Sellers who won't ship outside the US

I sent a 7" to a forum member in Ireland a few weeks ago and the price was something like $13 for the record and the shipping.

 

You'd expect that from some idiot on Ebay but you would think being on this forum the seller in question would know people here aren't newbie international buyers who can get ripped off on postage. $40 is ridiculous, I would have told him to shove it.

 

Are we allowed to do that or is that considered a personal attack?

 

Of course I told him to shove it.
He said the $40 was to cover "delivery confirm". But I shipped a very rare CD to Canada last week with "delivery confirm", for €5.17

 

It was the Abbey Road Japan CD. He definitely got me to bugger off by the way.

 

I agree 100% with #2 and #14.

However, I do ship to some countries. Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Germany on a good day. Maybe a few other countries but NEVER, Italy, France, Mexico, All of S.A. Middle East. Africa, China, Indonesia Etc.

If the item is more than say, 50.00, I probably wouldn't ship it out of the country at all. It just isn't worth it to me. I rather lose a sale than risk a lost package or a dishonest buyer.

And I got screwed once before using Fedex. The buyer did not pay his customs duties and it got back billed to me. That was the last time I used them.

 

That is great that you are able to do that out of Ireland. Unfortunately, to have delivery confirmation that meets Paypal requirements from the US to anywhere internationally, you have to use USPS Express Mail International (and from what I have been told, even that in some cases may not give you the iron clad level of proof Paypal requires). The minimum cost of that service for a single CD is $38 in a flat rate envelope. Given the CD was a rare and expensive one, I can certainly see why the seller would not want to expose himself to the risk of shipping it outside of the USA without Paypal required tracking and insurance. Of course, the terms should have been stipulated in the ad.

 

I have shipped literally 100s of rare CDs to the US, Canada, the UK and Australia using the Irish Post Office "delivery confirmation" mechanism. Never once did I have any dispute with any buyer.
I think certain people here value their saleable merchandise a little too highly. To be perfectly honest, a used copy of Abbey Road Black Triangle is not exactly the crown jewels.

 

It appears the Irish Post Office along with those of the English, German, Swedish, Japanese, and probably other countries provide a better, more affordable service than what the US Post Office does.

From what I have seen it sold for on the forum, the Abbey Road Black Triangle typically brings in excess of $150 in EX and above condition. That is not a crown jewel, but it is not a negligible amount either.

 

Yeah its worth $140-$150, not $180-$190.

 

Because its a pain in the *ss. For a few years I sold CDs on eBay and Az. I could list, sell, get paid, package, print postage at home and take bins to the PO of already done packages and drop them off. I sold thousands of CDs over the space of 18 months. Click click click click ka-ching.

International means I had to stand in line at the PO and mail those packages individually. Not worth the time. It took me about a week to figure that out, after which I was USA only. Now that I'm no longer listing anywhere as a volume seller, for stuff I do here I would consider international biz, but back when I was doing it to make ends meet? No way.

 

It maybe not a negligible amount but some Diamond cutters/sellers over here still send their goods out to one another by post.

 

When I buy a CD from the SH.tv classifieds, I always post a "PM with ?" asking the US seller if he/she is willing to ship to my country. If not, no problems. Those who have dealt with me could confirm. Since I know it's a pita I am always grateful when some of the gentlemen/women here kindly tell they can send me the disc. I understand that the way the postal system works for international shipping is not encouraging and it's a free country after all..not to mention the fact that you may encounter the occasional liar claiming the item has never arrived. I hate that.

 

Once you lose $200 on a cd that was "lost" and contested in a paypal dispute, you will do whatever will cover your butt and satisfy paypal.

What satisfies paypal is express mail flat rate at $40 for one cd, and technically, even that doesn't suffice, because it's not signature confirmation.

 

SamS is pretty accurate in his reasoning. One or two CDs that I can place safely in a padded envelope I will ship to Canada for the same price as the US and offer worldwide shipping for an additional fee to buyers on this forum. If I sell larger items on eBay or Audiogon or larger quantities of CDs I typically do not ship outside the US.

 

We can't send anything outside the USA with tracking under about $38 postage (express). That's the way it is.

In order to claw back some of the perceived losses in the USPS, 'premium' services (everything but junk mail and regular slow mail like parcel post) have suffered the bulk of increases in the last ten years.

When I started selling there was tracked global priority mail, that went soon enough.

A lot of the restrictions are in the name of security, like only shipping non-letters from the post office counter.

 

$38 for PayPal-approved overseas shipping? I wouldn't even consider shipping outside the USA.

 

I never sell music once acquired, so that part doesn't matter.

As for other stuff, I only ship CONUS. I once agreed to ship a laptop bag to Canada. It ended up being such a PITA and expense I felt like I got nothing out of it but grief. Since then I won't do it. I'm sorry for our foreign friends, but that's what it is.

 

this

 

What he said, it is a bummer but blame the PO.

 

I only had one cd "lost" overseas, I lost the cd and $70.

 

I just had to refund a buyer $100 on 4 Elvis CDs that were shipped via international priority mail to Argentina, because the delivery track didn't show delivery.

 

How come when I order from US sellers, nothing ever gets lost? The average postage from the US is 10 bucks or less.
Or when I use Amazon.com or eBay sellers, nothing ever gets lost.
Most of my rare stuff comes from the US or Japan.
I think some people here are hyper precious about their stock.

 

Apparently, you didn't get the gist of the conversation. When you can't track a delivery, you can get scammed with a Paypal chargeback. Note that several people here have complained about that. Sending a trackable package is significantly more costly. I just won't do it. It has nothing to do with being hyper precious about stock. It has to do with not wanting to lose money.

Selling stuff abroad is expensive, a PITA and risky. Buyers in foreign countries should just get over it.

 

No actually I got it OK. You are actually missing my point.
I know the US postal service sucks, that's the first point. But normal airmail is OK from the US.
What I am saying is tracking is not that big a deal, going my my experiences. As a buyer, standard airmail has never let me down, and we are talking 100s of packages from the US. Maybe I am just a rare honest buyer who acknowledges truthfully if a package arrives every time, and doesn't claim its gone missing.
What's the obsession with tracking, especially on this forum? I tend to trust traders on this forum.