@house*of*paws wrote:Sellers don't use GPS because it's convenient. They use it because they are only responsible for getting the item safely to the GPS depot in their home country.
But that is the convenience, @house*of*paws. It's convenient for the seller to not worry about shipping it to the buyer and eBay presents it to sellers as being a "free" service, instead of the reality of gouging your customers with exorbitant fees for doing something that post offices and private carriers have done for centuries. That's an aspect of this that I find bizarre - that eBay would choose to partner with a non-competitive private carrier instead of one of the multiple other existing options. Customs, tarriffs, damage and delivery issues aren't new, and are usually bound by international agreements to enable mail services in the interests of citizens and commerce.
What I perceive is that eBay was not willing to protect sellers from international shipping disputes, so it became an opportunity for unscrupulous people to take advantage of sellers. Instead of carving into their annual $10 billion in revenue to protect or reimburse their sellers, eBay decided to reinvent the wheel with a poorly-chosen system, and to put the burden of paying for the issues that they have created on potential buyers. Why would buyers need to pay for protecting sellers from this systemic issue with eBay, especially when it's three times the cost of any other option? Does Pitney Bowes possess a magical formula that makes shipping problems disappear, or are they just charging for the liability inherent in the system eBay created and enforced? They are just charging buyers to be the fall guy for eBay's problems to keep sellers happy.
As for access or sellers choosing to sell internationally solely because of the "protection" that GSP offers, I guess that it would vary for different types of items. I am most familiar with collectibles and records, and they have tended to be international markets because of people actively looking for specific items. That's what I see being destroyed - the incredible worldwide marketplace that eBay was built around, and I think that's both sad to see and an incredibly poor business decision that will ultimately have a bad effect on both the company and on sellers. Without that unique marketplace, what's left? A bunch of people refusing to sell things to certain other people because eBay won't protect them if there's a problem. That common system is all eBay ever was, and they are copping out on it. Now it's either a risk or very expensive to buy or sell things from other countries, just like it was before eBay ever existed.
It's never a good idea to voluntarily limit your market, and it's an even worse idea to upset potential customers with unfair and egregious fees. Somehow, these were the exact solutions that the geniuses at eBay came up with. Frankly, it seems like a death knell for the old eBay to me. Instead of a funky peer-to-peer marketplace, it's become just another horribly bloated profit machine filled with garbage that no one wants. I don't need eBay to buy locally
