit it to within a reasonable cost range.
This is the drawback to using free shipping, especially if you are on one of the coasts and you are in North Carolina. I am in Virginia and seldom use free shipping unless I know there is only one cheapest way to ship the item regardless of where they are located. This usually involves heavier items where the item will fit into a USPS flat rate envelope or box.
I use calculated shipping which charges the appropriate postage based on where the buyer is located rather than try to exclude west coast buyers. With calculated shipping each buyer will see the calculated shipping cost based on their location. If they are willing to pay the shipping cost I don't worry about where they are located.
The other drawback to free shipping is a lot of states don't charge sales tax on shipping if it can be separately identified from the item cost. That is impossible if you are using free shipping and have the shipping cost baked into the item price.
Anyway... for the international thing, what I have done in my past unfortunate lives on ebay is to make the US shipping cost outrageously high for all USA, whilst offering a true/reasonable/actual shipping cost to the rest of the world.
While that will work I am surprised you have not gotten a bunch of messages about your shipping cost, although maybe you have. Kind of curious what you are selling.
Your thoughts, ideas, and willfully-ignorant flames are welcome. Thanks!
