Authorizing individual int'l bidders on request... any issues doing so?

[yarmulkesgalore]

I've been making all my auctions in the USA only, but after receiving a few prospective bidder messages, I've authorized some individual bidders' countries on an ad hoc basis, AFTER reviewing the Bidder profile eBay history and f.b.  as such "

• If you are outside the USA and want to bid, send me a message.  I'll check your eBay history and may authorize your location for bidding.

Are there any pitfalls or issues I might encounter besides the normal ones with Int'l, doing this?

Thank you for your insight.

[deltilogical]

Not sure what your bid'ness is but my usually hesitation is due to the local post office reputation.   But when someone with good feedback from Croatia wanted to buy a Croatian postcard, I took the risk.   So far this has worked out.  But I'm not selling expensive stuff or phones. 

Your main risk IMO will be returns if  you have to pay the shipping back.   

[yarmulkesgalore]

Thank you.  I think I'd only authorize a county like that if someone had 25 years on eBay and 10,000 pos FB's Lol  ...  Thank you.

[janet9988]

Why not check out ebay's international Shipping program.

It is great for sellers as it offers protections from claims once delivered to the hub.

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

[kensgiftshop]

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@yarmulkesgalore wrote:

Thank you.  I think I'd only authorize a county like that if someone had 25 years on eBay and 10,000 pos FB's Lol  ...  Thank you.

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What good would that do?

If you choose to ship to their country, anyone from that country could buy from you.

[yarmulkesgalore]

I'm not a big volume seller.  At the most, I might have 50 auctions running concurrently.  I'm aware of that.  What I intend to do is manually examine the user profiles of every bidder on any auctions I've enabled in certain international locations.  If I see any bidders with short or questionable histories, my intent is to delete their bid and block them.

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

Your shipping sections specifies the US only and has other countries blocked.  That means that buyers in other countries can't even see your listings so it is pointless to put that wording in your description.

You could specify the US only and not block other locations in which case your listings would show that you 'may ship to xx, contact seller for shipping costs.'   However, if I were you I would just decide to ship to a few countries that I was comfortable with and then specify a shipping cost and service to those countries.  Or sign up for eBay international shipping.

[yarmulkesgalore]

Very true I’ve suspected excluding non US countries causes eBay not to display there despite receiving occasional message inquiries from prospective bidders outside the US.  I’m wearily considering ebay intl program.  I generally sell record albums and music collectibles, which is a category ripe for false claims of “item not received as described” … selling new merchandise doesn’t really come with so much of that risk.

[pjcdn2005]

EIS does handle all international returns including nad returns so that is a plus of the program.  As a buyer in Canada though, EIS is generally slower than usps and right now orders can’t be combined.