Why are sellers continuing to use the Global shipping program when it is a blatant rip off and is hurting their prospects of overseas sales? I live in Australia and collect a well known English brand product. Lately, I have been buying less as sellers are sending them by the GSP which charges up to nearly 3 times what the same item would cost via Royal Mail international tracked and signed for air mail.
For example, I recently looked at a part I needed which weighed only a few grams. The part would have cost me £45 and for it to be sent via GSP would have set me back another £25.92 + an “import charge” of £8.85 bringing the total cost to £79.77
To send it via Royal Mail international tracked would have cost £10.80 and, with the value being under £100, no import charge making the total to me £55.80. I have already seen complaints on this forum about Ebay taking a fair amount in fees from seller for the postage and leaving them out of pocket as well. It would seem that the only advantage of the GSP is to Ebay and no one else. I hope that more sellers will see the GSP for what it really is and dump it. It would greatly benefit all.
When it’s a club name of another country, it seems to be usual to use the club name rather than its translation. It holds true, for instance, for another great football club, Real Madrid. We’d never call them Royal Madrid, even though that’s the meaning…
But let’s not get too bogged down. It’s just a friendly discussion, and in the context of the thread, it’s not a big deal.
I wonder whether GSP is about to get more expensive still, as a result of rising energy prices. It wouldn’t be just GSP, either, once the flow-on effect of increased transport costs hit the markets.
1) There is an option to choose whether or not the item can be available internationally when you list an item. Items not listed as available internationally will not show up in search results (ie on Ebay.com.au)
2) Yes it is unfortunate. I collect Tri-Ang trains and yes they are available locally but not as prolifically as in the U.K.
3) So we are paying someone to repackage something that should have been packed properly in the first place and thus exonerates the seller from their responsibility. Not being able to leave a negative feedback gives a false impression of what a seller is really like. I rely on a sellers feedback when it comes to deciding whether or not to purchase.
4) Probably something for the government to sort. 🤔🤷♂️. To me, it seems rude to be paying GST on secondhand item that will have, no doubt, already been taxed when originally sold. Sounds a lot like typical government double dipping.
5) £18.39 is $31.97AU. That’s 1/4 of a tank of fuel at current prices or two days worth of groceries.
6) See point 1 regarding options for listing. My original point was about how the GSP actually discourages international bidder owing to the cost therefore no real advantage to seller.
1) There is an option to choose whether or not the item can be available internationally when you list an item. Items not listed as available internationally will not show up in search results (ie on Ebay.com.au)
2) Yes it is unfortunate. I collect Tri-Ang trains and yes they are available locally but not as prolifically as in the U.K.
3) So we are paying someone to repackage something that should have been packed properly in the first place and thus exonerates the seller from their responsibility. Not being able to leave a negative feedback gives a false impression of what a seller is really like. I rely on a sellers feedback when it comes to deciding whether or not to purchase.
4) Probably something for the government to sort. 🤔🤷♂️. To me, it seems rude to be paying GST on secondhand item that will have, no doubt, already been taxed when originally sold. Sounds a lot like typical government double dipping.
5) £18.39 is $31.97AU. That’s 1/4 of a tank of fuel at current prices or two days worth of groceries.
6) See point 1 regarding options for listing. My original point was about how the GSP actually discourages international bidder owing to the cost therefore no real advantage to seller.
you need to read my reply again.
1) sellers in countries where GSP operates have been automatically enrolled into offering GSP. They may not even know about it as it is an ‘opt-out’ feature.
3) since the seller is posting domestically there have been no customs forms completed. Pitney Bowes would be crazy not to inspect all packages heading overseas and repacking them to survive international shipping.
4) Australian Govt introduced the GST on low cost imports. They won’t remove it.
1) There is an option to choose whether or not the item can be available internationally when you list an item. Items not listed as available internationally will not show up in search results (ie on Ebay.com.au)
2) Yes it is unfortunate. I collect Tri-Ang trains and yes they are available locally but not as prolifically as in the U.K.
3) So we are paying someone to repackage something that should have been packed properly in the first place and thus exonerates the seller from their responsibility. Not being able to leave a negative feedback gives a false impression of what a seller is really like. I rely on a sellers feedback when it comes to deciding whether or not to purchase.
4) Probably something for the government to sort. 🤔?♂️. To me, it seems rude to be paying GST on secondhand item that will have, no doubt, already been taxed when originally sold. Sounds a lot like typical government double dipping.
5) £18.39 is $31.97AU. That’s 1/4 of a tank of fuel at current prices or two days worth of groceries.
6) See point 1 regarding options for listing. My original point was about how the GSP actually discourages international bidder owing to the cost therefore no real advantage to seller.
3) the seller is meeting all their obligations if they ship to Pitney Bowes. Any problems regarding delivery, damage during shipping or non-delivery are not the responsibility of the seller . . . which is why they are covered from receiving negative feedback for these.
4) if you are buying items from overseas, whether new or second hand, it is highly unlikely that Australian GST has ever been paid on that item. No double-dipping is taking place.
5) sorry to be blunt here, but if fuel and grocery prices are something that you have to budget for then maybe it is time to put a pause on your collecting of items that are non-essential.
1) There is an option to choose whether or not the item can be available internationally when you list an item. Items not listed as available internationally will not show up in search results (ie on Ebay.com.au)
True. That's why I search on eBay.co.uk for certain antique items, for instance, and if something grabs my fancy, I will either buy it (specifying UK parcel forwarding address) or contact the seller to see whether they would agree to post to me via Royal Mail. If they won't, it's the forwarding address solution that I choose.
However, with all of eBay's changes, it's some time since I've found something that I can gauge to be genuine and of a reasonable price in terms of Georgian silver; I have other sources.
You have the option to go about eBay searches and purchases in a similar way. I use a number of parcel forwarders, as appropriate.
2) Yes it is unfortunate. I collect Tri-Ang trains and yes they are available locally but not as prolifically as in the U.K.
As above; consider buying several Tri-Ang trains / railway items over the period of two weeks or so, so that you can consolidate your UK purchases and spread the shipping cost over these.
3) So we are paying someone to repackage something that should have been packed properly in the first place and thus exonerates the seller from their responsibility. Not being able to leave a negative feedback gives a false impression of what a seller is really like. I rely on a sellers feedback when it comes to deciding whether or not to purchase.
I find that the sellers from whom I purchase tend to package very carefully, so there's certainly no issue of "should have been packed properly in the first place and thus exonerates the seller" (I think you may mean absolves rather than exonerates...?). However, it's frustrating to know that PB packers repack the item/s without anywhere near as much care as the seller. Breakages and damage during transit via the GSP are inevitably the result of PB repacking. This is another reason why I prefer my parcel forwarders.
4) Probably something for the government to sort. 🤔🤷♂️. To me, it seems rude to be paying GST on secondhand item that will have, no doubt, already been taxed when originally sold. Sounds a lot like typical government double dipping.
GST has always been payable on secondhand items purchased in Australia if the seller is registered/required to be registered for GST. The government could have set up GST on Low Value Imported Goods differently; it could, for instance, have applied the thresholds to individual sellers selling on eBay rather than to eBay as an Electronic Distribution Platform, but that would have created a significant potential risk and a huge load of work in verifying each and every overseas seller... so Treasury went for the most over-reaching solution. No one is saying that this is fair in every situation, but it's how it is, and the likelihood of the government changing this is as close to zero as you can get while having a decimal point.
See: A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 made by Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Act 2017.
5) £18.39 is $31.97AU. That’s 1/4 of a tank of fuel at current prices or two days worth of groceries.
PB is not the cheapest option by any means. Mind you, postage in general has mushroomed in cost since the pandemic began...
6) See point 1 regarding options for listing. My original point was about how the GSP actually discourages international bidder owing to the cost therefore no real advantage to seller.
If a seller deems the risk of selling to overseas buyers too high, or they just don't want to bother with it, and they are happy with the result of selling domestically, then self-evidently the seller isn't losing anything by not offering their items to international buyers.
Sellers who do offer international postage that isn't through the GSP have no doubt worked out that the international market profit is worth the risks, or they have mitigated their risk in some other way. These are not the sellers that you think would have "no real advantage".
The sellers for whom the risks are way too high or the bother is too much might opt into the GSP (or be opted in without their knowledge), and their risk and indeed the amount of bother they'd have are not increased. That's because all that the seller has to do is package as usual and send domestically to the PB warehouse address. Anything that happens once the parcel's been received by PB is not on the seller.
So... the possibility of ordering items from the US or UK from sellers whose items would not ordinarily be available for an international buyer suddenly IS available - albeit via the relatively expensive and slow method of postage via the GSP. If the cost of the GSP (and its other disadvantages) put off some international bidders/buyers, as far as such a seller is concerned, it's no skin off their nose. They don't actually care; they aren't actually looking for international buyers, and they might not even be aware that their item is being bought by an international buyer.
