Outside of the cost, there is the issue that gsp works with absolute shit delivery companies that end up giving more issues than regular postal services. Every time I order a gsp item there are problems, miss delivered, completely lost the package, marking as delivered when they didn’t deliver, leaving in unsafe spots, etc etc
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Can completely see both side of this. It offers unparalleled protection (the only protection) for sellers and simply acts as a faster, more convenient option (at the sellers discretion) for buyers - at least in theory. As a seller, it makes sense to near always use it, conversely, as a buyer I avoid it at almost all costs.
The reality is that it’ll always benefit the seller more and buyers are forced to pay the total, legally owed amount of tax on any given item.
The problem with it is (at least from my UK perspective) that its not at all friendly for the average buyer. I’d say my purchases make it through imports without being flagged about 70% of the time; just this week I’ve had two $500 items pass through unscathed - that’s $100 saving minimum each. Being taxed 20% is a pain and one that I’ll gladly avoid if I can, but hell, I’m pretty sure Austalians have it worse if I remember right.
That said, this is just an outside perspective as the affected party; I’ve never encountered a seller outside of the US who uses GSP, but why wouldn’t US sellers? I’m honestly surprised more don’t. I can entirely sympathise with a gripe about the GSP, but it’s always worth messaging a seller to see if they’ll take it off. I don’t blame any seller for using it, especially when - like has already been said, the US domestic market is so diverse anyway and all the GSP does at the end of the day is make us follow the law by taking it out of our hands at the point of sale.
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BLOW IT OUT YOUR ASS
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The level of taxation in many of these countries is outright theft. Extortion at the very least. I don’t use GSP, never have, but the folks outside of the US should understand why a US seller might. The best customers I’ve ever had were international and if they are willing to assume risk I’ll do the same for them.
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I actually pay less in GSP than fully declared stuff in B.C. since its just GST applied rather than getting HST or GST+PST slapped on at the border lol.
GSP is an absolutely amazing option… for sellers who wouldn’t sell internationally otherwise & for buyers who can’t find the item locally.
Personally, I have never tried it. In fact, for the majority of items, I ship all over the world for free with minimal declaration amount. Why? Well, you only live once;)
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I just stopped listing international because it was a nightmare all together. From the extra fees to the returns when a buyer expects a NM card to be flawless gem mint/pristine.
There have been several times that I purchased from an US seller using the GSP, actually I prefer it. Usually the import taxes + shipping cost of GSP is cheaper than my country’s import taxes + fees + storage + whatever more they like to add. On top of that I don’t have to deal with any of that and wait up to 2 months for my order to be released from customs. Yes, sometimes GSP keeps me from buying something but in this hobby there is very few cards that don’t appear often, it’s just a matter of patience.
I wish I could use GSP as a seller as well. In fact if I had that option I would be shipping worldwide a not only to EU.
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I have bought with and without gsp, but if same item is avaivable without gsb around same price… - it’s 100% sure I’ll buy the item from seller who is not using gsp.
Some ppl here are saying “they do not care about some foreign customer money loss” but all money that we need to pay for any "extra"fees is wasted and out off the market where you are working for. Buyers extra costs are reducing sales and healthy market growth.
- I understand that ebay is not friend off seller with protection, and some sellers prefer gsp, but most times buyers choice it wont be.
This really reminds me of the first time I bid on something on eBay 6 years ago. A year prior to that I saw a video showcasing a 1991 Roundy puzzle. Since I loved the mechanism and wanted one for my twisty puzzles collection, I had been on the lookout for one since. About a year later one finally popped up on ebay.com for bidding. Unlike now I only had a simple job as a Saturday postman, so I had set myself an absolute limit of 140 USD including shipping. Unfortunately, the shipping fees from the US to me in The Netherlands, for a freaking < 150 grams package, were 65 USD… This meant my maximum bid was 75 USD… Since it’s a pretty rare puzzle and more people were bidding on it, I of course lost it, and it ended at around 95 USD, still 45 USD lower of what I was willing to pay for it in total…
I know feeling so angry and salty at the time… I remember even posting a complain thread on the eBay forum, and people were having similar reactions like: “it’s the seller’s fault for choosing that shipping option, since I can ship for 15 USD to Europe”, “be glad to be able to buy products from the US at all”, etc. etc.
All in all I understand the frustration. And even now I have to pay 20 USD shipping for a single card pretty often when buying cards from the US. But these days I have a better job and don’t really care about prices all that much anymore. I always just look at the total price including shipping and import fees and buy the cheapest one I can find. Sometimes from the US, sometimes from the European CardMarket, sometimes even from Australia. And unlike my very first order from China that took 27 days to arrive, I also don’t care anymore about the time it takes to arrive. Can even be two months for all I care, as long as I receive the package I ordered eventually.
PS: Was able to find a 4-wing Roundy one month after losing that other one for 135 USD total (from Hungary), and another 3-wing Roundy for 105 USD a few weeks later (from the US with just 10 USD shipping). 
Greetz,
Quuador
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Yeah, it’s not always cheap to ship, even within the US. When I ship a PSA card in a small padded envelope, I pay around $4.00. If I bought the shipping through eBay, it’d be a bit cheaper.
The GSP just lost a shadowless 2 player starter deck I purchased 
I am in the UK and all my international sales (even to other european countries) are handled through GSP.
As other people mentioned, if a seller’s domestic buying pool is big enough, there is no particular advantage in manually managing international sales.
Furthermore, GSP accounts for 30% of my sales, so I don’t really feel like I am missing out on a huge chunk of the market by not offering individual shipping. It has also covered my potential losses multiple times when international customers claimed not to have received their items.
Your logic does make sense for a market with unlimited supply as the potential for market growth outweighs the risk involved in not using GSP.
For a collectibles seller with limited product availability however, it doesn’t make financial sense from a seller’s perspective to expand to a worldwide market when on top of the added layer of risk, your stock and supply of product isn’t predictable or sustainable.
Luckily our market is (at least for now) one in which the buyer needs to look for the seller rather than the other way around.
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Worth noting that for items above £2,000, GSP cannot be used in the UK.
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