Ebay : Sellers Shipping To USA Only

It is pretty simple really, inexpensive international shipping without tracking can be a nightmare for a seller. The mail systems of most countries are pretty reliable but sending mail to some countries is the equivalent of sending it to a black hole. Without confirmation of delivery, PayPal will always side with the buyer for an alleged non-delivery. ebay has also recently changed the rules for Top Seller status, >90% of all shipments must now have tracking to be eligible for the FVF discounts.

You can therefore plan for most of ebay's best US sellers to cease shipping overseas. I stopped shipping internationally years ago for the reason biokemist states - I have no protection whatsoever doing so.

I should also mention that I used to do a lot of international shipping. In fact, customers from Australia, Canada, and the UK were some of my best and most loyal customers. Back then however, I was selling relatively inexpensive items that were unlikely to go "missing".

For the reasons stated above, I pretty much quit messing with it. It just isn't worth the headaches.

Hmm, I can see how this could be a problem but surely a company like FedEx can track a parcel to the UK?

If the item had to go to the Eastern Block or to some shady Republic in Africa I could understand but London is not exactly an exotic location.

If the shoe was on the other foot and I was posting to the USA I can walk into a post office and they can post something tracked and insured to any part of America for a pretty reasonable fee.

Anyway this is a major inconvenience both to myself (who see's items he wants and has money to buy but can't) and to the seller.

I wonder what will happen with this note... I clicked "buy it now" because I wanted a decent clean example of a black eagle and when I saw one with a buy it now at such a reasonable price I just clicked buy-it-now. When I tried to pay it wouldnt let me so I messaged the seller to apologice (clearly it was my mistake for not reading thoroughly) and to offer extra money for postage but no answer.

I just find it hard to believe that in a large and civilized country like the USA there isn't an international mail service provider that can track to Europe.

I sold a few items on ebay that shipped to Australia and France, but the issue along with whats mentioned is that buyers of the countries they lived in have to pay custom fee or duty tax, which is out of my knowledge how much the buyer need to pay.

I don't know but for some countries we here in the US are not allow to ship coins or numismatic items, and insurance don't cover it. Of course perhaps FedEx, UPS or DHL can ship/insures it, the cost is also high.

Fortunately the guy with the Black Eagle said he would make an exception for me and said I could pay $6 extra for shipping. I gave him $10 and the note cost me $75 but it looked like there are no holes, the corners were good and no obvious marks so unless it turns out to be like a limp rag I probably got a decent buy. I will read more carefully in future, I just hope it arrives OK with no unexpected surprises, genuine and in fabulous condition.

The items can be tracked for most countries, the problem is its the cost of tracking. Buyers don't want to pay 30 40 dollars for shipping and neither do seller since with the ebay fees the seller loses a few bucks on shipping that expensive.

Basically its just not worth the hassel and risk. Items can sit in customs for up to a month and like was said above when people see coin or gold or silver on the label if there's no tracking consider it stolen.

I shipped one thing internationally and it was stolen since the buy didn't want to pay the 20 bucks for tracking. Somewhere between the tarmack at chicago and australias customs office someone brought home a free gift for themselves

my experience is similar to Nancy's, I'm pleased to say.
A couple of times, my parcel arrives, covered in orange tape "Inspected by Australian Customs Service".
Customs charges are a non-issue for items received in the mail (in Australia).
I've heard that UPS & Fedex charge the sender for their services, then bill the recipient $90 to "clear customs".
Twice, I've had small parcels sent by Fedex (over my request for USPS), and both times it was returned to sender in USA, because Fedex can't find Darwin. Both times, the sender re-sent it by USPS, and it arrived in 4~5 days.
I understand sellers' reluctance under the revised rules.
And I find some Europeans very easy to deal with, and inexpensive.

The funniest was a Belgian seller, who lived near the Dutch border. He offered these options:
post the day after payment received, and pay Belgian postage; or
once a week he would go to the Netherlands and post it there, for half the price.