eBay sellers shipping to the United States only
[caption id="attachment_918" align="alignnone" width="396" caption="eBay seller shipping methods: Shipping to United States only"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_919" align="alignnone" width="398" caption="eBay seller shipping methods: Shipping to: United States. Excludes: US Protectorates, APO/FPO"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_920" align="alignnone" width="630" caption="Shipping to: United States. Shipping is free in U.S. ..... Shipping to Alaska, Hawaii and PR is extra!!!..... Shipping is for within the United States only!!"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_921" align="alignnone" width="630" caption="eBay seller shipping methods: only ships to addresses in the 50 United States and District of Columbia. does NOT shio to PO Boxes, APO/FPO, Freight Forwarders, Hotels or internationally"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_922" align="alignnone" width="630" caption="eBay seller shipping methods: We only ship to the United States. Shipping is via UPS Ground. Please be aware that UPS can NOT ship to P.O. Boxes, APO or FPO addresses. We currently ship inside the United States only and do not offer shipping to international addresses."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_923" align="alignnone" width="553" caption="eBay seller shipping methods: Shipping only within the United States, no exceptions. We ship to HI, AK, PO Box and APO-FPO"][/caption]
eBay sellers shipping to select countries beside the United States only
But even when a seller ships outside the USA, it can restrict countries where it ships. For example:
[caption id="attachment_924" align="alignnone" width="426" caption="eBay seller shipping: Shipping to: United States, Europe, Canada, Australia"][/caption]
How to overcome geographical restrictions and ship eBay items outside the United States
In my experience most eBay sellers refuse to overcome shipping restrictions and ship internationally, although
- I was willing to pay with Paypal
- I was happy to the shipping cost in advance
- I have a positive eBay feedback history
But it might still be worthwhile to write to an eBay seller and ask about shipping outside the United States.
Luckily there are package/parcel forwarding services. I started using one of them, namely Shipito, six months ago. Now I can ship my packages to any country in the world
(Canada, Australia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands (US), United Kingdom, Japan, Austria, Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovakia, Bahrain, Israel, India, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, The Bahamas, China, Bermuda, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Kuwait,...)
as well as to Alaska, Hawaii, APO, FPO, and DPO Addresses, DOS Addresses and U.S. Protectorates.
The only things I need to take into account are:
- customs duties and prohibited items
- size and weight
- whether it is possible to ship to a destination using a preferred shipping method (and Shipito offers plenty of them: USPS Express Mail, USPS Priority Mail, Polonez Parcel, USPS Flat rate box and Flat rate envelope, FedEx, FedEx MPS, Fedex Freight, Shipito Air Mail, DHL)
So geographical shipping restrictions posed by eBay sellers are easy to overcome. Besides eBay, Shipito allows to make purchase in any online store. And you can even make purchases in offline stores!
And because Shipito offers package consolidation, I have saved a lot on shipping. So I'm glad I didn't use eBay sellers directly. Even when they do offer international shipping, in many cases I prefer to consolidate packages first and then ship overseas using Shipito.
What package/parcel forwarding service do you use to overcome geographical restrictions on eBay for shipping not only to the United States, but also to any international location? What country do you ship to?
The problem is customs. If customs loses or keeps your package and you don't receive it I get the charged back from Paypal. So in essence I lose my initial investment of the item as well as the costs I paid to ship it.
ReplyDeleteSo it's not worth it to me to lose money (it would be easier for me to throw the item in the trash and save myself some time) ...the only way I would ship international (including APO/FPO) is via a method that I can track (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc) and most buyers dont' want to pay those type of shipping costs.
The only way to send packages to an APO/FPO/DPO address is the U.S. Postal Service:
ReplyDeletehttp://realbargain.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/some-samples-on-how-much-it-costs-to-send-packagesparcels-to-russia-using-shipito/
I always insure my USPS packages. And my package forwarder always provides tracking numbers for my packages sent via USPS Express and USPS Priority:
http://realbargain.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/some-samples-on-how-much-it-costs-to-send-packagesparcels-to-russia-using-shipito/
You may send all your international packages via USPS with tracking and insurance.