According to Paypal, my return business was within a couple percent from each time period. It’s cool the great info they supply. Of course, we’re paying for it.
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Ah Ok I see 
Haha yea true true!
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I’ve noticed that many cards I am looking for are also readily available in Europe and not just the US any more, so if possible I pick a German, French or UK seller to do my business. Less shipping costs, and usually faster arrival (although; UKPost can be dreadfully slow). Japanese product also quiet available in Europe these days with Germany and France based sellers that already do the importing for you. And as you say; no import/VAT troubles.
Only the real ‘good’ WotC and Black Star stuff I have to go States side to pick them up, because Euro sellers tend to overprice them in my opinion.
I think most has been answered. We can’t physically place ourselves I’m your store and shoes, or however you market.
But the main points as above:
- Import charges custom fees
- Gsp bullshit. Overpriced USA postage charges.
- Foreign sellers picking up more stock and selling to local countries.
- People are buying more on social media, buyers are smarter now, they buy from local social media.
- And my opinion; Ebay search analytics have changed the last year… When you list in ebay Com. You search favours Americans. Your product won’t rank as high as local sellers selling on ebay.com.au or ebay.co.uk
Maybe it’s the bullshit search analytics… The amount of listings I do on au, that don’t appear in ebay.com searches is crazy. Half my items won’t come up. And vice versa. Foreigners will see ebay.com sellers or USA sellers at the bottom of some of their searches as an international result.
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Curious, @garyis2000
How much of that is graded cards?
Amen brother. eBay.com search is racist towards international sellers.
It’s a chore to search 2 or more of eBays searches just to get the full coverage of ads.
Why search, just bookmark your favorite E4 sellers 
Paypal did all the math already on per transaction. Handy that!
29% fewer people from the UK and other countries buying compared to last year
The Canadian dollar is really weak against the US dollar so I’ve been focusing most of my buying from other countries with a more favorable exchange rate.
They do not always offer the best deal
So many factors that can go into this Gary. Could be a specific country that’s not participating as much, I know for me UK, Australia, and Canada are the top three non US countries I ship to (surprise). So you might be able to find more information if it’s one specific country that’s has a huge drop in percentage.
The items you’re selling could have changed, maybe you ran out of cards that are attractive to other countries like foriegn language cards?
I think enough people have talked about exchange rates that I do t need to say any more on the subject.
I don’t know what your method is shipping policy wise, but maybe there’s something there if you changed it?
I think the eBay analytics change is a good idea that’s worth exploring. If you’re capable of finding out if you have more new customers in the us vs international compared to last year you could see if that idea holds water.
I’m sure there’s even more variables than I’ve mentioned.
My 24 year old “economist” son just chimed in. He said that now that Our honorable president is long gone, and PresidentTrump is in place, hobby materials will flourish in the U.S.
So we could have a boom in this country through 2024.
Any chance you can get him to elaborate why he thinks that?
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He replied 4/5 things on his way out the door one of which was disposable income. Plus, something about consumer confidence levels. The other stuff I didn’t really understand lol.
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Definitely a big part of it i reckon