import charges

[family_gj_aj_dd]

Hello All,  Have noticed lately there are import charges on international purchases. Payable in the currency of the country you are buying from.  This is in addition to the Global shipping program charges.  

Australia does not have import charges for items under 1000$.  Have been having to pay these charges for items under

200$.  Thought it was the GST  under the guise of Import Charges.  But this works out far more than the 10% GST Australia now has on international purchases. 

Vouchers/ coupons are also not available for the length of time stated. Had one that was supposed to be available until the 8th of July.

It disappeared today, the 6th July.  

[4channel]

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@vincentf4092 wrote:

Hi all,

I have tried contacting a USA seller recently about the 'excessive' GSP cost for an item which was under 9oz and cost US$60.

I was informed that it is Ebays service and it was chosen for convenience therefore it could not be altered!

I paid US$10.50 Local shipping & handling +US$51 shipping & import charge to Australia so after exchange

rate, the total was an eye-popping AU$178!

USPS First class mail would have done it for about US$24.+ import charge...talk about price gouging!

Also am really angry at the Australian Govt. which started this unfair business of GST in the first place.

The stuff I'm buying are:

1. Vintage car parts -NOT available in Australia in any way, shape or form.

2. USED parts mostly around 50yrs old!

3. Not in any way causing job losses or hurting ANY industry in Australia

(as I said not available here: take note Harvey Norman!).

4. I'm NOT a re-sellert or business.

- This is grossly unfiar! I strongly suggest disgruntled buyers get on to writing to their local politicians!! 

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I totally agree with you Vincent. I won't adress your post in full at this stage. But you have brought up very valid points.

[4channel]

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@lisa_clarke wrote:
I have a US seller that I regularly purchase from and I never pay import charges, only GST. I only noticed today on an item I was watching from another US seller that there was an import charge. She uses the GSP so I requested her to ship via First Class Mail and she refused stating that she’d had too many issues in the past. So she unfortunately just lost a sale as the import charges on top of shipping and GST simply made the item too expensive

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Hi Lisa, the good news in amongst all the bad is some sellers are waking up to the fact that a seller needs sales. So rather than have people looking elsewhere to get items sent via normal post, rather than having a potenial buyer being scared off by paying extra $$$s via Pitney Bowes (often 3 x the cost of normal post), they change their listings back to normal post. Also some sellers have no idea that they have had GSP automatically hoisted onto their auctions and sales.

A great seller, a real nice guy who helped me get a rare item from a tunnel thinking GSP seller in the UK by accepting delivery and bundling together with an item I had previously purchased from him ( Note: Some eBayers refuse to become an extra party in a transaction for a multitude of reasons ), told me that he was with GSP but went back to normal listing with GB post because he was losing sales. No surprise, his sales increased.       The sad thing is that the woman who listed the rare item sold the item to my  helper for about one sixth of what she could have got from me had she listed it without GSP.   So I can relate to what you say lisa_clarke. Totally ralate to it. YES!

[vincentf4092]

I like bashing my head on a brick wall because it gets attention...just as you have shown me in your reply.

[vincentf4092]

Well that's the point, it won't be spent in Australia if the parts don't exist...or didn't you read my post properly?

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@4channel wrote:

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@lisa_clarke wrote:
I have a US seller that I regularly purchase from and I never pay import charges, only GST. I only noticed today on an item I was watching from another US seller that there was an import charge. She uses the GSP so I requested her to ship via First Class Mail and she refused stating that she’d had too many issues in the past. So she unfortunately just lost a sale as the import charges on top of shipping and GST simply made the item too expensive

---

Hi Lisa, the good news in amongst all the bad is some sellers are waking up to the fact that a seller needs sales. So rather than have people looking elsewhere to get items sent via normal post, rather than having a potenial buyer being scared off by paying extra $$$s via Pitney Bowes (often 3 x the cost of normal post), they change their listings back to normal post. Also some sellers have no idea that they have had GSP automatically hoisted onto their auctions and sales.

A great seller, a real nice guy who helped me get a rare item from a tunnel thinking GSP seller in the UK by accepting delivery and bundling together with an item I had previously purchased from him ( Note: Some eBayers refuse to become an extra party in a transaction for a multitude of reasons ), told me that he was with GSP but went back to normal listing with GB post because he was losing sales. No surprise, his sales increased.       The sad thing is that the woman who listed the rare item sold the item to my  helper for about one sixth of what she could have got from me had she listed it without GSP.   So I can relate to what you say lisa_clarke. Totally ralate to it. YES!

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when I read the bolded part of your quoted post my immediate thought was “why didn’t I think of doing that?” . . . . . . then it hit me, wow . . . . . . 16 months ago I suggested this strategy in a reply to another (collector) poster.  6 posts later you responded to my post to that other poster and poo-poo’d  the idea of contacting someone in the USA who could accept items on their behalf and then forward them to Australia.

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/BEWARE-Global-shipping-program/m-p/2072039#M80802

Spoiler

@In part of my post, I wrote:

If you do not have any contacts who live in the USA you might do as I did when I started buying cameras from the USA, which is contact someone you have bought eBay items from and ask them if they would mind acting as your 'shipping agent' in the USA.  I use the PayPal 'send money' facility to reimburse my friend in the USA for the shipping costs when they did on-send me my cameras.

Now, you didn’t respond directly to this strategy . . . . . . . which is essentially the same as the one you did respond to (and poo-poo’d).

Spoiler

Hopefully, you can now see that despite our differences of opinions on some aspects of the GSP that I (and others) have (for a long time now) been active in trying to help members, including yourself, in finding legitimate ways around the high costs associated with shipping by GSP when a seller is not responsive to opting out of the GSP.

Spoiler

I don’t think you can have any idea how big the smile was on my face when I read that you had an item sent to a member you had bought from and had the item forwarded to you.  Now, what word am I thinking of . . . . . . . . 

Spoiler

. . . . . . ah yes . . . . . . . . Vindication . . . . . . . 

Spoiler

. . . . . . . . 16 month’s in the making!

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

 . . . . . further to my previous post . . . . . . if done correctly, this strategy might even help in avoiding dealing with GST on eBay items bought from overseas sellers.

Spoiler

psssst! Don’t tell that ATO that I posted this.

[4channel]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

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@4channel wrote:

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@lisa_clarke wrote:
I have a US seller that I regularly purchase from and I never pay import charges, only GST. I only noticed today on an item I was watching from another US seller that there was an import charge. She uses the GSP so I requested her to ship via First Class Mail and she refused stating that she’d had too many issues in the past. So she unfortunately just lost a sale as the import charges on top of shipping and GST simply made the item too expensive

---

Hi Lisa, the good news in amongst all the bad is some sellers are waking up to the fact that a seller needs sales. So rather than have people looking elsewhere to get items sent via normal post, rather than having a potenial buyer being scared off by paying extra $$$s via Pitney Bowes (often 3 x the cost of normal post), they change their listings back to normal post. Also some sellers have no idea that they have had GSP automatically hoisted onto their auctions and sales.

A great seller, a real nice guy who helped me get a rare item from a tunnel thinking GSP seller in the UK by accepting delivery and bundling together with an item I had previously purchased from him ( Note: Some eBayers refuse to become an extra party in a transaction for a multitude of reasons ), told me that he was with GSP but went back to normal listing with GB post because he was losing sales. No surprise, his sales increased.       The sad thing is that the woman who listed the rare item sold the item to my  helper for about one sixth of what she could have got from me had she listed it without GSP.   So I can relate to what you say lisa_clarke. Totally ralate to it. YES!

---

when I read the bolded part of your quoted post my immediate thought was “why didn’t I think of doing that?” . . . . . . then it hit me, wow . . . . . . 16 months ago I suggested this strategy in a reply to another (collector) poster.  6 posts later you responded to my post to that other poster and poo-poo’d  the idea of contacting someone in the USA who could accept items on their behalf and then forward them to Australia.

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/BEWARE-Global-shipping-program/m-p/2072039#M80802

Spoiler

@In part of my post, I wrote:

If you do not have any contacts who live in the USA you might do as I did when I started buying cameras from the USA, which is contact someone you have bought eBay items from and ask them if they would mind acting as your 'shipping agent' in the USA.  I use the PayPal 'send money' facility to reimburse my friend in the USA for the shipping costs when they did on-send me my cameras.

Now, you didn’t respond directly to this strategy . . . . . . . which is essentially the same as the one you did respond to (and poo-poo’d).

Spoiler

Hopefully, you can now see that despite our differences of opinions on some aspects of the GSP that I (and others) have (for a long time now) been active in trying to help members, including yourself, in finding legitimate ways around the high costs associated with shipping by GSP when a seller is not responsive to opting out of the GSP.

Spoiler

I don’t think you can have any idea how big the smile was on my face when I read that you had an item sent to a member you had bought from and had the item forwarded to you.  Now, what word am I thinking of . . . . . . . . 

Spoiler

. . . . . . ah yes . . . . . . . . Vindication . . . . . . . 

Spoiler

. . . . . . . . 16 month’s in the making!

---

Yes k1ooo-slr-sales , I found a legitimate way around the Global Shipping nonsense with that UK seller. What you say is true to an extent. And it worked out much cheaper for me. The seller that I found was one that I was lucky to find. I had asked a couple of other sellers who ignored me. I the past I have had sellers refuse to help as they are frightened to get involved with other tranactions involving other parties.

But   .. .. .. .. ..

Time can be the essence in a lot of things. And an item that is seen up for buy-it-now can be gone in 10 mins when you come back. Contacting overseas sellers can mean a delay by 12 to 20 hours. In that time, a hundred eager eyes can be viewing that page with fingers poised to hit that button.

A little story here and I'm digressing a bit but I know you'll get the gist.

I once did a search on ebay for a certain soul singer. Must have been in 2004 or so . He had a rare single in the 1960s. BTW: A copy of the 45 sold for over $4020 US in 2006 It was in VG condition. I came across an auction of the 45 that was ended early for some unexplicable reason. Intrigued, I contacted the seller to find out why. Interestingly the seller was a seller of funiture, period items and some antiques. Not a regular dealer of vinyl. He only had about, maybe a dozen records up, and the rest of his stuff was vases and coffee tables or whatever.. Anyway, this particular single he had graded as 8/10 or 9/10. Possibly 8. Long time ago now and my memory is fuzzy. I just remember it was a high grading. Well,. 8/10 would be at least an excellent. Not knowing what it would fetch in 2006, I knew it woud be at least 2 grand in value. Well, the seller got back to me and said   .. ..   "I've had a offer from some guy but he hasn't sent me any more yet. You can make an offer if you like?" So I thought, should I make an offer of $50, $100, or whatever. What should I do?".

Well, I decided to just leave it. I didn't have PayPal then and I thought ...  "First in first served". I just hope that the buyer gave the dealer at least a few hundred and  he was a poor enthusisast who had his day made when that 45 arrived in the mail.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

@4channel wrote:

Yes k1ooo-slr-sales , I found a legitimate way around the Global Shipping nonsense with that UK seller. What you say is true to an extent. And it worked out much cheaper for me. The seller that I found was one that I was lucky to find. I had asked a couple of other sellers who ignored me. I the past I have had sellers refuse to help as they are frightened to get involved with other tranactions involving other parties.

But   .. .. .. .. ..

Time can be the essence in a lot of things. And an item that is seen up for buy-it-now can be gone in 10 mins when you come back. Contacting overseas sellers can mean a delay by 12 to 20 hours. In that time, a hundred eager eyes can be viewing that page with fingers poised to hit that button.

That is why it would be prudent to organise the arrangement ahead of seeing items you want to buy and have sent to another member rather than doing it on an ad hoc basis on each item.

The arrangement I had was that I could get items sent to Oregon USA and when there was enough to fill a large box my ‘friend’ would send them to me by USPS.  

There were some sellers who had bidder blocks in place that prevented me from bidding . . . . . . and the way around that was to change my eBay primary address to the Oregon address of my friend.

It was a long term relationship, and worked well for both of us.  I used to buy items from him as well and he’d pop them in the box.  Also, when I sell a camera I always send him some funds through PayPal.

I estimate that I bought close to 50-70 cameras during that time, especially when our dollar was high against the $US dollar.

I never organised any UK member to act as my ‘shipping agent’ as I didn’t buy form the UK.

[digital*ghost]

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@vincentf4092 wrote:

4. I'm NOT a re-sellert or business.

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That's why you're paying GST, though, or at least part of it. 

Businesses charge GST, consumers pay it. 

International business to business transactions are exempt, as long as the purchase is for use with a GST-registered business (if not exempt, then the GST paid can be credited).

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

@4channel wrote:

 Yes k1ooo-slr-sales , I found a legitimate way around the Global Shipping nonsense with that UK seller.

well that is one way of looking at it.

The way I look at it is that that strategy was handed to you on plate less than 2 months after your first post on these boards, even though you dismissed it outright.  That means, as I stated previously, that this method was identified some 16 months ago . . . . . . . . maybe longer if some other member posted about that method before me!

Spoiler

I know that countess has also posted about having items posted within country and the forwarded.

Spoiler

@4channel, You are welcome.