Is now a good time to sell items to Europeans on Ebay?

[Clownzilla]

With the American dollar trading at the rate of $1 to 1.5 Euros, it can be VERY advantageous for Americans to sell to overseas buyers (mainly Europe) on Ebay. Less of their money buys more of our stuff (common economics). The rate is so one sided, I think it would be a good time to make some of that European cash. Any thoughts on the situation? Has anybody successfully sold to European buyers lately?

[Lady Jaye]

Thread moved to the Everything Ebay forum, where this debate belongs.

[thetoxicone]

I think that a few of my auctions definately ended higher due to bidding from europeans

[jb143]

I've considered this as well. Although I havn't gotten arround to listing anything lately. It would probally work great on lighter items that don't cost as much to ship.

[zemmix]

Not just Europe but a lot of other countries as well. Of the last few items i've sold on ebay, only one ended up going to someone in the US, and for that item I must have had 10 questions about shipping costs to practically every country in Europe, canada even mexico.

[Trevelyan]

I've spent a hell of alot of £ on games & consoles i've bought off UK ebay. I bought a near mint complete Probotector (Contra!) for 20 something £, thats like $40-50.

I personally would love for more US sellers to offer products on ebay (well the UK version of the site i use, anyhow). Your video game scene has more depth and breadth in my opinion & is v attractive to european collectors such as myself. It has a more diverse market for selling/buying games in my opinion i.e. more physical places to sell/buy retro games.

I do not own any NTSC consoles however which is a problem for me & possibly others if you were selling only games.

Ive not made a purchase in a few months, but things like near mint SNES games & N64 games keep their face value (around $60 #) as if it was the mid 90's for most of the popular games. I bought my Mario party 3 (which is 9/10 in all departments) for £33 last year. There is a 9/10 copy on sale now for £49.99 buy it now.

Apparently Spring is a good time of year(?) for selling games. I hope i've helped a bit, but as i've said im out of touch a little bit.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I offer worldwide shipping on most items, except when the shipping costs are completely stupid due to the weight of the item. :(

[ryborg]

Absolutely. I've been selling a lot of NBA stuff recently, and I'd say about 30% of it goes overseas. I haven't had to deal with any Paypal disputes or BS at all recently either, which is a nice bonus. I've always shipped internationally, and I've had very few problems overall.

[Player-2]

but how do you list on the Eropean ebay sites?* do you just sign up as normal.. I have bought many things there. I have sold many things there.*But how do actually list on their site so that all european buyers will see it.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[MeTmKnice]

When I sold mobo/cpu combos on ebay, most of them sold in europe or australia. Made a good amount of money.

[The 1 2 P]

I've always sold over seas, atleast the last year or so, lol. And if it weren't for some of those great UK guys, my Saturn PS2 controllers may not have sold for as high as they sold for. To all of them that bought from me I say cheers.

[loporjai2003]

Everything I (accidentally) win from Canada ends up being crazy. I bid like $1 on a pile of common Atari games and shipping was $30. I could probably drive up to Canada from Albany and pick up my games for less :(

Go to www.canadapost.ca and play around with their package cost calculator ... anything over 1kg starts at around 15 dollars to ship and it goes up according to: volume of container, weight of container, and distance of the US state from the seller, and fuel surcharges (and weaker US dollar).
This is for the cheapest slowest service as well.

USPS is dirt cheap compared to Canada shipping costs, and it can be more costly to ship in Canada than to the USA .. go figure ..

/rant off about Canada Postal Service

[ryborg]

but how do you list on the Eropean ebay sites?* do you just sign up as normal.. I have bought many things there. I have sold many things there.*But how do actually list on their site so that all european buyers will see it.

You don't actually list your items on ebay.uk or whatever, you list it normally, but check "Ship Worldwide" in the ebay shipping column when you list your item.

[Buyatari]

Its NEVER a good time to sell overseas if you take paypal.

[The 1 2 P]

Its NEVER a good time to sell overseas if you take paypal.

Considering paypal doesn't take any percentage of your shipping charge, thats not a very true statement.

[Cornelius]

Considering paypal doesn't take any percentage of your shipping charge, thats not a very true statement.

Seems likely he is referring to their "protection policy".

[The 1 2 P]

Seems likely he is referring to their "protection policy".

What does it entail?

[ryborg]

What does it entail?

In a nutshell, sellers only have Paypal protection from chargeback attempts if they ship to the buyer's confirmed address. Since a very large majority of overseas buyers do not have confirmed addresses, you're taking a minor risk by shipping there. As someone who's sold thousands of items overseas since '98, most of them to unconfirmed addresses since Paypal came around, I have always found the risk very worthwhile financially. Others disagree however, so it's up to the seller to decide for themselves.

[Buyatari]

In a nutshell, sellers only have Paypal protection from chargeback attempts if they ship to the buyer's confirmed address. Since a very large majority of overseas buyers do not have confirmed addresses, you're taking a minor risk by shipping there. As someone who's sold thousands of items overseas since '98, most of them to unconfirmed addresses since Paypal came around, I have always found the risk very worthwhile financially. Others disagree however, so it's up to the seller to decide for themselves.

Paypal requires not only a confirmed address but online tracking which is expensive. Buyers don't want to pay that extra expense so if you take paypal the seller must take all the risk. Sure you make a few extra bucks on the honest folk but one bad buyer and there goes all that extra profit.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Paypal requires not only a confirmed address but online tracking which is expensive. Buyers don't want to pay that extra expense so if you take paypal the seller must take all the risk. Sure you make a few extra bucks on the honest folk but one bad buyer and there goes all that extra profit.

Very true, but depending on the item, you can use an Express Mail Flat Rate envelope and get tracking and a speedy delivery for an acceptable price ($25 USD).

There's a four pound limit and that envelope isn't the best thing ever, but it works in a bind.

[Buyatari]

Yes but there are problems.

1. They may still not have a confrimed address.
2. Express may not be available in that country
3. They often don't want to pay $25 for shipping for one game
4. Big items well forget it.

If you do ship to Europe it can't be an open policy unless the items you sell are cheapos. If you sell expensive things you would need to sell with guidelines so you don't get burned. Of course they often won't read your guideline and will bid anyway then get upset when you stick to them.

[Darth Vader]

Yes its a gamble, but I think its worth the risk. You open up a large market that really want these games AND because of the weak US dollar they are willing to pay more for stuff. In the end even if they don't win, they are helping drive up the prices on the auctions.

On a side note I looked at the auctions I have running right now and every one of them has international bidders and many have high bid right now.

Shipping is always a concern, regardless of where you ship it. I also understand the risks with paypal, but with all the money order scams out there from overseas, paypal is actually safer than a money order. (and I am not a fan of paypal) There are risks involved with ANY ebay transaction, you just gotta try and balance the risk with the benefits, thats all. :)

Danny

[DreamTR]

Very true, but depending on the item, you can use an Express Mail Flat Rate envelope and get tracking and a speedy delivery for an acceptable price ($25 USD).

There's a four pound limit and that envelope isn't the best thing ever, but it works in a bind.


Express Mail still does not show it "delivered" online to the address.

I had a HUGE issue with PayPal about this.

Their new policy means you are protected (if you sell a lot) if you ship to unconfirmed address.

However, when you ship something USPS Express to let's say the UK, I've had it show that it was delivered to England, but not to the exact "area" of the address like the zip code shows for domestic.

HUGE issue, and PayPal suggests shipping UPS or DHL. It's such a crock. PayPal just protects themselves, not the seller.

[The 1 2 P]

Express Mail still does not show it "delivered" online to the address.

I had a HUGE issue with PayPal about this.

Their new policy means you are protected (if you sell a lot) if you ship to unconfirmed address.

However, when you ship something USPS Express to let's say the UK, I've had it show that it was delivered to England, but not to the exact "area" of the address like the zip code shows for domestic.

HUGE issue, and PayPal suggests shipping UPS or DHL. It's such a crock. PayPal just protects themselves, not the seller.

I'm glad you brought this up. I'm well aware of paypal's new policy to give sellers protection against unconfirmed addresses, provided you can prove you sent the item with a tracking number. This is definitely a good change as far as sending items out in the US goes.

As for Europe and any other country, what the post office doesn't tell you is that the standard green/white customs slips you use to send items outside of the US can also be tracked...as far as the other country. Once it's there, you no longer get tracking info. But still, thats better than nothing. However, according to one of the above post--the UK side of paypal requires more proof than that. But I must be lucky, because I've never had any issue with anything I've sent over to Europe.

[Orpent]

Next time you're in Europe, get a local bank account. In many countries its easy to do. Then you accept bank transfers. Transferring money in euros to other banks in europe is free for most people and quick and easy to do online. Europeans prefer it over paypal.

Then you can transfer the money (well, maybe not after every sale...) from your EU bank account to your US bank account, or simply get a VISA debit card connected to your EU bank account that you can use in the US.

OR, accept payments to a friend in Europe if you have one that you can trust.

[Massimiliano]

I can tell you I have bought TONS of stuff on ebay us lately.
And when I mean tons, it's tons :)
The dollar/euro rate is just too attractive. I avoid surfing on ebay.com nowadays, though, as my bank account starts to cry lol

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

I live in Italy and I hate the current state of the dollar/euro. Its far too expensive.. I keep getting paid the same in dollars and everything becomes to freakign expensive to buy here out in town! Right now $1 only gets you .61 Euros. Which means. sell as much as you can to europe because they are getting ag reat freaking deal!