Ebay International Postage

"Thanks for your interest. Regarding buyers outside UK, my intention is to offer different postal options at cost if it is up to me. However ebay have introduced a new system where they take charge of international postage. So I am not sure what happens. Sorry if this sounds unhelpful but I don't have any experience of this new ebay initiative"

I received the above when I queried a UK seller about at $2.00 item that I was interested in. His postage charge is $13.00!! You can see his response. I have no reason to believe that he is doing this himself.

Glenn
I have some experience of this. As an occasional E-bay seller, I was foolish enough to tick the box when this new initiative was offered. The idea is that people selling overseas only have to post the sold item to a UK mailing centre, the item is then forwarded on by the 'Globabl Shipping Programme', which delivers the item. As I found out, when selling a cover to a guy in France, this is simply a money-making scheme for E-bay and it's partner couriers.
I would have charged around £1.40 to send this to France, but Global Shipping charges sellers a ridiculously high postal fee, in this case £8.52. The buyer was, understandably not too happy, even more so when the couriers took over 6 weeks to deliver the item.
Since then I have removed Globabl Shipping from my options for delivery, and ask overseas bidders to contact me for postal costs. I sent E-bay several messages about this, they have not answered any of them.
So your seller is definitely not wanting to charge you this amount, it is E-bay Globabl Shipping that is doing it. I was very fortunate in that the buyer of my cover was a very patient and understanding man, I could easily have lost my 100% positive rating and got plenty of aggravation over this, E-bay was not at all concerned.
Best regards
DavidR

David

Completely agree. It's important tomwork your way through the ebay mire and opt out. These charges seem to cover postage + signed for + courier costs. Perhaps worth doing if going to a country where claimed non-delivery is an issue, but not otherwise. I've had no problems sending to Western Europe via standard international mail.

Regards.

Geoff

Hi Geoff
Yes, prior to my ill-fated dealings with the Global Shipping Programme I hardly ever had a problem. Over the last few years I have sent items all over the world, from France to Australia and only once did we have an issue, with sending a package to Singapore. It finally turned up after about four weeks and several emails!
So as long as you are clear where you will send to and where you won't (I avoid Russia and vicinity) you should be OK with normal international post, or signed for if the item is a bit pricey.
Best regards
DavidR

I see this from the USA and elsewhere also.

I don't like it.

Stamps are just stamps and not international diamond trade items, for goodness sakes. I know to us they are but not to everyone.

I just checked ebay UK site and was able to sell and cost shipping out at a regular economy (regular irmail envelope probably) at any price I wished to.

The Global shipping option for sellers is probably sold to them by seeming very protective of their items and monies and then to buyers also. Like some insurance I suppose.

Good if you need it, but useless to me who is not spending $5000 on ebay every month (I wish).

With the hassles of the USPS, customs, ebay, amd Paypal I made a business decision several years ago to opt-out of all international sales completely. I may lose a few bids and sales, but I avoid a lot of hassle and waiting in line. Trackable shipping overseas is expensive and often flaky at best.

The Global Shipping Program really stops me from buying from so many sellers who use the GSP. I'm sure not paying $18 - $41 courier charge for a $5 stamp. Whilst it might make sense for things like DVDs or expensive items, it makes no sense to use GSP for cheap stamps under $50. Basically GSP chooses the highest postage rate possible using a courier service, its a real put off to international buyers. And they wonder why sales are falling on ebay. I used to be able to buy any stamps with a $2-$3 postage charge. Not anymore. Its basically unfair to international buyers the GSP as they are stealing money from our pockets with crazy postage rates which are not needed. Bring back good old fashioned airmail!

Luckily, the GSP program is still a choice for the sellers. 50%+ of my buyers are overseas and I send stamps and covers anywhere via regular USPS mail mostly without issue and 2 oz shipping with the nonmachineable surcharge is still under $3 US. I've sent mail to Haiti, Ethiopia, Ukraine (during their current war), Pakistan, Egypt and even India, Russia, Brazil and Italy without issue.

Mailing internationally is not hard at all. Even custom forms are a snap if needed. Determining postage is easy can be since everything you need to know is online. Just get yourself a scale if you don't have one yet.

Unfortunately, ebay has pushed the GSP program unto sellers in the recent past very hard and even tricked them into it via "seller updates". ebay sold the idea to new sellers and those weary of selling internationally as a "risk free" way of selling without mentioning the undue burden of extra costs on the buyer. Please don't blame the sellers as they were duped and sold a sack of lies. If you come across a seller who has the GSP mailing costs - please message them and tell them that's the costs are too much and you don't buy from sellers in the GSP program. Hopefully, more will opt out of it if they can - in the past ebay has made it difficult to turn it off.

For those sellers like John Becker who say "I won't sell internationally". Guess what, ebay will force you through the GSP program if you haven't selected any international mail options. ebay will pick one for you and only one option - theirs.

The GSP program also has other unspoken issues - collecting custom fees from the buyer on items that probably do not warrant such fees, repacking shipments (may or may not be damaged as a result) and seize of items the courier believes cannot be shipped to another country. In the latter case, buyer is reimbursed, seller keeps the money, but item is not returned to seller and may be deposed/resold by the third party. Nice draconian escrow service there. No thanks.

If ebay were to make the GSP program mandatory, I will leave ebay. It's a deal breaker.

I haven't used ebay since 2008 when I left, supporting the walkout when PayPal was made mandatory, but I have followed the forums and GSP has been a hot one.

GSP is run by Pitney-Bowes. All U.S. GSP mail goes by domestic mail to the P-B center in Kentucky (seller only pays domestic priority rate with tracking to KY). P-B then packs up and/or repackages, as necessary, mail for palletized shipping to a customs receiving center overseas - UK for the EU. Mail is assessed brokers fees, VAT, Duty and whatever postage is deemed necessary.

The seller, it seems, doesn't usually know what ebay/P-B charges, unless they go to the listings from a non-logged in computer and pretends to buy something. It is not clear how P-B determines VAT, Duty, delivery charges, though it is surmised that Fedex or DHL or whatever handles packages "at the other end" while the local postal authorities handle non-shipping envelopes (mail).

Many sellers were opted in by logging onto ebay - ebay has had a bad habit of including agreement to their User Agreement by login. Over the past couple of years, there have been various methods to get all members to use GSP. Some people have had to opt out more than once, there are reports of being mysteriously opted in on a frequent basis, etc.

As I said, I don't have first hand experience, however, the seller AND buyer forums have had many, many complaints, rants and worse about GSP