I have some foreign coins that I would like to make available to overseas buyers to hopefully get better prices. When looking at shipping options I saw that coins and currency are no longer eligible for the EBay Global Shipping program. Therefore I would have to arrange my own shipping. Which options would be best for that? I see that there is USPS First Class with tracking to select countries for a rate of $15 or so per shipment. Have people had success in using that? I noticed there is a minimum package size so I’m not sure if a normal padded envelope can be used. I would be nervous to ship without tracking. What is the best way to exclude buyers from countries for which USPS does not offer tracking to the destination? Fortunately most developed countries appear to be trackable. I would appreciate hearing everyone’s input on this topic.
I ship to many countries and use ShipStation; which works great with the USPS. You print off your shipping labels and they have tracking numbers. For something like 1st class International USPS shipping, you can't get insurance; but you can get insurance from a company like InsurePost. I ship internationally using an 8x12 padded mailer.
There's a new eBay international service that might be good, but I haven't tried it. I don't know how they charge for it or how you know how much to charge your buyer. I'm worried I'll not charge enough and end up losing money. If you could get answers to these questions it might work. It's supposed to be cheaper than a USPS package. I've used the USPS international packages with tracking. You can buy the label on eBay and it also fills out the customs form. The problem is it's a lot pricier than most other countries' international shipping so many buyers are upset with how much it is. The coins have to be worth it. I personally ship only low-value coins internationally and I just use the envelope and international stamp. There's no protection for you though so you're taking a risk, which is why I only do it on low-value coins. You can choose which countries to exclude, and you should do this. Places like Russia and India are a big risk, and Latin America is iffy. If you do Canada and Western Europe you should have pretty good luck and that's where most of the buyers are anyway.
Correct. They charge an arm and a leg and get it wrong. I ended up with £35 additional import costs on a book (should be zero VAT on books in the UK) and I know of quite a few people that have been charged 20% import vat instead of 5% on coins over 100 years old. But when you try to reclaim it from HMRC they refer you to ebay, who in turn refer you to HMRC etc. Nobody wants to know once the money has been paid, but I bet ebay are fully aware of how much VAT they have to pass on. Frankly, they don't know their arse from their elbow. I refuse to buy anything using Global Shipping and will not use it on my listings.
GSP has always been great for low value items, fast and reliable shipping, no hassle with customs. Now there’s a program called « eBay international shipping » and I see many coins listed with this shipping option.
This ! I have personally been burned severely with GSP. Many people don't know this, but eBay GSP, while classified as a third party entity, is really Pitney-Bowes. Albeit they seem to have autonomy in operations. Whoever runs the thing has a keen eye. Works like this; You put up a item, buyer from country "x" pays for item. eBay GSP program flags your item, and hold funds until you drop off item. Here is where the fun begins. You get home, funds held until eBay GSP can inspect item. Once GSP has item they claim it's not allowed to be shipped based on one of the two countries rules about import and export, regardless if the destination was also the origin of the item. Based on the illegality of the attempted shipping, the item will be confiscated. Buyer gets money back without receiving item. You, as seller gets to keep buyers money. Now the fun part. Since you live in the US, you get a chance to buy your item back. Low and behold you will see your EXACT item for sale on eBay. About two weeks later, typically. Albeit at a much higher rate, close to double. Please believe me when I tell you, COMPLETE AUTONOMY. I said typically because Whoever runs it, has a panache for gold colonial coinage, as those never resurface. I can give you the sellers info via DM. They're out of Kentucky. I'm sure you can Google it as well. I mean really, who has 20,000 for sale? I like many others see GSP, run! Run far! Run fast! It's a scam. /rant
I've sold internationally on eBay for around 20 years and had very few problems. I ship Tracked and Signed from the UK and I can check online where it is and when it has been delivered. I just recently bought a large group of medals from someone in the US, they had never shipped overseas before. I told her to put a customs label on it take it to the Post Office and ask for tracked shipping. She sent it, it cost me $35 for $350 items. It arrived 7 days later, I signed for it. Everything was Tickety Boo
If you can't track something within the US you have shipped overseas use this site https://www.track-trace.com/post It covers just about every country in the world apart from rogue nations, which you would not ship to anyway
The few foreign sales I have just use global shipping - send to the global shipx center in KY they handle the rest. One might want set up a no return policy on global shipments.
Does USPS still do the crazy thing of having tracking only in the destination country? Heritage used to use this, so assume it was a standard feature. I know because I had 2 patterns (one unique, the other one of four) do a 7 month world tour including the Phillippines and other places in S E Asia before fortuitously returning to Houston. Nobody could say where they were until they returned to sender which was a nightmare, which was also silly as it muddied the liability situation. Whatever you do, use a reputable service with full tracking. I can say that I've never had an international fully tracked parcel lost or returned to sender, and global shipping aside only two or three instances of incorrect charges in hundreds of shipments over 35 years by post or Fedex etc.
I'll add this, eBay has become a place where, if you are not willing to give the item away free, even pay for shipping out of your own pocket, then you are in the wrong place. GSP doubles down on this. I met a K.Sorbo 20 years ago in Atlanta. I don't know if you are the same fella, but the guy I met wouldn't care about the warnings and still be willing to go out of pocket for just such an endeavor. I do wish you the best of luck. Were it me, the fact you can't allow conditions for the items you are selling/giving would make me walk away.
I agree on a lot of the points mentioned. If it's cheap items, let's say 10 - 20 dollars, it may be acceptable if buyers have good feedback (100+) and never left negative comments. I had to write a few angry messages to eBay that their current policies mean that some crook buyers can get items for free as there is no tracking. Some were pretty obvious - a couple of buyers claimed that they didn't receive the items left nasty feedback. I'd cancel and block them immediately - no need for their business. Otherwise with higher value items, it must be shipped with tracking.
