Why the americans in ebay ...

I have lived in the US for 48 years and, to my knowledge, have never one time had a USPS letter fail to reach its destination, nor have I failed to receive one. USPS - 100% success rate for 48 years. That's my experience.

The UK is about the size of New Mexico, and barely 1/3rd the size of Alaska. To compare postal services is truly comparing apples to oranges. The UK has a much easier job.

Which helps illustrate why Americans feel less need to ship overseas.

America is the world's largest free-trade zone with a common language. This has been true for most of our 200 years, and is a major reason why we are so successful and have such a high standard of living.

Americans have less need to ship internationally. The statement that German post cannot track in the Netherlands shows how a "patchwork quilt" layout causes problems.

Personally, I do not ship overseas for the reasons stated by others - trackability, difficulty with paperwork and problem resolution, etc.

 

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You seem to have ignored my comment about the US's size and the volume issues faced by the USPS. I was simply assessing the level of service provided to various countries' postal services to illustrate that it is wrong to assume that other postal services are necessarily inferior. Also, if you compare apples to apples to the extent possible, such as delivering a letter 200 miles away, for example, Royal Mail will reliably do it overnight for the cost of a letter stamp, while the same class of servcie will take a couple days at least in the US, maybe more.

As for your personal track record, you have a few years on me but much better luck. I guess I send/receive a much larger volume of mail than you do, as I have had numerous incidences of lost, misdelivered, or damaged mail. The record of the USPS is still exceptional, and it is probably a better value for the money than most major postal services (which tend to be very expensive), but it is not perfect.

It is each seller's right to ship or not ship internationally, but I think at least some of the supposed obstacles are dubious: "paperwork"??? Are people referring to the customs form?

 

In my case, yes. But that is minor, and I would ignore it if not for one major problem - difficulty in resolving problems, coupled with the tracking issue.

I'll bet these issues will improve with time.

 

I shipped an $8 item to the UK using ebays shipping calculator. When it came to $10.40 to ship I told the winner of the auction that I wouldn't hold him to the sale because of the high rate. He said to ship it and credited my paypal acct for the correct amount. When I went to the USPS it cost less than $3. I went home and refunded $8 to the winner & sent an email about what happened. It's been over 2 months and I still haven't heard a word from him whether he received the item or not. I know he got the $8 because that went thru Papal. Second email last week and nothing. No feedback either.

It is already way too much trouble to sell and ship internationally. I don't think I'll bother again.

Bruce

 

I have shipped to other countries using eBay (although I don't sell there anymore) and private transactions and there are two extra steps I need to take:

1-Trip to post office. It's less than a mile away and I'm there frequently, so not much of a big deal.

2-Wanting US dollars. May be more of a problem. However, with people I know (mostly readers of my model train column) I have worked out some creative ways to be paid in kind for what I've sold them.

It's not quite as much of a hassle as it seems to ship overseas occassionally, but I don't think I would make it a habit unless I was in a full time selling business.

"Interesting" anecdote department: I once had a package returned as "incorrectly addressed" all the way from New Zealand! I was told to write on the new package, "No, BEHIND the main building"...

 

lol

 

One time I got a letter from California (US) to North Rhine Westphalia (DE, EU) weeks after the sender had mailed it. (Had nothing to do with coins though.) That thing had a big "Mal encaminado" stamp on it - from El Salvador. But, it did arrive ...

Christian