I've been selling on ebay for years and haven't had much issues only until very very recently. I snapped as one buyer decided to open a case with paypal and blow the case up. At the same time, he's won another item from me. Right. I had a couple of claims from the US in the past couple of months claiming that they didn't receive their coins. Yes, after close to 10 years of sending coins to the US and I'm sure I've sent more than one hundred mail to the US - this just had to happen this year. Unless this year's US mail service has been horrible due to cutbacks. Thankfully they were both just a few dollars. Not going to lose sleep over it - however multiply that by ten, twenty, fifty, hundred of claims and they add up very very quickly. Who knows - maybe these buyers think it's a sneaky way of getting funds back without any action? Ebay's / paypal's policy is that if it has no tracking ID, sellers can't be covered. Sure - if the item is valuable enough. But what if the coins are worth let's say less than 10 dollars and the postage of normal air mail is about 3 dollars and registered is 15 dollars? Yes, shipping from Australia unfortunately is not cheap. What would you do? Would like some recommendations here. You can always put a disclaimer that shipping by air mail is at one's risk but how can one tell if the seller is doing the right thing or not? Can't blame them. Needless to say, they are more than welcome to keep their money but I don't want another transaction with them. Would you??? Apologizes in advance as it's not really numismatics but at the same time, would like to hear if any have gone through the same stage as me as well as some tips. Yes, I know some will point out very quickly that it's ebay but that's not a solution.
I would not ship to the US or tell the buyer they are responsible for shipping costs. Of course I do not sell on ebay - so what do I know. If I did I would only ship to the US and would make sure what I was selling was worth the tracking and insurance. Again - just my humble opinion.
For me, I am a eBay seller for US only. I have had enough of international shipping mishap. Too much hassle and high risk. I have been sell my items to US for past ten years and I always added this quote, "International shipping will not be accepted; please contact us for more information before bidding." I did have some buyers actually beg me to allow international shipping. I just simply say NO. I am not obligate to sell my items to international, period.
It's a simple business decision. If you make more selling to the US even with the lost packages, then continue to do so. If you are not making good money at it, then stop. One thing that some overseas sellers do to reduce shipping expenses is to find a partner in the US that can ship the coins.
I have sold items overseas from the US and when they win, I get an address to check the postage and I will let them know and sometimes the cost was higher then the item, but if they are willing to pay the addition postage, I send it after payment by paypal with the new shipping costs. I print the postage on the label so they know what they paid in shipping costs were what I spent. And for those that don't want the added shipping I will gladly cancel the transaction.
