I see $13.45 'USPS Priority Mail International Flat Rate EnvelopeTM' shipping to my postal code in Canada.
He has his international shipping calculated and set to Priority so it can be tracked and proved to have been delivered (to most developed countries (sometimes)).
He also has a secondary option to choose Priority to the US.
He is probably thinking that to protect himself from loss he must do this.
However, any international mail order business (which
ebay is) usually realizes that to cover loss that is not covered by your own insurance company you must add a bit of every sale to your pickle jar and when something bad happens take the money out of the jar to pay for the loss.
Perhaps email him and ask if he will accept to ship to you via regular airmail if you email though
ebay to him a note stating that you will accept any loss incurred. He still might feel obliged to do things the PayPal way, which to my mind is only OK for larger purchases, and even then the buyer usually feels slighted as it seems to be a personal insult to his integrity. (Whether or not he himself is trustworthy in the larger scheme of things.)
There may be new rules coming into effect in the US
ebay and PayPal system that makes it harder for US sellers to claim for loss outside of the US, or at least complicated enough that it is easier to put the international shipping up so much that no sane international buyer even bothers to buy anything. Perhaps this is why londonbus1 has had problems getting sellers to ship to him in Israel.
Posted 08/27/2011 09:06 am
I'm seeing $2.14. Not free, but not exorbitant (considering this is 
As long as the shipping costs are made clear you have a choice, bid or don't.
