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International Customers May Get Better Shipping on Featherweights Through eBay

dgfoster

Diamond
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Location
Bellingham, WA
Just a note to report a recent positive eBay experience. The gist of the story is that I sold an 8" machiined casting (they have been very popular) to a guy for whom eBay had listed a Kentucky address. No big deal, I packed it up and shipped it USPS Priority as is my practice.
The surprising thing was a few days later I got a tracking notification that the casting had reached its Ky destination was now headed to the UK! So, I contacted the buyer who said he lived in Norway, the eventual destination, and he simply ordered my SE from eBay and they provided estimated shipping and duty charges which were acceptable to the buyer so he ordered. He said shipping was on the order of 40 dollars and duty was on the order of 50 dollars on the machined (132 USD) casting. I guess eBay has setup a US drop off for international shipping service.

I know quite a number of folks living in Europe, Australia, and NZ on this forum have wanted to buy castings, but shipping arranged privately has usually been a deal breaker. Perhaps purchasing through eBay may provide an more affordable alternative. Unfortunately I will not be able to provide a PM discount to eBay purchasers. And right now I am sold out of 18's and 36's with backorders on both. I do have a few 8's and a couple 26's and a 48 or two.

If some of you know more about this program, I'd like to know. How would it work for larger castings? Is it a viable option?

Denis
 
They used ebay "Global Shipping", you most likely clicked the button when placing the ad, or maybe they auto-filled it. I have it on all my listings and make quite a few foreign sales. Never knew what they charged, good info, frequently get requests to ship direct, but always tell them to sign up for GS. Another good thing is you are only responsible for getting it to Erlanger KY, if it gets lost past that ebay is responsible for the refund.
 
They used ebay "Global Shipping", you most likely clicked the button when placing the ad, or maybe they auto-filled it. I have it on all my listings and make quite a few foreign sales. Never knew what they charged, good info, frequently get requests to ship direct, but always tell them to sign up for GS. Another good thing is you are only responsible for getting it to Erlanger KY, if it gets lost past that ebay is responsible for the refund.

Thanks for fleshing that service out a bit. I was unsure of what obligations I might be taking on with GS. I will check through my listings and see if it is checked or not.

Denis
 
They used ebay "Global Shipping", you most likely clicked the button when placing the ad, or maybe they auto-filled it. I have it on all my listings and make quite a few foreign sales. Never knew what they charged, good info, frequently get requests to ship direct, but always tell them to sign up for GS. Another good thing is you are only responsible for getting it to Erlanger KY, if it gets lost past that ebay is responsible for the refund.

I also like selling through ebay Global shipping as I find shipping anything of value international to be a total pain and wouldn't incur the hassle and risk if I had to ship direct. I do think that shipping direct is generally cheaper as the GS service tacks on additional fees. This is definitely true for light weight items that are cheap to ship international USPS. Ebay does have reasonable discounts on shipping though, so maybe it works out. I do find that shipping to Erlanger KY, is particularly cheap, likely due to the volume.

I have also twice sold something through Global Shipping only to have them later decide that it was a prohibited item to ship to the destination. In this case you keep what you were paid, GS refunds the buyer, and the items get disposed of in some way. Seems like you could scam the system through this mechanism. Maybe they have improved their location filtering?
 
One other positive thing to report about Ebay global shipping...

A year ago I bought a nice 200mm (8") Hilger-Watts bubble level box square from a seller in the UK. It came with the original black storage box (turns out that this was make from Bakelite). I got it for a reasonable price, around 100 Euros including shipping. I hadn't realized it, but the shipping was Ebay global shipping.

A week later, when it arrived, one of the corners of the black storage box was pretty beat up, because it was shipped with the square inside, in a poorly padded cardboard box. As some point the corner must have impacted and the box square inside (a few kilos of cast iron) then crushed the black storage box.

When I complained the seller said that he had shipped it in good condition, and the fault was with Ebay global shipping. I was expecting Ebay global shipping to give me some money back, but instead they refunded me the full purchase + shipping price, without penalising the seller. I was pretty happy with that, in the end I got the level for free, and spend a couple of hours repairing the damaged box as well as I could.
 
Thanks for fleshing that service out a bit. I was unsure of what obligations I might be taking on with GS. I will check through my listings and see if it is checked or not.

Denis

As an Australian I have bought a number of things from the USA via eBay Global Shipping. IME it's cheaper and *much* faster than USPS or UPS, FedEx etc. In fact unless the seller offers it I don't buy any more, the other methods are simply outrageously expensive in comparison.

So, as a buyer, I regard it as a definite plus.

PDW
 
As a Canadian, the Global Shipping thing has been a mixed blessing.

To the plus, no more surprises at being billed more than the item was worth, by a Brokerage house contracted through whichever express shipping outfit (UPS,FedEx, etc) the shipper had an account with, and used, instead of the requested USPS Parcel rate. Full, delivered cost (which, really, is about all that matters), is clearly stated, and I can make my mind up if it suits me or I shop elsewhere.

To the down side, as long as the seller was willing to use it, USPS shipping has always been about the cheapest reliable way to get a part or item that was properly packed, from there to here. Our Post Office, "IF" they deign to actually bother to collect Duty and Customs, charge far far less for the service ($10, vs. $70-$90+) for collecting the same paltry couple bucks for the Governments cut for crossing the Border.
The option to shop out a slower but cheaper shipping method, has been removed.

Given the number of absolute rip-offs that have occurred, in addition to folks who just plain had unreasonable expectations, as far as having picked a slow and cheap shipping method, an then started actions against sellers, I can see why they would have gone the way they did.
 
I've been selling my Scraping DVD / HSB Stick on eBay for 20+ years and I have had bad luck shipping or mailing it via the eBay system when they started to use it. In the past 2 months I have had 2 out of country buyers tell me they never received the eBay shipped DVD and I had to refund the money and had to eat it.

eBay assumes you didn't mail it. I told eBay the tracking number they gave me when I bought it from them. They still said I didn't mail it because he buyer said they didn't get it, They believe the buyer and not the seller. I now refuse to use it. On the less then a pound postage it only saves a few dollars and if the buyer argues about the few dollars postage difference, I eat it. I've been lucky as no one out of county hasn't bought any bigger straight edges as I've been out of stock and when they are back in stock, I will say in my ad, US Mail shipping only. I have shipped 2 48" SE's to New Zealand through a Freight Forwarder in Seattle who the buyer found and it is cheaper they say.

After they buy my DVD and they pick the eBay mailing, I write the buyer to cancel the deal and select USPS - US Postal service. I have not shipped bigger straight-edges using it, but for the lousy luck I have had on small envelopes I refuse to ship it via eBay shipping. I sell my 12" straight-edge that fits inside a medium flat rate priority USPS box and I mail it to out of country and haven't had an issue.
 
Global Shipping adds a lot more costs in fees, and is more profit to Ebay, that is why they are doing it. The courier companies are the same, charging broker fees and then a handling fee is very profitable. IMO, the best was is the old fashioned way, USPS, assuming the buyer and seller are legit. If a seller has GS and it is something that I can get any another way, I will. In this day and age, it is also very important to be patient allow time for the mail to get through.
 
^^^ agree completely. I’ve given up buying from ebay. Way too much of a crapshoot for tooling from unknown sellers and extra fees just make it a waste of time.

As a Canadian buying from someone I know and trust, like Denis, much easier just to buy direct from seller and ship USPS. Even easier now that border covid issues are decreasing to ship from a US seller to an address just south of the 49th and pick up at convenient time later.

L7
 
Another reason to use the Post Office when shipping to Canada, the couriers will leave a package outside in the pouring rain. Usually don't even ring the door bell. They want their fees before-hand by e-mail. When you pay, they now consider the package has been "signed for". With USPS, the package goes to a locked street box where I have key access (no more home delivery), there are provisions for larger shipments where I'm given an extra key to open a larger box, and then return the extra key in a mail slot. Anything larger and I go to the local drug store a few blocks away. Always secure, never gets wet.
 
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USPS Flat Rate International shipping is a definite bargain for items under 20 pounds that will fit in one of the prescribed boxes. I’ve shipped to Australia, NZ, Canada, Japan, and a couple South American countries If I recall, the pricing was on the order of 50 dollars. By design, my 18 and 8” prism/straight edges fit in large flat rate boxes and flat rate envelopes respectively. The USPS has provided very reliable service having temporarily lost one 8” only. I had shipped a replacement to the very patient customer and then the replacement arrived. He decided to keep buy second one too! UPS Simple rate has cut my shipping costs by 60% in the US. I consider it a bargain for 26 and 36” SE’s.

I do not love eBay and it’s international shipping. But, it does offer a reasonably secure and reasonably priced vehicle for international sales.

I have shipped internationally by global freight an order of a dozen SE’s to So Africa. That involved careful attention to shipping container specifications (screwups are expensive) and a modest amount of unfamiliar paperwork. It took three months by sea but arrived in good condition. Needless to say, that crate left my shop only after funds were securely and irrevocably in my bank account. It’s fun to think that maybe 75 years from now some guy in, say, Pretoria will stumble across one of my SE’s and have no clue where THAT came from. Incidentally, I still hear a bit of chat occasionally from the buyer.

Denis
 
Here is another experience with eBay international shipping. I just sold a 36 to a guy in Toronto. The 36 sold for the list price of 340 plus 50 shipping. His total charge was 445 USD. That is a considerable saving over paying some carrier their shipping and import fees. So far, eBay international shipping has worked well for the buyers and is easier for me as a seller.

Denis
 
With all the straight edges you’ve sold to Canadians you may want to open a branch foundry north of the 49th ;-)

Joking aside, a good quality local to me iron foundry is now quoting 16 week lead times. And with a minimum order of 1000 pieces they are now apparently getting mostly 25000 plus piece orders. Two years ago they only had a two to three week lead time.

L7
 








 
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