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My personal theory is that for smaller packages or lesser declared values, the incoming customs/postal systems just don’t collect fees, for some reason. It might be because either there is some kind of specific de mimimus amount or weight under which customs fees don’t have to be collected by that country’s law that Pitney Bowes does not follow, or it’s just the country’s system inefficiency. Sometimes I can tell by the tracking whether the buyer had to pay to pick up the package or not. Some do and some don’t.
As for Canadians complaining that GSP costs them customs fees when direct shipping usually does not, that’s what they’ve been saying for years (and that’s one of the reasons I don’t use GSP) so I can only assume that it happens. Also as I understand it, GSP shipping is more expensive because they pay postage to get the package to Kentucky and then the postage to ship it out of the country to their address, and it takes longer due to the processing in Kentucky.
One tip for mailing direct: When you go to print the label, eBay will provide the proper customs label that has to be signed and dated when printed out. The description of item field will be pre-filled with almost your entire listing title, just as you wrote it. If you write titles that consist of a string of key words like we all do or have what it actually is at the very end, I recommend that you edit it to have “Men’s Jacket” (or whatever the item is) as the first words and delete any irrelevant search terms so Canadian customs doesn’t have to open the package to try and figure out what it is and cause a delay.
They do have an IRS ITIN if they want to do any banking here.
05/20/2020 at 1:44 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 463: The Painful Gaze Of A Boss vs The Freedom To Do What I Want #77596While I have not had an uptick in foreign sales, my consistent 10% of foreign sales year in and year out has not changed in the last couple months. Recently I would have had a few more sales than I did but for the USPS suspensions of mail to what is now up to about 100 countries. Ebay appears to be tracking that and blocking buyers from those countries because a couple prospective buyers from countries that I usually ship to contacted me to say they could not execute a purchase.
But cross your fingers on the items that do go out because I have a few items mailed in March and April that appear to be still stuck in transit. (I ship direct; almost 100% are International First Class. I have offered the new standard delivery as an option to save a dollar or two but it’s slower so no one has picked it.) USPS has warned that many countries they have not suspended are nevertheless experiencing significant degradation of postal efficiency.
05/18/2020 at 5:22 pm in reply to: Darn Item Specifics – What “Fabric Type” is a Cotton T-Shirt? #77541Sounds good to me, thanks!
05/17/2020 at 10:06 pm in reply to: Darn Item Specifics – What “Fabric Type” is a Cotton T-Shirt? #77494Thanks. That’s better than leaving it blank I think, which I’ve been doing.
He’s in the town of Nederland, Colorado; not to be confused with Nederland, Texas, y’all.
That reference was a while back, not sure if he’s still there. His websites do not provide a current physical address, though he was supposed to do art shows in Denver and Boulder this summer so probably still there. See http://www.olcrowstudio.com and http://www.richardbiffleart.com .
Thanks for the tip! I’ve never heard of it. I have the worst luck with Google reverse image search. Even after cropping, enhancing, etc I get nothing relevant. I’m looking forward to trying this one.
05/14/2020 at 12:58 pm in reply to: Magnavox stereo, Vtg Time N Date Wall Clock, Leather bound Bible, Table lamps #77426Steve, I find it fascinating that in your part of the country a $10 stereo can just sit unsold on FB, even if it was broken.
You gave me some major blasts from the past this week. My dad would film home movies of the family using those MovELites with his Super 8mm on Christmas mornings in the early ‘60s. It was funny to watch the movies with all of us squinting and holding our hands up over our eyes because those lights were so bright.
And I remember putting an 8-track player just like that one in my car. They were such junk I still find it amazing that people want them now.
I bought this earthenware English caviar jar in a London flea market about 30 years ago for a couple pounds. This was pulled off a shelf as we’re going through our dust-catchers to downsize for the move. It’s going back to England, selling for $25 on a best offer, plus the buyer is paying $23 in shipping (direct; no GSP).
I started this consignment challenge coin from the Polish Army GROM Special Forces aggressively priced at about $150 which garnered watchers and low ball offers. I did start to drop the price a bit after a while. One guy from Poland was very persistent. He started at $20, then a month later offered $30, and so on, finally getting up to $50 (plus shipping) so I gave it to him for that. The consignor is still amazed that I can actually sell these and is happy with whatever I get.
This brass belt buckle was in a carload of free junk that was given to me by a frustrated flea market dealer one day last year (I think I talked about it here before). It’s an example of a “fantasy” antique, something manufactured in quantity (usually China, or India, with metal items) to look like an antique but not based on anything that actually existed in the past. The face has a relief faux-advertisement for “Indian Head” Virginia tobacco and the back is stamped “Tiffany New York International Exhibition”. These and similar buckles were a staple of flea market and street vendors in the ‘60s and ‘70s in the heyday of big leather belts on blue jeans. It sold for $20 plus shipping with full disclosure.
For those of you not into the scavenger life yet (or even alive 🙂 ) in the old pre-eBay days, collectors of all types commonly bought from dealer lists. Typically hard-core collectors themselves, niche dealers would advertise in the back of magazines, newspapers, and collector newsletters. The ads wouldn’t necessarily be for any specific items, but simply to sell a typewritten list of their offerings. So you’d mail your 50 cents or $1 or sometimes all they wanted was an SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) in order to receive something like this list from Howard Rogofsky. He was a legendary dealer in comic books and ephemera in the ‘70s and ‘80s. This 64-page list of his dates from 1987. I had high hopes for it at $40 but finally let it go on an offer for $18 plus shipping.
This item represents one of the only types of clothing that I will buy for resale: hip hop fashion. This Crooks and Castles tee was $1 at a yard sale and sold for $25 plus shipping.It’s one of the advantages of using GSP for international sales that you don’t have to worry about the various country restrictions, some of which are pretty esoteric. Real mother of pearl is made from shellfish which may be the reason for the import prohibition. Ever since GSP started, if Pitney Bowes thinks it’s a restricted item when it gets to Kentucky, they refund both the buyer and seller and sell the item to guys like this to resell on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/8ten1944/m.html?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEFSXS%3AMESOI&_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2654
Maybe your comb will show up in his store. He gets to use your pictures, too. He sells US only so your buyer won’t be able to buy it from him either.
As far as I know, eBay doesn’t care if this happens. There is no negative affect to your account.05/07/2020 at 10:33 am in reply to: Buyer registered a new account to get around my Blocked Bidder List #77187Old Dad just said phone support is back up but he has an anchor store so I don’t know if it’ll work otherwise. I don’t have an anchor store and when I went to contact eBay about a particular sale recently I did eventually get the chat option to contact eBay (at the bottom of the page), which worked well.
In the past when I’ve had random issues with buyers I have cancelled the sale, selecting “there’s a problem with buyer’s address” as the reason for cancellation so my account didn’t get dinged for it, and sent a refund. Don’t know if you could get away with that here.
I don’t know, haven’t had to deal with a negative in a very long time. With eBay not taking calls our old ways of doing things have changed.
Yeah, I smell bullshit. Unless he just put stamps on it which it does not sound like he did, tracking is free for First Class Package or Retail Ground at the post office. But do what Sharyn says and wait it out.
If I’m buying them, I find that the best seller varies, depending on what size I need. I like forzasupply and ecoswift on eBay and shippingsupply.com.
I am pleasantly surprised! Good to know, thanks!
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