Too risky to sell to overseas clients.

[chameleon54]

I have just cancelled my first overseas order today. The $12 BIN was listed for sale in Australia only but was purchased by a buyer in Portugal. The postage cost would be around $20 untracked.

Its got to the point where ebays buyer protection  policies make it too risky to sell a $12 item and mail it untracked to overseas clients.

I have recently increased my risk premium ( the extra charge I place on mail to cover the cost of problems ) by $1.00 for international large letters as I am receiving slightly more claims lately.

This is all resulting in reduced international sales for ebay. It also reduces the choice of products available on ebay worldwide. Many of the items I sell are "one off", rare vintage car parts not available anywhere else.

Has ebays buyer protection policies swung too far in favour of buyers ???? Has this resulted in a reduced variety of goods being offered globally and reduced international sales for ebay ???

[clarry100]

We have never sold overseas due to the cost of postage being higher than the value of the item.

And the perceived risks you mentioned in your OP.

I believe that buyers are increasingly moving away from ebay because sellers are.

Many of our buying friends tell us that they are increasingly unable to find stuff on ebay as they once could.

And if they can find it then the price is very likely to be better elsewhere.

Although returns and general claims are not a big problem for us, steadily dwindling sales are.

Year on year we are seeing our sales reducing by around 12%.

There will come a point where its not worth the effort to continue.

So while we will continue to try and sell on ebay as long as it is worth the increasing effort to do so, we are looking more and more to our other venues to try to carry us through.

[heihachi_73]

Sounds like "No international postage" was ticked but the international buyer blocks were left off...

Assuming the regular old listing interface, there should be an option at the bottom of the page to...

Block buyers who:

* Have a primary postage address in countries that I don't post to

[chameleon54]

---

@heihachi_73 wrote:
Sounds like "No international postage" was ticked but the international buyer blocks were left off...

Assuming the regular old listing interface, there should be an option at the bottom of the page to...

Block buyers who:

* Have a primary postage address in countries that I don't post to

---

Thanks heihachi_73, I dont seem to have the option you mentioned.

In the postage section I have the option of " No international postage", "Flat rate to all countries" or "calculated international post". I selected no international post. There is a section lower down that creates an ecluded list, but I would need to check all of the boxes for each region.

 If the item is worth a few dollars I am happy to mail O/S and do sell a lot to international clients. It is just getting to the stage where the risk is too high for cheaper items.

[jellybirddesigns · Accepted solution]

You can go to:

Account:

Site Preferences:

Postage Preferences

Exclude postage locations from your listings

Then edit accordingly

All your future listings will be as per your edits.

I personally only ship to the US, UK and NZ.

[springyzone]

It's very annoying when this happens.

As far as I am concerned, if someone has ticked 'No international postage', then that should be it, no international person should be able to bid unless you unblock them.

I honestly feel ebay has lost a bit of custom because back in the day (about 2001 onwards) it was one of the few buying/selling sites on the internet.

But now every large company seems to have its own website and own clearance centre list and own specials, so people have other options.

[everard6920]

I haven't offered overseas postage for about two years now, and until AP offers an affordable method to post international items overseas with tracking, I won't reconsider.

I had a buyer in the US open a credit card chargeback against me, it wasn't for very much (about $20) but it was obvious that this buyer was a scammer and the way in which eBay handled it angered me.

They had a username of a very popular international cartoon character (let's say it's Mickey Mouse), and they'd bought about 50 Mickey Mouse items total from sellers all over the world.

The buyer then opened credit card chargebacks against all of us, claiming that their account had been hacked and that the purchases had been unauthorised. As most of the items were low value and didn't have tracking, the buyer got their money back and about 20 sellers lost out, including me.

The buyer then changed their name to ANOTHER username featuring the word "Mickey Mouse". The difference between this username and their "hacked" one was literally a few numbers.

So to summarise: the buyer, who bought nothing but Mickey Mouse items, was hacked by a complete stranger who also happened to buy nothing but Mickey Mouse items. What a coincidence! And eBay and Paypal gave this person their money back.

[the_p_nut1975]

Hi,  I have had the similar trouble on my accounts.  Overseas buyers clicking "Buy it now" on items listed "No international postage".  Then receiving bad feedback because I wont ship to their country. 

I also have removed international shipping from from my items after being scammed by USA buyers. 

[heihachi_73 · Accepted solution]

Yeah, it's not in the postage section, they hide the buyer requirements all the way at the bottom of the page near the Continue button in the <b>Add other details</b> section.

If it says "Allow all buyers" in there then no buyer blocks have been set and anyone can buy/bid on your items. If you click on the "Change buyer requirements" link a separate menu will pop up with a number of options to block certain buyers. That's assuming you're using the regular old desktop interface, I have no idea if it's different on mobile devices or anything else e.g. Turbo Lister.

[digital*ghost]

I don't sell to overseas buyers on eBay, but it has as much to do with FVF on postage as it does with eBay's protection policies. As in, I refuse to give eBay an extra $2-$3 in commission just because the buyer lives outside Oz and is paying unavoidably exhorbitant postage rates (the cheapest alternative doesn't really appeal anymore now that sellers are accountable [in eBay's eyes] for third-party ETAs, and the expectations created from unrealistic ones). 

Realistically, though, I would be more prepared to risk selling low-value untracked items than I would higher value items. Postage on cheaper items for me is either $2.75 or $7.40, and item prices are typically low enough that I can implement procedures that don't put my account (or my hip pocket) too much at risk.

If, on the other hand I was selling high value items and I struck a scammer, my account would be at considerably higher risk, because I'd fight with everything I had.

Which is sad (the current state of eBay's environment from my perspective, anyway), but I'm perfectly happy to pay other sites a reasonable commission for the OS sales I do get.