Today someone in Australia ordered several coins from me, so I was researching the pricing before sending an invoice as I know that postage rates changed recently. I discovered that a) a regular international package now costs almost $16.50 (!!!!) to send, and there's now something called "eBay international standard delivery" that is $13. I've never seen this before, so I Googled it. All I can really figure out that's different from a regular package is it says it's Delivered Duties Unpaid and the buyer may have to pay the carrier for duties and tax upon delivery. This sounds potentially annoying for the buyer. Is anyone familiar with this delivery option? Would my buyers be annoyed if I used it? Here's the link to the eBay explanation: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Annou...international-standard-delivery/ba-p/30655191 I feel really bad charging so much for international shipping. I think a lot of international buyers are not expecting this when they make the purchase and in many cases the shipping can end up being more than the cost of the coins.
Now I got a new reason not to buy on EBay. Anyway I look at prices on EBay and I get better deal with some pro in real life. Depends of timing and the coin you want.
The charge is just the nature of international shipping. You'll actually still be funding some of it with the fees. I've never used that cheaper eBay method, but I haven't heard good things about it. It seems to be extra slow and I would say it really isn't worth it to save $3.50 especially when it will be more work for the buyer not paying the dues upfront.
I don't sell ANYTHING international -- at least nothing over $10. S&H is too high unless you're selling a somewhat pricey item. Even then you have to be careful where the buyer is. Some countries have a VERY suspect postal system and if an item appears to have any significant value it can easily "disappear". And unless there's tracking some buyers report INR's. The few countries I trust are: -- Canada -- Australia/New Zealand -- western Europe (UK, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland) -- Japan Countries that I'll consider with inexpensive items in envelopes: -- France, Spain, Portugal -- Scandinavia "No way" countries/areas: -- Asia (except Japan) -- Italy, Greece and other eastern European countries -- Central and South America -- Africa There are occasional exceptions but only with inexpensive items in envelopes.
I sell world coins so if I don't sell internationally I'm giving up a significant part of my market. But the coins I sell are mostly cheaper and I ship them in an envelope with an international stamp for smaller orders. The trouble starts when it's more than four coins, which is the most I'll put in an envelope. This most recent order was nine coins to a buyer in Australia. What I ended up doing was sending them in three envelopes, but there's a point where you can't do that anymore. I've had pretty good experiences with most countries. I no longer ship to Mexico, Russia, India, Colombia, and a few others. I've heard of a lot of people saying they won't ship to Italy but I've never had a problem there, or Greece either. Malta and Cyprus I've had problems with. I sell a lot to the Baltic states with no problems, as well as most of Europe. South America can be tricky depending on the country but I don't have enough sales to really spot a trend. Honestly though I have the most lost mail right here in the USA.
I buy coins from Ebay sellers in Italy and have never had a problem with getting the coins I paid for.
