posted on February 16, 2001 09:50:18 PM
hi everyone. i recently posted some items for sale on ebay. someone from Germany contacted me and asked if they could bid. my account is set up for domestic bidders only. anyone have any good or bad experiences with foriegn bidders? he says he's registered with Paypal. what Paypal issues might i run into if i accepted his bid? any advise is appreciated
posted on February 16, 2001 10:01:27 PM
I would think if the prospective bidder went to the trouble of contacting you to ask about bidding, everything would probably be fine. If he was up to no good, he would have just bid. It's not that much harder selling internationally than it is selling to US bidders- you can check for shipping costs at the USPS website, and you'll need to fill out a simple customs form at the post office.
I don't know about international PayPal issues as a seller, but I just made a purchase from a seller in Australia using PayPal, and received my items 7 days after the end of the auction.
posted on February 17, 2001 03:29:16 AM
I sell mainly books and magazines so don't get many international bidders, I list as only selling to Canada, but will sell to anyone, I have sold to people in Australia, Germany, Iceland, Holland, Switzerland and I have a great repeat buyer from England. They all seemed to know that postage would be high - my Iceland customer paid $17.50 in postage for $10 worth of magazines. Never seems to phase them, and all but one paid in cash, and that one used bidpay. I always package up the item and get an exact price from the post office for them. Never had a foreign deadbeat, and they've always left feedback. I would sell more internationally, if Ebay would let you break down the countries a little more. If I could check off England, Germany etc. like I do Canada, it would be great.
posted on February 17, 2001 06:08:24 AM
I list as selling worldwide and so far I've sold to England, Germany, Holland, Australia, Italy and Japan. Most send cash, some use BidPay. I've only had positive experience with international sales. I usually encourage the international winners to opt for air mail so the delay in shipping isn't severe. Most do and pay the postage. I'd say go for it
posted on February 17, 2001 07:55:00 PM
International sellers are great. I live in Australia and have sold to UK, US and Canada. BUT my last overseas parcel went to Uraguay!!! The payment took over a month to get here but the bidder asked before bidding and said that the postal system in his country was terrible - so there were no rude surprises. Thats my say. Cya
posted on February 17, 2001 08:04:34 PM
I haven't shipped internationally, but I did bid on a CD from Germany...he accepted PayPal, and he supposedly shipped it last Saturday, airmail....still waiting for it. Will give update when I receive it.
posted on February 17, 2001 08:15:58 PM
Thanx for the info. I e-mailed the prospective bidder and told him it was ok. Seeing that ebay is expanding into Europe, it really does'nt make sense to ignore an emerging customer base.
posted on February 18, 2001 04:57:35 AM
Paypal will not gaurantee anything with a International bidder unless the item has a US ship to address and the bidder is verified fully!
I have been experiencing a very high number of bidders who are using fraudulent monies within Paypal and even after 90 -120 days Paypal has been deducted the monies from my account for activity back in December of 2000!!
Apparently a buyer can use a stolen credit card to fund one purchase to another account (same person differant ID). Then use the supposed cash deposited to try to purchase from someone like myself Ebay items.
BE CAREFULL!! Use only Bidpay for International buyers or cashiers checks!!
posted on February 18, 2001 11:11:23 AM
Jeez... it makes me feel like a crook, living outside the US.
Seriously, there is nothing that I can see in Paypal's TOS that says that an international buyer has to have a US shipping address. It does say that its seller protection does not extend outside of the US, but then goes on to expand upon its Verified Shipping Address policy.
Paypal (I believe) holds the verified address for shipping, e.g. the billing address for the credit card is supposed to be the shipping address as well for all registered buyers who enter such information. This then gives you some safeguard that the person that you are shipping to is the actual, rightful owner of the credit card.
But I have on occasion had things shipping to my family in the US - but I always offer my billing address as proof that I am who I say I am. After all, if someone steals your credit card, they are unlikely to want to have goods shipped to your home address.
It does seem farcical to me that Paypal would encourage international users (at least from their select list of countries), but the provides no support to sellers who choose to deal with foreign buyers.
Just what was your experience, phempel, where you got chargebacks after such a long period? Did you have a verified shipping address? Was there ANY clue that these were going to turn into fraudulent purchases?
