Why is some ebay shipping so high? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Helix70
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 09:22:57 am
content: Is the shipping for some items automatically calculated by eBay for certain items? I can't work it out.I have had power supplies (Agilent 6612C) shipped for US$46.82 from the US to Australia, and then you see other items that are similar size/weight asking $470US for a $220 US buy price.Is eBay Global Shipping harder for the seller? It seems that the Global Shipping offered by eBay is much cheaper than all other otions.

author: PTR_1275
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 11:22:27 am
content: It all comes down to the dimensions the seller puts in.They might put in a weight of 50kg to deliberately make ebay out the price of postage up. For some reason a lot of American sellers refuse to deal with international sales and this is their way of making it “worth their while”Ebay algorithms elevate you in the search results for all sorts of reasons. International postage is one of them as is having a express option.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 04:08:06 pm
content: Yep... I've found US sellers to have increased international shipping fees to atrocious levels lately... it's pretty sad for us outside of the US, although I can understand.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 08:31:20 pm
content: Quote from: Helix70 on January 12, 2020, 09:22:57 amThat's not my understanding. I talked to Ebay when they first started the GSP and it seems that they want to seller to ship the item to them (some place in Kentucky IIRC) and they will bundle it with all of the other items that are going to a particular country into a large shipping container and then ship that, at a cheap bulk rate, to the country. Once there everything is unpacked and then sent via the local postal service to the buyer. Even if E-bay gets a cheap bulk shipping rate, that's still three different shippers that are involved so I doubt that this would be cheaper than the seller just shipping it directly to the buyer. Assuming that the seller or buyer doesn't insist on one of the over-priced shippers such as UPS., which they often do because of the problems with their national postal service.OTOH a lot of sellers in the US refuse to sell overseas. Overseas can be a real pitfall with insane customs delays and charges and theft within the postal services in many countries. Just for example, I once shipped a package to Germany. It took almost six months to arrive. AFTER it got to Germany it was shuffled through at least three different customs' offices over a 4 month period and at each location, they cut the package open and inspected it. And each one cut the package open on a different side! The package did finally arrive and everything was intact. I shipped it to a friend of mine and he was patient enough to wait for it. However if that had been an Ebay sale, the buyer would have gone ballistic over the delay! Another time I repaired a small piece of electronics for someone in Italy and I returned to them along with all of the original documentation to show that it had come from Italy. However Italian customs held the package two months and eventually charged the over over $260 US to import it. He was PISSED and he blamed me for all of it and he complained about it for MONTHS. Since then I won't ship anything to Italy.One more thing. My understanding is that if you don't ship overseas using E-bay's GSP, that E-bay/Pay-Pal will refuse to refund the buyer's money if there is a problem with the shipment! There have been several threads on this forum about that exact subject.As far as I'm concerned, Ebay's GSP is a racket!https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_%28crime%29I used to sell a lot of stuff on E-bay and probably 60% of it went to Europe and other foreign countries but the shipping cost is so high and there's so many problems (with E-bay in general now) that I gave up selling anything on there.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 08:39:51 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on January 12, 2020, 04:08:06 pmMy advice to any of you that are outside of the US is to contact the seller directly and talk to them. If they think that you're a reasonable person then they'll often try to work with you. Also do your homework in advance, you can go the US Postal Service website (or FexEx, or UPS's or DHL's) and get an estimate of what the shipping will be to your country. For most commercial items you can often go to the manufacturer's website and get the weight and dimensions of the item.One other thing to be aware of, if your packages weighs over about 40 pounds, the shipping rates do up astronomically! I have broken items down into two packages of less than 40 pounds each and the shipping costs dropped by 2/3.

author: Chris56000
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2020, 09:00:04 pm
content: Hi!I have personally seen a normal bench (Solartron I think it was) DVM advertised on eBay for £110 b.i.n. then postage charges of £917.50 (!!!!) and THEN there was import charges on top of all that!What possible justification is there for atrocious rip–off charges like this? I could have flown to the USA and back to pick up the meter personally for less!Chris Williams

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2020, 09:16:59 pm
content: Quote from: Chris56000 on February 18, 2020, 09:00:04 pmthat they don't want the hassle of international buyers unless you really make it worth their while

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2020, 09:24:39 pm
content: I live in Canada. American shippers could literally ship a longer distance and still be in the States than to ship to me. In spite of that, even USPS shipping is very high. My cynical assumption is that the USPS thinks they can charge whatever they want and are using those rates to subsidize the cheap rates for shipping within the States.Couriers are following the USPS rates since they can, and adding their own fees on top. I almost never purchase anything that involves courier shipping from outside Canada. It's just not economical. Sometimes they insist on stupid things like 2 or 3 day international shipping. That's going to cost hundreds of dollars. Sometimes they will change if you ask them, but I rarely bother.I've had good luck with ebay's Global Shipping Program. It's typically significantly cheaper than the alternatives and their fees are very reasonable. It's important to talk to the shipper to make sure that he's specified the size and weight correctly. One shipper worked with me to adjust the size he entered into the system. The shipping went from ~$150 down to ~$44 for a 2U rackmount unit. I bought it! Recently, I asked another shipper to check the size because his shipping cost was $99. I never even got a reply from him. I didn't buy it!Ed

author: jfiresto
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2020, 09:54:59 pm
content: Quote from: edpalmer42 on February 18, 2020, 09:24:39 pmYou can thank the U.S. Congress for that. They allowed the USPS to stop charging close to cost and instead charge whatever the market will bear and oligopoly can achieve. This was the euphemism-laden announcement:Quote

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 03:06:23 am
content: Yeah it's nuts. I find it's not worth buying anything big on ebay. Not uncommon to see over $600 to ship an older server or similar item. Better off paying a bit more and building a new server from new parts from an online retailer.What infuriates me is the high cost of shipping from the states or even within Canada yet its always free from China. The government really needs to stop those subsidies. It's crazy they encourage people to buy overseas.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 10:16:29 am
content: Yes ebay automatically calculates fees based on pricing it gets directly from the postal services, however it relies on the details put in by the seller of the equipment.There is also an additional field the seller can enter a fixed dollar amount which is added to the calculated price to cover things like packaging and handling costs.

author: jeremy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 10:34:33 am
content: Perhaps someone from the US can chime in, but it seems to me that everyone in the US is used to FedEx/UPS and near overnight delivery, and so those are the services they offer to their predominantly US customer based. Obviously “as fast as possible” shipping is going to be more expensive over an international route. Those shipping companies also don’t really seem to care (in my opinion) about the Australian market. But even that isn’t the whole story, because I often order things from China via UPS and FedEx and the price isn’t too bad (it’s more than I want to pay, but can’t argue with the speed). Only when it comes from the US.Global shipping program is ok, but they don’t specifically notarise what is GST and what isn’t, so it’s not possible to claim it back for a business expense. It’s just “import duties and fees” as one lump sum if I remember correctly.I’ve regularly order items with DHL from China and postage seems to be quite reasonable given that it can sometimes come in 2 days!As for the obscene shipping charges, ebay charges sellers a fee for each listing. So to save money, if the seller runs out of stock and expects more to come (or just want to appear like they have lots of interesting items) they will boost the shipping price to some crazy amount so nobody will buy it.

author: TK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 11:54:38 am
content: No, test equipment is shipped mostly UPS/Fedex Ground in the US, way too expensive to ship express. You cannot compare shipping charges from China to the world as they are dirty cheap compared even to local US to US shipments using the same carriers.

author: jeremy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 12:36:46 pm
content: Quote from: TK on February 19, 2020, 11:54:38 amDoes anyone know why this is the case? I understand there are some issues with the postal service and international subsidies, but I assumed that couriers (DHL, UPS and FedEx) didn’t have anything to do with that?

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 01:48:54 pm
content: I'm currently sitting in London, England, waiting for UPS to arrive with a package that ~36 hours ago was in Thief River Falls in the frozen north of Minnesota (-17ºC yesterday, a balmy day by Minnesota standards). It's coming from Digikey who charge a flat £12 GBP shipping for orders less than £33 GBP and offer free shipping for orders over that value (this by the way is with all duty and tax prepaid so there's no hassle with customs at this end).If Digikey (annual revenue $2.3bn) can manage to get rates from UPS that make that affordable for them then surely eBay (annual revenue $10.8bn) ought to be able to cobble together a shipping programme that offered competitive rates to US sellers for getting stuff hassle free to the rest of the world?I suspect that a lot of US eBay sellers just think that the rest of the world is too much hassle and think that the US already provides them with a big enough market. However, you can definitely get higher prices for used test gear in the UK and Europe than you can in the US. With the US balance of payments currently sitting at around minus half a trillion dollars you'd think that US ebay sellers might realise that a getting a bit of exporting going would be a good idea, the patriotic thing to do. Ironically I'd bet that the US eBay sellers who think themselves most patriotic are probably the ones who put the most barriers in front of potential overseas customers. I base that guess on the fact that whenever I see something interesting looking there tends to be a high correlation between conspicuous US flag usage on a vendor's pages and prohibitively high export costs.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 04:48:40 pm
content: In the US, I typically pick USPS Priority got my things, I generally am not shipping heavy equipment. I also chose this option if available when buying things - it's USUALLY the cheapest option, especially in trade off of cost vs time. The same 3 day from UPS or FedEx is often twice as much.I will almost never pick UPS any more. I just refinanced my mortgage and had a significant sum coming back. The escrow company sent the check UPS express. Some 6 days later, I was wondering how long it was going to take to get my money (I was not aware they sent it out 2 day express, 6 days previously). We happened to order pizza delivery that night, and when I opened the door to get the pizza, I noticed a UPS envelope on the porch. Yup, there it was, a bit soggy, while the porch kept it from being directly rained on, the damp certainly was in the cardboard of the express packet. UPS just casually tossed it on the porch and took off. We do not normally use the front door for anything - we always come in via the garage. Had we not ordered in that night, it could have been there another week. Luckily as a flat envelope it wasn't visible from the street, not that it would be easy for someone else to cash a check made out to me.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 05:40:04 pm
content: Quote from: PTR_1275 on January 12, 2020, 11:22:27 amIt's because international shipping is a big pain in the ass, and it's very expensive so it cuts significantly into any profit, none of that is our fault.For domestic shipping you can purchase the postage online and schedule a pickup, print a label and set the parcel out on the porch near the scheduled time, it is picked up and you're done.International postage means take time off work to drive to the post office while they're open, wait in line anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to get to the one counter out of six that is actually open, find the correct customs forms and take time to fill those out, listing the contents in detail and answering questions from the rude clerk who usually barely speaks English, then hope the item survives its ordeal and makes it to the buyer intact, and hope the buyer is not a scammer. Ultimately it means taking at least an hour out of the day that could be spent working or doing other things vs just a few minutes for domestic shipping.Then there is the cost issue, shipping international from the USA has become exorbitantly expensive, even a small box sent next door to Canada is at least double what it costs to ship within the US and it goes up from there when sending elsewhere. The longer journey means bulkier and heavier packaging which is more expensive still. Because ebay is crooked and charges fees on not only the final bid price but the postage price too, and then greedy paypal charges their own fees, and additional fees on international transactions means that selling to foreign customers can easily result in a negative profit while selling the same price item locally can be worthwhile.This all conspires to create a situation where offering international sales is simply not worth it. I have sold things a few times where after all the fees I actually lost money on the transaction and it would have been cheaper to simply throw the thing away. Between the risk of that and the far greater hassle of international shipping it's just not worth dealing with. I would gladly sell to anyone anywhere on a level playing field but with ebay I am strictly domestic only unless the seller can arrange for a forwarding service so that I'm only paying fees on domestic shipping and someone else is doing all the tedious customs paperwork. Don't blame the sellers, blame the system that stacks the deck heavily against us.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 06:16:06 pm
content: Quote from: jeremy on February 19, 2020, 10:34:33 amUSPS used to offer an economical surface option for international shipping, it was slow but reasonably priced and I used to send a lot of stuff overseas. At some point about a decade ago this was dropped completely and the only international options became their premium (expensive) priority mail services. International postage for parcels doubled or tripled almost overnight. There is nothing we peons can do, the postage costs what it costs and other international options cost even more. We can choose how severely we are going to get gouged but the only way to not get gouged is to not ship international.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 06:28:38 pm
content: Quote from: rrinker on February 19, 2020, 04:48:40 pmI've had similar experiences with almost every service.The one and only time I had mail stolen, the postman delivered a package of priority boxes I ordered and leaned them up against my front door which makes them about as visible from the street as is possible to do. Then he "helpfully" left the rest of my mail on the doormat where it was all stolen from, despite the fact that I have a secure locking mailbox on the street for precisely this reason.Shortly before Christmas FedEx delivered a box containing gifts I had ordered, I was at work downtown but saw on my security camera that they had set the package right on the edge of my porch, again in plain view from the street, right in the middle of the one patch that was already damp and just minutes before a torrential downpour was forecast. There was a nice dry corner just a few feet away. Even if I had left work right then and caught a bus home it would have taken me over an hour to get there.Thankfully I was eventually able to reach my mom and she drove over and retrieved the already soaked box, took it home and set it by the heat vent to dry out. If it sat there any longer it would have been completely destroyed.Multiple times I had UPS deliver packages to my house number on the next street over, I would call them and they would insist it was delivered and cite the driver signing off as "proof" and ask me to look around my house for other spots it might have been left.This finally improved after I called to complain multiple times and told them the neighbor had just dropped by with my expensive package *yet again* and they said they would flag my address.DHL delivered a computer to my next door neighbor. I was home and eagerly watching the delivery progress and then got a notification that it had been delivered, checked the porch to make sure it wasn't one of those silent ninja deliveries Amazon is known for but nope, not there. Finally called them and they sent a picture of the delivered package which I just happened to recognize as my neighbor's porch. I went over there and they weren't home so I just grabbed my package.This all strikes me as extreme incompetence but what can you do? I can't think of a carrier that has not made one of these bone-headed errors.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 08:22:12 pm
content: I've been pretty lucky with all but UPS. At my old house, I was often working from home. The UPS truck would pull up, I'd hear the doorbell ring, run downstairs, and the truck was already pulling away. OK for signature not required things, but man, they don't even leave enough time even if I was standing right behind the door when they rang.My neighborhood so far has not had much issue with porch pirates. Which is good because most deliveries are left at my lower entry, readily visible from the street unless one of the cars is in the driveway, which totally blocks the view of anything sitting in front of that door.I thought Amazon's delivery was going to be a nightmare the very first time (in my area - not that long ago, just before the Christmas holidays did they start delivering in my area). Tracking said my package was delivered. I came home - didn't see it by the downstairs door. Checked the front porch - nope, not there either. Logged in to Amazon - still says delivered. The picture hadn't been uploaded yet. Strange. Check again an hour later, now the picture was there and I realized where they had put it. Actually a good place, except as stated, we never use the front door. My front stairs go up in two flights to the porch(see also, why we don't use the front door...), and the first flight up from the driveway is completely hidden from the street and sidewalk, you have to walk all the way up and look. That's where they left it - so well hidden I didn't even see it when I stood by the door packages usually get left at and looked around.When I was actively selling things on eBay - I never had an item shipped and not received by the buyer.

author: Helix70
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 11:40:30 pm
content: Quote from: james_s on February 19, 2020, 05:40:04 pmNow that eBay offers the global shipping program, why not offer it? You get all of those local shipping benefits you mentioned, as you send it to eBay's shipping depot in the US. I assume they use the same postal system for that, that you offer your local customers? Then you are done and eBay use a bulk transport carrier to get it overseas.All we want is options, ones that you guys make your money the same, and are compensated for any extra time if the user chooses the PITA method anyway. Some stuff if bought on a whim, I don't care if it takes an extra 2 weeks.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 02:01:48 am
content: I'm not opposed to doing so, I have just never really explored it. I'm not a high volume seller by any means, I'm just a hobbyist who occasionally decides to part with something to make room for something else.I suspect it's largely a case of not knowing about it, or concern that the already high paypal fees will be higher. I suppose there's also an element of fear, it's a lot easier for someone in a far off land to claim the item is not as described, damaged, didn't arrive, etc and a lot harder for us to do anything about it. There are some countries I'd be a lot more comfortable shipping to than others. I know several people who got scammed selling high value items to certain parts of the world. There are also a few notorious broker type companies that purchase items for foreign buyers and part of their normal business practice is to select the cheapest postage option submit a not received or damaged claim on anything that is not shipped with airtight signature confirmation and insurance.Also as someone else said, contact the seller, I know that personally if someone contacts me and sounds genuinely interested and doesn't seem scammy I'm typically willing to work with them. Just because I've listed it as US only doesn't mean I'm completely unwilling to send it abroad, I just don't want added hassle every time and have been burned by a few past incidents that I don't want to repeat.

author: notsob
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 02:54:57 am
content: you could also try a US pack and send company, (especially is whoever you are ordering from will not ship outside of the US), they will order within the US from multiple suppliers, repack your orders and ship them to yougoogle thisoverseas pack and send in usa to "your country"

author: Helix70
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 09:49:34 am
content: Quote from: james_s on February 20, 2020, 02:01:48 amI didn't mean that specifically towards you, us Aussies get frustrated not being able to share in the bounty that is the US salvaged test gear market. Trying to understand so I can get better gear in the future without giving it to eBay or the government. 😀

author: mjs
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 11:05:02 am
content: I'm selling some stuff from Finland and our local post is ridiculously expensive for international (and domestic..) shipments. That reflects directly on the eBay shipping price.Also, USPS has fcked up a few of my shipments (late and refuneded, other destroyed+returned).Well, I guess they need to cover the costs of delivering state sponsored shipments of small items from east.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 12:35:26 pm
content: Quote from: Helix70 on February 20, 2020, 09:49:34 amEven here in Canada it's hard to get stuff despite being glued to the US. I can share your frustration as it's probably even worse for you guys. Not just test gear but just stuff in general. Like even buying stuff new, computer parts, or whatever, our buying options are very limited compared to the states. It's annoying that we're basically treated like a 3rd world country.

author: andy2000
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 03:59:18 pm
content: I used to offer international shipping on virtually all of my items, but various reasons caused me to limit international shipping. First, the price of international shipping is a lot higher than it used to be. It's a lot higher than people in most other countries pay. Priority Mail costs me more than $30 to ship a small item! First class is cheaper, but it only works from small items and no insurance is offered, so that rules out expensive items.Add to that some ebay and Paypal rule cahnges (ebay charges seller fees on the shipping cost, and Paypal no longer refunds fees if I give a refund). This means that if I sell a $20 with $30 shipping cost, I pay ebay and paypal fees on $50, plus I risk losing it all if there's a problem like slow customs, or a dishonest buyer. Paypal also inflates their fees on international sales (remember that paypal fees don't get refunded if the sale is canceled). It's simply not worth the extra fees and the added risk to sell an item that costs more to ship than the item is worth.After a few bad experiences, I stopped all international sales for a while. Lately, I've started offering it for small, high value items that are unlikely to be returned.There is a new shipping option that I recently noticed. It's called "ebay international standard delivery" and appears to be much cheaper than Priority mail. I haven't used it yet, but I do plan to give it a try for certain items. It would be worth asking about it since most sellers probably haven't noticed the option yet.People make a big deal about customs forms, but they are easy. You can print international labels through ebay, and they fill in the customs form automatically. All you have to do is sign and date it. You don't have to wait in line at the post office, just drop it in the package box, or leave it in your own mail box.The global shipping program is easy since all I do is ship it to a US address, and the buyer pays me my regular US shipping cost, so I don't pay fees on international shipping. I don't even have to do a customs form. I get the impression that it's rather expensive from the buyers end though. It also seems to be slow.

author: unknownparticle
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 04:02:39 pm
content: With ebay gsp, the seller actually doesn't know the package is an export sale, they just get a shipping address to the ebay gsp centre in Kentucky. Tjis I dsicovered when I bought a book from a US seller with shipping by ebay GSP, described as in new condition. When it arrived it was most definitely not as new, so I contacted the seller to complain. He replied no problem, just return it for a refund. I explained that as I am in the UK the return shipping would be very high so would he just discount the price and refund that amount. He replied by calling me a scammer as he'd sent it to a US address!! I explained about ebay gsp but he resolutely refused to believe me! So I opened a not as described case and went through the ebay system that way. Ultimately, ebay refunded me without having to return the book, but the seller still did not believe and sent messages with a tyrade of abuse!When I first started using ebay back in 2002, shipping from the US was quite reasonable, even quite cheap, even by USPS. I had some really huge packages sent for never more than $50!! Then suddenly, maybe about 2005-07 shipping prices went through the roof, even a magazine is now between $15-20 to post, depending on the seller.UPS and Fedex are far cheaper in the US than the UK, to a rediculous extent.Even domestic shipping here in the UK can be extortionate. Some sellers use high shipping prices to increase their profit, or are too lazy to use lower price shippers and just use either Royal Mail, or Parcel Force, the two highest price services by far, because of convenience. Then if you suggest they could use a cheaper service some of them become quite beligerant, assholes!

author: lone wolf1
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 05:52:28 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on January 12, 2020, 04:08:06 pmMany years ago (early days of the internet) ordering from the US here in the UK was a common thing. Plenty of movies and products were not available in the UK and the postage was reasonable. Still got stung with import taxes.I haven't purchased from the US for a long time because the postage/shipping charges are astronomical compared to what the use to be.I wondered why it has increased so much for some time.

author: andy2000
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 11:23:37 pm
content: Quote from: unknownparticle on February 20, 2020, 04:02:39 pmThe seller was lying to you. It's obvious when it's a global shipping program shipment. First, it's on the order details, second, the address is obviously the global shipping center, and third, ebay emails updates to the seller every time is passes a hurdle. Oh, and sellers have to opt into the global shipping program.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 12:13:56 am
content: In the early 2000's up until about 2010-2012 I used to exchange boxes of various stuff with a friend in England. He'd send me interesting bits from that part of the world and I'd do the same. At one point he even sent over a couple of 3' long SL/I lamps and it was not unreasonably expensive. Then shipping prices started going up, then USPS dropped the surface option causing prices of larger items to rise dramatically. The last time I had to send something business related to him it cost something like $75 for what would have been maybe $25-$30 just a few years before. Shipping from the US has gotten incredibly expensive and there isn't a thing we can reasonably do about it.I kind of dread selling anything at all on ebay anymore. The way fees are calculated makes it risky to sell anything that is expensive to ship but not guaranteed to fetch a price significantly above the shipping cost and the way ebay's buyer protection is heavily stacked against the seller makes it a risky proposition for individuals like myself who are not volume sellers that can write off the occasional loss as a cost of doing business. More often lately I've given something away rather than trying to sell it.

author: jfiresto
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 04:40:03 am
content: Quote from: james_s on February 21, 2020, 12:13:56 amOn the contrary, all the U.S. citizenry need to do is convince their representatives to direct the post office to reverse the decision of 27 January 2013 and return first class international packages to the "market dominant price list" (what a euphemism). Good grief, that authority is written into the U.S. constitution to address situations like this. Why not use it?

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 04:55:32 pm
content: You ought to see the tiny, incredibly complex form I need to fill out/sign for an outside the US shipment. This form arrived about a decade ago and replaced a very simple form. It must have been designed for pixies, as I cannot write that small with a ballpoint pen. Its designed so several government agencies can see and search your shipping data, that much is for sure. Fedex, Postal, UPS, doesn't matter, similar horrible form. After FEDEX got "burned" by a domestic terrorist type using their services, its a **&^%##&*ing inquisition by a non techie counter person to ship anything, and international is even worse.You might understand that it is now a royal pita to send technology goods outside the country, and the lookup of the data required takes a lot of time, even for a sample packet.So what your seeing is the charges of 1. Greed, 2. Avoidance, 3. Profiteering, 4. Legit sellers using customs brokers /shipping services for shipping ANYTHING . Etc,Really takes the fun out of anything Ebay as a seller, unless you have some form of "trusted shipper" status, etc...I used to be able to go to the local airport, pop something on Delta Air Freight, and get modest size lab gear across the country or to Canada, at say 35$ + 67 cents a pound, no more. A modest security inspection might occur, but it just would be a delay. If I want to do that again, I have to arrange a visit by Homeland to my house and undergo several interviews/background checks. Then pay serious fees for a professional security inspection of the package. Its just NOT worth it.Shipping anything over a few ounces is no longer a service, it is a greedy virtual TAX. This is one of the reasons Amazon has their own aircraft and trucks...RANT over...Steve

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 05:17:07 pm
content: Quote from: jfiresto on February 21, 2020, 04:40:03 amOh is that all?Maybe you can tell me how to convince my representatives to change something because I haven't figured it out. I can vote for the lesser of several evils but beyond that they're gonna do what they're gonna do.Between the nightmare that is our healthcare system, various silly wedge issues like guns and abortion and the general polarization of American politics getting someone to fix international shipping prices is one of those "yeah good luck with that" propositions. Unless you are a wealthy corporate entity it's pretty hard to influence such things in a reasonable time frame. I'd be battling against big companies like UPS and FedEx who would rather USPS didn't compete with them on price.

author: jfiresto
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 06:11:30 pm
content: Quote from: james_s on February 21, 2020, 05:17:07 pmWell, the U.S. has done it before. Three generations ago, the moneyed interests had an equally powerful and corrupt stranglehold on American society, and despite that the people prevailed. If you predicted in the 1920s that by 1944 the rich would be paying a 94% marginal tax rate, few if anyone would believe you, or that the rich were glad to only pay that rather than have society confiscate everything, as it was prepared to do and happened elsewhere.The tricky bit is that will take a revolution to roll things back, but at least people know the requirements, and the solutions that used to satisfy them. Many of the solutions have just been weakened or suspended, meaning the revolution is much less than you might suppose.EDIT: Changed "within a few years" to "by 1944". By 1932, the U.S. marginal tax for top earners had been raised to only 63%, an enormous rate during peacetime.

author: unknownparticle
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2020, 02:14:39 pm
content: Should all be good soon though, for the USA and UK, when we get our new trade deal...............

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2020, 02:27:25 pm
content: I don't buy too many heavy things on eBay but I mostly get free shipping. Most of the time is surf onto a product and the shipping is 11 dollars so I shop around and find a vendor with the same thing a bit dearer but free shipping.I bought some double pluggers*. Enough for a long, hot summer. Shipping was supposed to be $20. The lady refunded me the shipping. So I went down to the village and bought myself a banana daiquiri.* a type of footwear. Cheap ones last five minutes, expensive ones last five hours.

author: station240
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 23, 2020, 05:21:06 pm
content: Quote from: james_s on February 19, 2020, 05:40:04 pmJust take a few of the custom forms you usually use home with you.When you have something to mail, fill them out then take to the post office.This is what I do with the much simpler green customs declaration form most of the world uses.Saves time and trying to use the crappy pens the post office have.Trade with the US is a pain in general though, entire postage/subsidy/tax system conveniently forgets about other countries.Yet I'm sure they would be pissed if we did the same crap to them.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2020, 07:52:35 pm
content: Quote from: station240 on February 23, 2020, 05:21:06 pmThat still doesn't solve the bulk of the problem which is that international packages must be handed over in person to a clerk at the post office which means taking time off work, driving to the post office and waiting in line for anywhere up to an hour.Domestic packages I can either drop in bin of the self service kiosk which is open 24 hours, or I can schedule a pickup from my porch and just set it out there. It's easily an hour or more out of my day to ship international vs domestic and the buyer is still going to grumble about the high cost I have no control over.If ebay would stop the outlandish practice on charging fees on the cost of shipping purchased through them it would at least mitigate the risk. As it stands right now I could sell a heavy item for $40 that ends up costing $100 to ship and then I'm paying fees on a percentage of $140 despite only $40 of what the seller pays me actually going to me (minus paypal fees of course). If it costs twice as much to ship international vs domestic then I pay twice as much in seller fees on the shipping which comes out of my pocket. The only solution as it stands is to pad the international shipping enough to offset the additional fees although that in itself increases the fees.Substantially more fees + substantially more time and effort, why would anyone want to do this unless it results in a substantially higher profit? The way everything is set up it makes no economic sense to offer international sales on items that have sufficient domestic demand, absolutely everything is stacked against it.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2020, 02:58:13 am
content: I can't explain why, but I can relate my experiences as an Ebay seller.First, the rules in the US changed about two years ago, making export declarations much more confusing and difficult. I say this because the required form did change, not because I understand the rules. I spent several days researching the rules and did not come up with a comprehensive understanding. There are several branches of government with a finger in the pie, all with their own requirements and nuances. Organic chemistry is far simpler. In any case all of the information comes with dire warnings about the consequences of non-compliance so I can understand many deciding the risk and effort isn't worth it.Second, the Ebay prices for the major shipping services are usually similar to what I get going direct to UPS, DHL, Fedex and USPS. Sometimes a bit lower. I don't know why Ebay doesn't get aggregator pricing. I can go to aggregator vendors like Parcel Monkey and get prices about half of what I get going direct to the major vendors. And after making these arrangements it is those same major vendors who pick up and deliver the package. Obviously those big guys costs are low enough that they and the aggregator can make a living off the lower charge, so they are getting rapacious profits from their pricing to small volume shippers.Third, the GSP program is significantly lower than the rates going direct to the major vendors. But the real attraction for a US seller is that Ebay handles all of the customs declarations. Winner, winner chicken dinner. No time and energy spent filling out the form, and much reduced or eliminated concerns about violating export laws. But it isn't a problem free win. As stated by others the shipping time is very slow, tracking is marginal and I have had buyers complain, even opening an issue with Ebay because of non-delivery. Everything has shown up eventually but it is stressful on both buying and selling end.I don't offer free shipping because prices vary so much with destination that it completely contaminates the overall cost. Someone will get screwed no matter what. Either the shipping charges will be so high that the seller actually loses money on the transaction or the shipping charges are minor and the buyer gets raped.

author: OwO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2020, 05:30:36 am
content: In general shipping internationally from anywhere is expensive if you don't ship 10 packages a day and have negotiated a good price with couriers. Here you can good pricing for e.g. DHL by going to an aggregator but again you need at least regular shipments for it to be worth it (you have to get the goods to their location, they won't pick up unless the volumes are huge).It doesn't generally make sense to do one-off sales even here.The prices at couriers is the same in China as the rest of the world, ePacket is based on negotiated terminal dues (not set by the UPU) and there's no evidence it's subsidized. It's just that very few people in the US bother to run a real ecommerce business with the hassles and risks it brings, so in response there's little market for shipping services at a good price. It also doesn't help that USPS is basically a monopoly yet doesn't have strict price controls on international shipping. I think EMS ePacket pricing is based on a fixed profit model, because rate hikes always quickly track negotiated terminal dues changes.

author: Lord of nothing
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 29, 2020, 04:54:03 pm
content: I realy like when the Shipping from the US get handle by Ebay!The simple reason is the make a popper Custom Declaration!The Austria Post charge something between 10€ - 15€ for there Service when the Custom found some Parcel I receive. So when I pay he 10€ - 20€ Custom fee its always cheaper for me.

author: buterin
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 04, 2020, 07:53:16 pm
content: It's not much more complicated, but it's obvious that domestic transportation is cheaper than foreign transportation for various reasons. A lot of sellers on eBay offer free shipping, but if you want a premium level and the possibility to track your orders, the price of the shipping will be much higher. When I had my own online business, I used to rent shipping containers fromhttps://www.tigercontainers.com/contact-us/shipping-containers-sydney/because they were a lot cheaper than everywhere else, so my shipping fees weren't that high. It depends on the shipping method, the time, and a lot of other factors, but especially these days because of Covid, there's a significant increase in the price.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2020, 01:34:25 am
content: Quote from: LaserSteve on February 21, 2020, 04:55:32 pmI have an account at USPS and FedEx, so I can generate shipping documents online. It is fairly simple, but you do need to know the harmonized commodity codes for your items. FedEx, at least, keeps your items so you just select the same items from a menu. USPS doesn't, so you have to fill out the same info each time. I manufacture small PC boards for motion control systms, so I ship the same items frequently.I never fill out the forms at the counter, I print them from online on a laser printer. Yes, you DO have to fill out more stuff for export.Jon