30 Jun
2004
30 Jun
'04
12:57 a.m.
On Wednesday 30 June 2004 06:14, Joe R. wrote:
At 08:21 AM 6/30/04 +0200, you wrote:
I'd completely agree with Joe's assessment. The only reason I'm
hesitant to send things internationally is because payment for the
items ends up being difficult sometimes. I now have listed in my
auctions that I only accept paypal internationally, but if prodded, I'd
accept cheques from Canada (as I've had good success with that before)
or Western Union as one guy used that to send me payment before.
People sometimes end up sending checks either surface mail from Europe
(4-6 weeks for payment, ick), or via /dev/null mail, it seems. Not
everyone, but it has happened enough that I prefer to avoid
international checks -- also it takes a few weeks for them to clear and
the money to show up in my account once I deposit the check at my
bank). When I try to sell stuff via ebay, it's usually because I want
it gone quickly, not because I want top dollar for it, so waiting even
a week for a check via airmail is usually undesirable to me.
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS --- http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
Philip Pemberton wrote:
I've wondered the same thing. I sell on E-bay and I send about half
the stuff that I sell over seas. The one problem that I've had is
that many over seas buyers never pay. Perhaps they bid then find out
the high shipping costs and costs of making payments via Western
Union or whoever and then just back out without saying anything. I'm
been waiting 6 weeks for payment on some DEC parts right now. As far
as the shippers go, I've found many of them to be incredibly lazy and
greedy! A lot of them want $35 or sometimes even $50 handling charge
for the smallest item. My opinion is that packing and handling is
part of the cost of doing business unless it's something extra
ordinary. There doesn't seem to be anything even
remotely close to this on
Ebay at the moment, well, at least there's nothing that's
available to the UK. Plenty of probe kits available USA-only
though...
I find it amazing that in the land of rampant capitalism they are
unable to see the advantages of selling internationally.
Yesterday I decided to see about buying a new laptop. Having chosen
the model I searched on Froogle and found
well over 100 hits. I contacted the 5 cheapest to ask if they
would ship internationally - four replied NO. The one
positive response was also the cheapest so they get the order!
The eBay "will ship to <insert your country of choice> only" is
something I do not understand. Why reduce your potential
market?