International shipping as my 1st transaction

[rocketscollectibles]

Hi. I have a listing offering no international shipping but a buyer sent me a message on ebay asking if i could ship international ( from canada to france ). Since i have no sell yet and new to ebay selling, i wanted to keep it simple and sell in my country only but i've been trying since 4 months to do my 1st sell no one buy...

I did read here : https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/selling/selling-internationally?id=4132#section1 that we need 10 feedback points and our 1st sell more than 90 days ago to sell internationally, is it correct? So i personally can't sell outside canada actually? I just found this while in my listings i had access to put international shipping since the beginning, i'm kinda confuse

I wonder too if ever i can sell it without the 1st sell 90 days ago and 10 points feedback rule, how it works for the shipping price of someone who would buy it now my listing while i'm not offering international shipping on the listing? Like this buyer if i'm telling him i can ship it, do you need to fix the shipping price manually or something when he buy

Sorry for my english my 1st language is french i hope i'm understandable. Even if i read a lot on how ebay works since like 4-5 months, it's still like a jungle for me

[klhmdg]

Im not sure. This is a US board. Maybe try eBay Canada for this answer.

BUT as a new seller I would caution you on doing international sales / shipments until you get more experience no matter what the "rules" are.

[rocketscollectibles]

My bad i did not noticed i posted on the .com and it was two separated communities, i'm gonna repost on the .ca

I'm open to any advices anyway thank you, why should i avoid international sales? Because of scams or it's overall more complicated?

[argy_eyes]

@rocketscollectibles 

Ivy,

I would say that selling internationally is a lot more difficult than domestically, at least from the USA. With domestic you have short delivery times and uniform tracking. You pick one or two services and use them in the same way over and over.

For international, there are a lot more variables. The delivery times can be several weeks or more, and change from country to country. Tracking is spotty in some countries, and not available for all services (e. g., USPS 1st class International only gives tracking to the destination in about 20 countries). Seller protection and insurance limits vary with the type of service.  EBay sometimes allows users to register with international addresses that give opaque "red text" failures in the eBay shipping app. Chineses buyers (after bad experiences) will ask that you also address the package in pictographs, and will send your a jpg to affix to the package (I am lucky that the staff of my local post office is fluent in Chinese and check these for me). Be ready to use Google Translate to communicate (marginally) with some buyers. Some countries are said to be the "Bermuda Triangle" for packages (Brazil and Italy come to mind). You get the idea! If you have time on your hands and like to message people around the world, international selling is a good way to do it.  I've encountered some wonderful folks that way.

From the USA, I have used USPS 1st Class International, USPS Priority Mail Express, USPS Priority Mail, eBay Global Shipping Program, eBay International Standard, and FedEx, with the choice dependent on insurance limits, cost, and tracking variables.

In the early days (using USPS 1st Class International) I would lose about 1 package out of 25.  Things were just not delivered, or the buyer declined to pick them up (maybe the customs charge was too high).

Now I tend to use the two eBay services (Global and International Standard, depending on the value of the shipment).  EBay Global can be expensive, and the buyer has to pay the customs charges upfront, so it's not very popular with buyers, but the tracking is good and the eBay does the customs forms. Lately I've noticed that it compares favorably price-wise with USPS Priority International.

EBay International Standard is cheaper but slow. I use it for items under a few hundred dollars. I warn buyers about the shipping time in the listing and have had good luck with it so far. If the buyer is in a (Delcon) country that tracks USPS 1st Class International, I send it that way because it tends to be faster.

The best case is that small group of international buyers who have a US shipping address. Love them!

Mike