@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.