ebay Global Shipping Program

[453path]

Hi, I'm writing this article from the UK. Can any sellers who ship internationally using the ebay Global Shipping Program (GSP), please tell me the advantages to you, 'the seller' of using this system?

I ask this because I've been purchasing from the U.S for a long time, but it seems more & more sellers are now shipping 'only' via ebay's GSP.

One of the things I see on such listings from sellers who use this system to ship items overseas is; all customs fees & charges are covered by the program! I just want to say, as a buyer in Britain purchasing items from America 'ALL'  items we purchase from overseas go through customs.

HMRC (Revenue & Customs) subject every parcel no matter how big or small & regardless of the value, to a customs inspection. They then decide whether or not to apply a customs fee to that parcel. Having regularly purchased from ebay USA the past couple of years (also Canada & Australia too), I have found customs only apply a fee to about 1 in 3 or 1 in 4  parcels.

Obviously if I've made a large purchase they often do get hit with a customs fee (but not in every case). Just to let you know; I've never had a seller declare an item as a 'gift'. Every customs document filled out by the sellers has always stated it is a purchase from ebay, plus a description of the items & the value.

Using an n scale freight car as an example (I model U.S railroading in n-scale); with ebay's Global Shipping Program, the average cost 'per' item is around $21 to ship to Britain. That charge is applied to 'EVERY' single item when shipping via ebay's GSP. However when I purchase from a seller who ships via USPS (or a courier such as UPS), the  seller can usually send 4 or 5 n-scale freight cars for about $21.

When receiving such a parcel here in the UK, HMRC sometimes charge me an import 'tax' fee, but many times they do 'NOT' send me such a charge prior to releasing my parcel here in Britain.

The way I see it; ebay is making a huge amount of money/profits from this scheme, but maybe I'm mistaken & someone could clarify that for me? I say that because I believe ebay is not only marking up the cost of this shipping option, but do they really pay a UK import tax (supposedly on our behalf) for every single item I purchase from America?

I mention America because, although most of my purchases are from sellers in the States, I do also buy from sellers in Canada, Australia & Europe. Nobody in those countries use the ebay Global Shipping Program. I don't say it doesn't exist in other countries; I simply haven't come across a seller elsewhere, who ships via ebay GSP.

Of course I know ebay now charges a commission to sellers for shipping (what we call postage & packaging in Britain; P&P). I believe that is a complete rip-off to sellers from ebay, after all, from what I've seen of shipping costs via USPS (& Royal Mail here in the UK), most sellers probably don't make any money on shipping costs after other factors such as materials & time are also factored in to the equation!

The only winner (ESPECIALLY with ebay Global Shipping Program) is ebay itself!

Just to let you sellers know; I stopped purchasing from ALL sellers who will 'ONLY' ship using the ebay GSP, soon after that system was introduced, because the cost is so prohibitive as an overseas buyer, (although it is okay if I purchase ONLY 1 item from a seller, but I don't do that very often). Now I only buy from sellers who use USPS or a courier such as FedEx etc. Unfortunately that list seems to grow smaller every few months, as more sellers seem to take up ebay's GSP.

So, I would love to know what the advantages/benefits are to you sellers in America who only use ebay GSP. I believe that even when using the ebay GSP system, you as a seller in America, still have to complete customs documents, & arrange collection of the parcel or dropping it off at some depot etc? Once again, I hope you can clarify this for me!

I look forward to your replies; especially as I would love to continue buying from ebay sellers in the States! 

[aristotles_id]

Actually aristotles_id what you have said is irrelevant or misguided. I think you are confusing VAT as opposed to (local) import duties!

No, I am not. I did not mention duty in order to keep things simple, as the threshold for duty payments is 200 Euros and most items are cheaper. I am excluding alcohol and tobacco, not permitted by the GSP  anyway.

VAT is a European Union form of taxation on ALL goods & services in/within the EU. In one aspect you are correct, each country collects VAT (which varies in rate & for which particular goods/service from country to country), but generally speaking it is around 20%. But the country collecting the VAT (lets say Britain in this case) does NOT get to keep that revenue! The VAT is controlled by the central European commission, ie: the European Parliament in Brussels! 

The rate is controlled within limits, the revenue stays in the country that raised it. It forms a very large part of the governments Exchequer receipts. If there were some form of pooling arrangement it would become a race to the bottom for VAT rates as countries competed to  have the lowest rate for  their people (and the ruling party's popularity) if the local rate did not rebound directly on the local exchequer receipts.

It is they who decide what happens to the VAT; where it is spent & used, how much & for what purposes etc. They distribute funds to each & every member of the European Union! So yes, Britain may collect the VAT, but Britain doesn't get to keep it. The same happens in France & Germany & Spain & Italy......et al. 

I think you may have been over Faraged on this one. As they say on Wikipedia, (references needed)

As far as local import duty/country levies, then that is up to each country to apply & collect. That is another system which can be quite complicated. Private buyers are not usually hit with the extra import duty (such as purchasing an item/s on ebay USA & shipping it to the UK). But, businesses who purchase from outside of the EU in larger quantities are landed with an import duty bill as well as the VAT. 

The distinction is the 200 Euro threshold, private or business makes no difference. That is why the GSP will also calculate and apply duty where it is leagally due, on top of the import VAT. Technically, all GSP imports are business, since the importer of record is Pitney Bowes, not the buyer, but the only country where this matters is New Zealand.

I love Wikipedia too, but you must be careful what you read on there! Don't take everything in as gospel! Wikipedia, while as good as it is & I say that with all my heart; it is subject to flaws & innaccuracies (quite often you see tags on many articles on Wikipedia, citing confirmation needed etc). I say it can be subjected to flaws because it is 'largely' written by the lay-person. In most cases they are very good with their knowledge, but they are after all, simply people writing an article because they may have an interest in a particular subject matter, but many of these subjects are so in-depth & complicated (regardless whether it is history/medicine/science/technology/law/tax etc), not to mention things change so rapidly in the world these days!

I did refer you to the published EU regulations as well, but do allow an hour or two to get to the gist of them.

[aristotles_id]

Provided of course they have a European (German/French etc) passport!

And you can manage without that in Schengen states as no one asks to see it. Something like an EU medical card would probably do as well. It;s only coming in and going out of Britain where anyone seems to care. 

[453path]

aristotles_id do you live in the UK? Do you work for HMRC? Or any part of the British gov't/tax office? Especially as you seem to quip Nigel Farage? I'd be very surprised if anyone in America has heard of Nigel Farage let alone knows anything about him! You mentioned the Chancellor of the Exchequer; you don't work for him do you?  Or perhaps you're an anorak? Go on, you can tell me!

For American's who are not familiar with that British colloquialism please refer to said Internet publication 'Wikipedia' LOL.

Okay, I’ll put all of those who are not familiar with this term out of their misery (& to save you the time & effort in searching the Internet for it. This is the definition of an ‘anorak’ as defined on Wikipedia.

In British slang an anorak /ˈænəræk/ is a person who has a very strong interest, perhaps obsessive, in niche subjects. This interest may be unacknowledged or not understood by the general public. The term is sometimes used synonymously with geek or nerd

By the way, you mentioned the threshold is €200 or less! As I said before; we do NOT use Euro's in Britain! We are not part of the Euro Agreement, or the Eurozone, or the European Monetary exchange! We are part of the EU, but that is not the same as the Eurozone! So if you are reading matters about the Eurozone & Euro's then it does NOT apply to Britain! We deal in £ sterling!

You also mentioned there is no monetary (VAT) pool. Where on earth did you read that????? There is a European money pool. It is used for all sorts of things from subsidising famers to regenerating areas stricken by economic problems/poverty etc . Oh I almost forgot; some of it also pays for the European Parliament in Brussels & all the highly paid MEP’s.

There is a Euro pool which Britain contributes in the form of VAT. Returning to your quip of the aforementioned 'Nigel Farage' yes he did state in the media last year (2014) that Britain contributes £55 million GBP/day. Yes, £55 million per day (£20 billion GBP per year, about $30 billion USD per year). And yes, the British government did retort saying it was only half that amount when the rebate is taken into account! 

But if you actually read the report from last year (2014 - and don't forget those figures were based on the year 2012); then you will have seen hidden within all the smoke the government retorted with, that their figure of £20 billion per year, is only what the Central Government had paid. It did NOT include the 'so called' household figures. In other words, it didn't include all the revenue in the form of VAT that was paid by every individual person/household in Britain for that year. The governments figure was purely from what they raised in relation to direct charges/fees etc., they made to industry/commerce/banking & finance etc. 

Nigel Farage supposedly based his party's (UKIP) calculations on the total amount & not just the amount raised directly by central government. 

There are plenty of writings by wiser people than myself! The economist magazine; the Daily Telegraph; BBC; the Guardian Newspaper, (their own economists published the figure of £28.7 billion GBP for the year 2011.

So maybe Nigel wasn't too far out with his speculation for 2012? Since Britain has had one of the strongest economies in Europe the past few years, I wonder what the amount is for this year???

I’m sure aristotles_id can tell us! 

PS: I'm always a bit suspicious of people who contribute to forums such as this, yet hide their identity! I looked at your profile aristotles_id because I was curious when I saw you have 'zero' feedback rating!  I see you have had ZERO transactions as a buyer or a seller. In fact the only items shown on your ID are blogs to this & other forums with many posts (Kudoed & otherwise). It makes me wonder if you are an employee of ebay, perhaps in the dep’t that deals with ebay’s Global Shipping Program? Or maybe you do work for HMRC or the Exchequer after all!

It looks like rain; now where did I put my anorak?

[sayanora]

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@aristotles_id wrote:

He also have another gripe against GSP, when he bought a laptop in US and GSP remit the customs fee to UK customs, he thinks now he can take his laptop out of Germany say to France and Austria with no problem,until he returned to Germany and the German customs officer looked at his GSP receipt and refuse to honor it.it did not state what the fee is for and it looks like a bar bill????

So he ended up paying German customs duty just to bring his laptop back to Germany.

Obviousy nonsense, no one checks good in these transits, or people for that matter. I have made many entries into the EU from outside the EU, and have never had anything I was carrying questioned. 

Then there is a Scandinavian buyer who paid UK customs duty for a US item and when it arrived in her country,her country customs office slapped on its own duty,making her pay twice,she appealed and lost.

Possibly something sent direct by the buyer,  mistakenly. I suppose they could be Norwegian, but even then I doubt if any customs exam applies to goods entering from local EU member countries. 

 I must confess that is something I am not sure about.

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Exception confirms the rule, thats what this German buyer experienced, thats why he is so **bleep** with GSP,German customs officer or French customs officer get up from the wrong side of the bed and decides he does not like what he sees ,a GSP receipt ,

Then I have a buyer in Germany who bought some bone carvings from me, the customs office demanded to know how did the cow die, where is the vet report and death certificate, which freight liner and what other animals come along on the flight?

Finally she just gave up and the item came back to me.

Just because you have good experience in Euro land does not mean it cant happen, I would speculate your turn will come too !

As for the OP and UK customs duty for private buyer on Ebay USA, I have been selling to UK for eons, and they do complain paying customs duty and it is getting quite steep,may be OP has been paying for it upfront from sellers using GSP, try ordering something from non GSP US sellers and see what happens.

In the past, I have UK buyers asking me  to split the customs fee with them which I think  is ridiculous, if Uk buyers do not know UK customs duty,who does?

[aristotles_id]

By the way, you mentioned the threshold is €200 or less! As I said before; we do NOT use Euro's in Britain! We are not part of the Euro Agreement, or the Eurozone, or the European Monetary exchange! We are part of the EU, but that is not the same as the Eurozone! So if you are reading matters about the Eurozone & Euro's then it does NOT apply to Britain! We deal in £ sterling!

The threshods are set by Brussels in Euros, although of course, in the UK they are expressed in Sterling.

You also mentioned there is no monetary (VAT) pool. Where on earth did you read that????? There is a European money pool. It is used for all sorts of things from subsidising famers to regenerating areas stricken by economic problems/poverty etc . Oh I almost forgot; some of it also pays for the European Parliament in Brussels & all the highly paid MEP’s

EU contributions and rebates are from the UK revenue as a whole, comprising all tax receipts. There is no specific 'pooling' of VAT receipts. Income tax and corporation tax are just as much part of this money lake that sloshes back and forth. My original point was that the UK collects more VAT due to the location of the GSP hub in Britain.  VAT receipts and the general revenue are not the same thing, although VAT is part of the revenue available to spend (or as usually happens, overspend.)

PS: I'm always a bit suspicious of people who contribute to forums such as this, yet hide their identity! I looked at your profile aristotles_id because I was curious when I saw you have 'zero' feedback rating!  I see you have had ZERO transactions as a buyer or a seller. In fact the only items shown on your ID are blogs to this & other forums with many posts (Kudoed & otherwise). It makes me wonder if you are an employee of ebay, perhaps in the dep’t that deals with ebay’s Global Shipping Program? Or maybe you do work for HMRC or the Exchequer after all!

People have posting IDs that are quite apart from their trading IDs. AS  a trader I have been on ebay for over 15 years, with between 10 and 20 thousand FB. I was first involved in international freight shipping more than 30 years ago. I have been studying the impact and workings of the GSP since it was introduced on ebay.com, and have in a small way been a consultant on the UK GSP, although unpaid. I still think the GSP is as misbegotten as a six legged pig,  it is so widely misused as to be  next to useless, and is the most misunderstood thing ebay has ever tried..I also think the failure of ebay to make any discernable effort to improve the functioning, use and buyer/seller awareness of the program  is inexcusable.

I do not defend this crock of excrement, I just try to make the facts clear. 

[aristotles_id]

Exception confirms the rule, thats what this German buyer experienced, thats why he is so **bleep** with GSP,German customs officer or French customs officer get up from the wrong side of the bed and decides he does not like what he sees ,a GSP receipt ,

The saying actually means that the exception tests the rule. The word 'prove' is used in the sense of 'test' as in proof testing guns.

The sense is that any exception should make you doubt if the rule is really the rule. It is widely, almost universally, misunderstood to mean the opposite.

Let me rephrase what you say, "that's what this German buyer said he experienced". 

People invent stuff or distort the truth to support their contentions.

[carlmarxx]

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@aristotles_id wrote:

By the way, you mentioned the threshold is €200 or less! As I said before; we do NOT use Euro's in Britain! We are not part of the Euro Agreement, or the Eurozone, or the European Monetary exchange! We are part of the EU, but that is not the same as the Eurozone! So if you are reading matters about the Eurozone & Euro's then it does NOT apply to Britain! We deal in £ sterling!

The threshods are set by Brussels in Euros, although of course, in the UK they are expressed in Sterling.

You also mentioned there is no monetary (VAT) pool. Where on earth did you read that????? There is a European money pool. It is used for all sorts of things from subsidising famers to regenerating areas stricken by economic problems/poverty etc . Oh I almost forgot; some of it also pays for the European Parliament in Brussels & all the highly paid MEP’s

EU contributions and rebates are from the UK revenue as a whole, comprising all tax receipts. There is no specific 'pooling' of VAT receipts. Income tax and corporation tax are just as much part of this money lake that sloshes back and forth. My original point was that the UK collects more VAT due to the location of the GSP hub in Britain.  VAT receipts and the general revenue are not the same thing, although VAT is part of the revenue available to spend (or as usually happens, overspend.)

PS: I'm always a bit suspicious of people who contribute to forums such as this, yet hide their identity! I looked at your profile aristotles_id because I was curious when I saw you have 'zero' feedback rating!  I see you have had ZERO transactions as a buyer or a seller. In fact the only items shown on your ID are blogs to this & other forums with many posts (Kudoed & otherwise). It makes me wonder if you are an employee of ebay, perhaps in the dep’t that deals with ebay’s Global Shipping Program? Or maybe you do work for HMRC or the Exchequer after all!

People have posting IDs that are quite apart from their trading IDs. AS  a trader I have been on ebay for over 15 years, with between 10 and 20 thousand FB. I was first involved in international freight shipping more than 30 years ago. I have been studying the impact and workings of the GSP since it was introduced on ebay.com, and have in a small way been a consultant on the UK GSP, although unpaid. I still think the GSP is as misbegotten as a six legged pig,  it is so widely misused as to be  next to useless, and is the most misunderstood thing ebay has ever tried..I also think the failure of ebay to make any discernable effort to improve the functioning, use and buyer/seller awareness of the program  is inexcusable.

I do not defend this crock of excrement, I just try to make the facts clear. 

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I have not signed with GSP ,Yet my International sales  died off  . 

[sayanora]

I have not signed with GSP ,Yet my International sales  died off  . 

 ----------------------------

some sellers are happy with GSP, they ship bulky items exceeding the USPS limit, and private carriers are too expensive.

Not just intl sales,domestic sales have slowed down too.

I dont think it is going to pick up until March,April of next year 

[kenp1937]

I have same irritating experience. Purchased 6 coins from UK dealer. He supplied all 6 coins to eBay in a single package and I asked eBay to mail as a single package to Australia. Each coin has been treated as an individual item resulting in an extortionate cost of £50.49 to ship to Australia. Not getting any sense from eBay so far. Will never ship via GSP rip off again

[bolaris]

My experience is that using U.S. Postal Service First Class International Mail which is the least expensive method for a U.S. seller, is fine when shipping to certain countries But since it is not tracked all the way, it is not a good idea in others. That is where eBay's Global Shipping program can help. Ebay has apparently negotiated a better price with their carrier and can still get tracking for an intermediate price, so in countries where packages are more likely to disappear this is a huge advantage.

By comparison, with the new rates one of my items can ship via First Class International for about $22. If I ship it using ebay's Global Shipping it will cost the buyer something like $34, BUT if I wanted full tracking without using Global Shippping, you have to go all the way up to Priroity EXPRESS International to get tracking from the U.S. Postal service all the way to the destination which would cost about $60.

First Class International has worked fine for me to Canada, the U.K., Northern Europe and Australia. Even without tracking to the destination I think I have had one package disappear in 5 years. But in many countries in South America and Asia, I have lost several. And with eBay's policy that if you cannot provide tracking all the way to the destination, then you must give a FULL REFUND to the buyer if they claim they did not recieve it, Global Shipping offers an interim solution.The buyer pays a little more, but the seller is protected. I simply would no longer sell to those countries without Global Shipping.

[aristotles_id]

And with eBay's policy that if you cannot provide tracking all the way to the destination, then you must give a FULL REFUND to the buyer if they claim they did not recieve it, Global Shipping offers an interim solution

You get protection against loss or damage with transit insurance, at a lower cost to the buyer, making your items more saleable.

Tracking is not some magic spell, it does nothing to 'protect' items, merely provides some defence agains false claims of non delivery.

If your item is insured, it does not matter if the non-delivery claim is real or false, you get paid by the insurer.

This is simpler, cheaper and safer, plus the buyer does not get charged import charges in many countries.

THe best thing you can do to protect packages is to ensure the customs form description is a basic  and low value as possible, although theft in transit is very rare, why make it a buffet table instead of a lucky dip.

[kate4]

I refuse to use Global Shipping Program and now finding that my seller is finding it difficult to change to Royal Mail. they charge over 59% for duty when in some cases no duty is due or the duty is only 35%. Who gets the difference? When looking at a purchases of 250.00 to 350.00 pounds at a time its a considerable amount if you are buying 2 or 3 times a week. My seller is having difficulty changing from Global Shipping to Royal Mail for a purchase I have just made. It is a scam. I would rather not buy something now if it is shipped by Global...