eBay has now automatically opted in all eBay sellers into the Global Shipping Program. Unless you opt out, all of your listings will open to buyers outside of the U.S. automatically. I listed some currency yesterday and it automatically opened it up to the Global Shipping Program. I didn't participate in it in the past, and normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal. But Paper Money is considered a prohibited category, which you're not allowed to sell through the Global Shipping Program. I had to end a listing early with a bid, and called eBay to complain. The rep didn't seem to care about it. They just told me to end the listing and re-list. I had a bid, and they said it was my first so I wouldn't pay final value fees. After that? Oh they said to contact eBay and explain the situation. That's pretty annoying. The entire thing seems to be a pretty big blunder on eBays part. I can foresee problems with this. Let's suppose you're a seller and the buyer is in another country. You take advantage of eBay's Global Shipping Program to protect yourself as a seller. Then you get into a dispute with the buyer, for whatever reason. I envision your chances of winning the dispute to be very slim, considering you "circumvented" eBay policies by shipping a prohibited item through their program... even though eBay opted you in and automatically placed a prohibited item in the program for you without your knowledge. What happens if you missed the fact they added you to the Global Shipping Program, and your buyer is international? Your alternative is to ship the item outside of the program, which is costly and risky. International sellers often adjust their shipping charges accordingly. But this is something you need to know to do before you list the item and bids are placed. Once there are bids, you'll be dinged for ending a listing early. Plus most sellers avoid international shipping because of varying customs rules, shipping delays, and fraud. There are other problems, including dollar amount limits. Even if you could ship currency through this program, if your item sells for over $250 for example, you can't ship it to Russia through eBay. You have to make your own shipping arrangements. Talk about a hassle. So as a suggestion to all you sellers is to opt out of the Global Shipping Program before making any new listings. You can do it by going to My eBay > Account > Site Preferences.
Interesting. Perhaps there was something different with my account, or with yours. In any case, I had Global Shipping set to No, but then all of the sudden it turned on prior to my latest listing. I also noticed other sellers' new listings were part of the program, when they weren't previously. Anyone else experience the same thing?
I have two selling/buying accounts. One was set to "no", the other to "yes", and I had never touched either of them. Go figure.
I think you need a minimum of seller rating to qualify for the global shipping program. Maybe one account qualified and the other didn't?
1 of my items just sold through this program ( $44 ) they charged they buyer an extra $17 shipping. I read the rules on this program and it states that both buyer and seller will get full tracking info., it also states that International buyer's agree to pay the extra shipping and custom's fee's. On lower priced item's this may be OK, but if you insure a package it is only insured to the US border after that NO INSURANCE. I opted out of this program ( just too many what if's ) ~ I also had ebay switch some of my listing's to this Global Shipping Program, even though each of my listing's say at the bottom No International Shipping. They are trying to pump up sales ( commission ) at the risk of there power seller's~ they should look at this program closely. Many of my coin/currency friends do not sell Internationally because of to many bad deals resulting in lost money.
And there is another problem with their Global Shipping. It will not (or would not) let you combine shipping. I had a Canadian buyer . They wanted some exorbitant fees for shipping just one. I wound up selling 10 and only needed $11 to cover my shipping.
rim's cents - I wonder even if I offer free shipping to get the high DSR rating that if a Canadian buyer did not like this super high shipping fee if they could zing you on the shipping charges. My buyer also was from Canada, if he would have asked what shipping charges would have been they would have been much lower ! Ebay has found another way to take buyer's/ seller's money again ~
