Can't tell if my ebay listings are blocking intl. shipping?

So I thought that I had opted to ship to US only. It even says under shipping on my listings “Ships to: United States”

But today I got two best offers from Australia?

I’ve read that you have to go into site preference and block all countries. But I thought I could/had applied it in my auction listing so I’m not sure how I got offers from Aus.

Thanks

edit: Ok, so this person wound up able to buy both of these items some how. I declined their initial best-offers because the fees would be over $550 just for the GST taxes to Australia…but they bought them at full price anyways. I’m not sure what to do now?

I did some tests and here’s what I am seeing:

  1. I put a non-US address and I absolutely cannot check out with your listing if it’s a non-US address. This should apply on auctions too; I am unable to bid on listings that are US ship only with non US addresses.

  2. If I shop outside of ebay.com on a different domain address, your listing will disappear and I am unable to see it. However, if I shop on ebay.com, your listing can be seen.

  3. If people shop at your store directly through a link, or has product links to your items, they can still see/make offers to your listings.

I think offers still work because best offer is not just to sell the item at a discount…I think sometimes people would make an offer so that they can pay more/communicate to you that they want you to ship internationally.

Gotcha! Thanks so much. I’ve never gotten an offer from out of the states before so I almost didn’t even check. Seems like you could really get bamboozled on a best offer if you’re not paying attention…

1 Like

No problem! I may be wrong, but there’s a chance that the buyer may still be unable to check out even with an acceptance of best offer as shipping costs still need to be calculate. However, by then it’s more of a pain to cancel. Normally buyers won’t try to bamboozle you this way though, because they know you won’t “accidentally” ship the package internationally when you only ship within the U.S. They were probably redirected to ebay.com by mistake and then not realized you only ship within the U.S. …well that’s what I hope they did!

Ok, so bad news is that this person wound up able to buy both of these items some how. I declined their initial best-offers because the fees would be over $550 just for the GST taxes to Australia…but they bought them at full price anyways. I’m not sure what to do now?

Are they able to check out however?

They will not be able to checkout since you do not having a shipping option for them. I’m guessing you have “commit to buy” on, instead of immediate payment checkout. Odd that they are still able to commit the purchase, however!

At this point you can tell them you do not ship internationally, or if you want to move your product, tell them that it costs a lot more to ship to Australia, especially with the new import fees.

If you cancel based on the shipping requirement alone, they will be unable to leave a negative feedback. If they do, you can simply request a removal of them.

Ok. They haven’t paid, so I imagine they can’t check out? they have 100% feedback, so idk if it’s worth trying to work something out. I’m always cautious shipping out of US, especially with such high value items.

Yes, most likely they cannot checkout if ebay’s website did not malfunction as ebay will be unable to calculate shipping costs with them.

I do not blame you to be cautious, especially since the buyers made 0 effort contacting you about shipping outside of the United States. Eventually they will have to contact you about the shipping, or otherwise they will be stuck in limbo or have to find a middleman in the U.S. to ship the item to them.

Normally if things like this happen, the buyer would ask the seller first about international shipping. It’s really weird that they did not contact you about this, so be wary of them despite the 100% feedback. Maybe contact them and inquire about their purchase.

They had contacted me previously, when making a best offer on a lower priced item. I told them how much the GST and shipping would be.

That’s when I made my first thread about shipping overseas on the 7th. But I never heard back from them until today. They made some low-ball offers and I declined. Then they asked would I be willing to update the listings to ship to Australia, and bought them both at full price a few minutes later before I could respond.

A lot of International customers go to .com as that’s where all the product is. It’s a bit silly you have to block countries so they can’t see your listing. They shouldn’t be able to bid or buy, but for some reason ebay lets them.

I’m Canadian and this happened to me before with a buyer from Italy that won an auction. I told them shipping would be $30 and they instantly asked to cancel. lol

I think if you want to ship this to them, you should ship it via GSP. I think @gottaketchumall is an advocate of this so that you won’t get scammed with not described listing or other scammy practices.

Otherwise, the low balls and poor communication would make me wary about them. I would proceed with caution. If you can’t add in GSP anymore, tell them you’ll relist it for them with Australian shipping with GSP enabled.

I really don’t want you to get scammed!

1 Like

@ditto did you mean GSP? (Global shipping program)? That is the only way I currently ship internationally in most cases.

3 Likes

Yes! So sorry for the confusion Dan, I had a massive brain fart and thought of Paypal’s Goods and Services while thinking about the Global Shipping Program.

I know you are a strong advocate of GSP for international customers and you have way more expertise than I do in this matter, so thought I should tag you!

1 Like

Cool thanks guys. I looked into GSP and it looks pretty good. Is it completely free for sellers?

There’s no fee to join! More details can be read here: www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/global-shipping-program?id=4646

@pokenoob yeah I would strongly recommend GSP. 100% hassle free and all it can do is get you more attention to your items and higher prices on your auctions at 0 cost to you. It opens your items up to worldwide buyers and all you need to do is ship to the forwarder in the US. Once you get it to them they take over all liability. I have hundreds of GSP sales if not nearing a thousand and have had exactly 0 issues.

I actually manually exclude all countries besides the US in my listing settings under “excluded shipping locations” but then I check the box for “Sell internationally with the Global Shipping Program.”

Some members on here will complain about the GSP from the buying side but they are complaining about having access to items they wouldn’t otherwise have access to so there really is no ground to stand on there.

2 Likes

Awesome, thanks. two questions:

  1. Am I allowed to send both items to the GSP in one box if they are won by the same buyer?

  2. Do they repackage / combine shipping on the items I send them?

I’m not too sure if Dan is busy and if your post is really time sensitive, so I’ll try to cover for him:

  1. No, I believe you are not allowed, as each will have to go through the customs/import/inspection so I believe it needs to be separated.

Sources:
community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Shipping-Returns/How-can-I-combine-items-for-global-shipping-program/td-p/18999605
community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Shipping-Returns/Global-Shipping-Program-multiple-items-question/td-p/24497193

**HOWEVER, you can always just relist both items into one, combining the prices so then the buyer just pays one time the GSP.

Quote from GSP sellers:
" Combining of separate listings for shipping is not allowed for GSP.
The only way to combine shipping using GSP is to close the listings and create a new listing with both items."**

  1. I do not think they will combine the shipping on the items, but they may repackage only in specific circumstances (i.e. they needed to inspect your package during customs so they may have to open your box), otherwise I think they minimize any tampering with your box, aside from inspection.

Sources: community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Does-GSP-repackage-your-items/td-p/25819782

1 Like

This might be a question for @gottaketchumall, but do sellers get charged a final value fee on the extra charges GSP collects for taxes and shipping?

It is, but I will still give it a try:

"How is the Final Value Fee calculated?

Final value fees for GSP items are calculated based on the total amount of the sale, including your domestic shipping charges (if any), but excluding the Program Fees paid by your buyer to Pitney Bowes for its Services."

Source: pages.ebay.com/seller-center/faq/global-shipping.html#m22_tb_a7__2

1 Like