I don't think anyone has talked about this here yet. I sell world coins on eBay, and all of a sudden in the past few days I've started to get envelopes returned to me with big yellow stickers on them saying "Mail service suspended. Return to sender." Apparently the USPS has stopped shipping to many countries temporarily because of COVID-19. I haven't seen this in the news anywhere but if you search for it there is an article about it on their site. Most of what I've had sent back so far was originally mailed in early April, so who knows how much more I might be getting back. The packages returned so far were sent to Chile, Israel and Bahrain. Strangely, Israel is not on the list of restricted countries. I feel like I might need to restrict sales to the U.S. and Canada for awhile, which is a shame since I do sell a lot of coins overseas. Of course Paypal no longer refunds fees when a seller refunds a buyer, so I'm out that money. Here's the link from USPS. https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm
I would strongly recommend to use the eBay shipping for basically all other countries besides Germany, Australia, Canada, England, and could add Japan/France if you wanted. Wouldn't be the worst idea right now to let them handle it all Once eBay gets their hands on things for anywhere else they cover it if something happens
That is prohibitively expensive though. It might make sense for big ticket items but most of my coins are a few bucks at most. I always figure I'm not out a lot if it gets lost in the mail. But obviously the current situation is unprecedented. I feel like I'll be giving out a lot of refunds.
Certainly is for the buyer in many cases but does also reduce some fees for you as a seller, that said it's also the best way to protect yourself especially with some more obscure counties and the ones on that list. It's not like you did anything wrong for things getting rejected it just is what it is
Surprisingly it says you can bring them in for a refund. But like I said, Paypal fees will not be returned.
I don't sell, but know some overseas orders I placed I have got notes saying they cannot ship to me now.
Do you know if Italy can ship coins to the USA. I'm bidding on two coins on Italian Ebay. I also bought a coin from a Ebay seller in Lithuania and it's been stuck in the ISC Chicago Post Office since April 22
Last I heard about shipping to Korea, it takes months. I will have to have things I buy there sent to a friend in Korea, and then come pick them up when the world re-opens.
It's not USPS stopping shipping. It is the other countries refusing to let in international shipments right now. The list changes weekly, so hard for the USPS to keep up.
USPS FAQs regarding Covid-19 related service disruptions: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Mail-Service-Alerts-and-Updates @Hiddendragon Israel is among the countries where the suspension has ended
Not Covid related, but there can be other issues at times that will halt mail service. For instance, in early 2017 the Guatemalan government had a contract dispute with the country's postal agency, and that country effectively did not have mail service for about 2 years. Hard to imagine. At times, their banking system does not function much better.
