I've read a blog which states that lots of sellers do not want to ship internationally because of the headaches of having them shipped and the protocols they need to go through. Some even suggest that these people think that anyone outside of their country may just steal and not pay for the item or will screw them over. Whenever I browse on eBay for items I want then find out that the shipper doesn't ship internationally, I feel really sad and doubtful of why they refuse to ship it internationally. What are your thoughts on this? Are you one of them? And what are your reasons? Do you think that with the advent of better communication between different nations today that more people should decide to expand their market to the world?
I tried selling internationally on ebay before, and it was quite the headache. First of all, it's expensive, and I'd end up with too many surprises when I got to the post office (that cost me lots of money). Many people overseas have little ways to get around the pricing, but if you don't follow them exactly it can get messed up, and they don't get their item or you get it sent back to you or whatever.
One of my main concerns is not simply the cost and worries associated with shipping, but whether or not the gadget will work over there. See I've ordered things before internationally only to discovered on several of these that it was effectively a pretty brick. Most of this had to do with hardware issues and the like, but somethings resulted from differences in software writing. Having experienced that I hesitate to subject someone else to that and so I just sell my gadgets within the boundaries of North America which is a pretty big market in it's self. Other things however, like books and artwork and such are fair game as longs as the cost of shipping doesn't eat away too much of the profit.
I read a blog post that says that since Paypal automatically sides with the buyer and will only cancel the refund or dispute if the buyer retracts it, then it is pretty easy to steal goods from the seller by simply claiming that the item did not match the description, or the item was damaged, etc. The seller was an honest seller but he or she was scammed by a buyer, and lots of people were commenting on the blog post that the same thing happened to them too, and their advise was "if you want to sell something for free, then go sell at Ebay". So I think that by limiting their shipping options, then that would at least avoid the incidence of being scammed by the buyer.
I've never tried to sell items internationally but I have ordered stuff internationally with mixed results. Generally in all cases, it took longer than usual (no surprise there), but all of the items I ordered through Alibaba turned out to be counterfeit. Couldn't you get some sort of insurance on the item before you ship it that would cover theft though?
I don't like to ship expensive items internationally because of the cost and hassle that comes with it. Not only does it jack the price up a whole bunch, the chance of the item getting broken or lost gets a whole lot higher. There are buyers that will damage the item on purpose in order to get their money back if they don't like the item, then the seller is left with a damaged item, bad feedback, and no money. There are also buyers that will strip items of parts they need and claim the item arrived like that. I've heard of instances where an expensive item was replaced with a Hanes t shirt and the buyer claimed that's what arrived, of course eBay and PayPal sided with the buyer because the seller had no chance of getting any kind of proof to back his case up. When these things happen on an international scale, things just get blown up to ridiculous proportions and the loss gets blown up too.
Shipping costs would be insane, and electronics may not be compatible with the voltage of outlets in other countries.
Yeah, shipping costs are absolutely ridiculous internationally. Even shipping an item that costs less than a pound is just way too much, I have no clue why though.
There is shipping costs, then there are protocols/forms/other things to fill, there is a risk of package being lost, and insuring it not only costs extra money, it could even incur additional fees for the reciever from local tax office.. not to mention that electronics are often subject to additional taxes, depending on the country..
When I used sell on eBay I didn't shipped internationally. I know I was losing sales, but the cost and hassle wasn't worth. At that time, it was hard to determine exact shipping costs.
