USA Buyers only?

[chempop]

Again, the point I've made several times already is not being heard. And quite frankly I'm not sure why.

When I sell an item I do not spend the money until I know a buyer is happy. Thus, shipping a game for nearly $50 is going to be money I need to pay upfront before any of it is made up, regardless of how I split the item cost and shipping fee. Furthermore, I will have to likely wait longer for the item to arrive if it is shipped overseas.

I'll be honest, usually when I sell a game it is because I need money. Quite simply, tying up another $50 for international shipping is not a very attractive endeavor.

Europeans aren't that bad.

I have done plenty of good business with Europeans and will continue to do so. Again, my intention was simply to shed light on why there are good reasons that US sellers often only sell within the states. Saying that it has to do with laziness is a total copout when there are legitimate reasons.

[retrojc]

Well, I think that's the risk you take online and selling from distance. You have to put up some cash to get a return. It's a gamble really, you've got to prepare for the worse and I guess shipping to Europe could if things go bad be a large loss, even if item is returned. That is a gamble we all take, as most items exchanged between us are of $100+ in value.

Most people don't sell unless they need to, but maybe you should sell items when you've got the spare cash so you can create a buffer for when you have no money? I'm not saying your living beyond your means, so don't take it that way please.

[Ed Oscuro]

You have to put up some cash to get a return.

No he doesn't, if there's domestic US buyers to take the place of any lost international business.

I ran into the same issue (from the buyer's end) recently, chempop, and that was within the domestic US. Shipping turned out to be much more than the seller's estimate, and the seller offered to let me back out. It's hassle enough to arrange that kind of shipping, and having to go through an approximation of that to ship most items internationally is more than many people want to deal with, of course.

[Casey120]

A lot of it has to do with how Europeans often value their games by including the money spent on tax and shipping in addition to the price of game.

Come on now, I think I have seen this happen only a couple of times and usually new guys, it's a recent fun meme on NeoHyphenGeo but really
You don't seem to be hampered buying from Euro's, all that Japanese stuff leaving mother US where it belongs only to vanish in Euro country
Look at all the shit that happens between the US sellers among each other .... but so what !

Buy from a trusted seller and no probs, I have bought and sold both ways and always a pleasure and if you don't want do then don't ...

[cools]

hoof it over to the post office for a quote

Is this some sort of metric/imperial thing?

A ruler and a scale can be got for about £3 posted from China.

[GaijinPunch]

I have done plenty of good business with Europeans and will continue to do so. Again, my intention was simply to shed light on why there are good reasons that US sellers often only sell within the states. Saying that it has to do with laziness is a total copout when there are legitimate reasons.

Yes, but "keeping it in the family" is not one. That's only for people in the south that wear sleeveless flannel shirts with never nude cut offs.

[retrojc]

You have to put up some cash to get a return.

No he doesn't, if there's domestic US buyers to take the place of any lost international business.

I don't think my first post was well wrote, anyway..

When selling online you're taking a gamble. Some people have better odds than others.

In the US surely the seller will have to take a chance on postage costs at the very least? I mean if you sell item a + shipping costs, if item is lost or whatever you still gamble loosing posting costs. If someone returns an item to me of ebay, and most transactions I've had like that from forums I have to refund them the full amount.. I lose postage.

[broken harbour]

I get the whole ebay/pp scam thing on the buyers end, but in 15 years of selling things online, that happened to me ONCE, and Paypal ruled in my favor anyways. (On top of that it was for a $13 item.)

As far as the 'keep nice things in the USA' thing goes, well... whatever I guess, people here were bitching about the Europeans, and frankly, if you're scared that a European is going to buy your $500 PCB and turn around and sell it again in the EU for $750, why don't you list it for $750 in the first place? Why leave money on the table? I've actually bought a decent haul of Japanese and NA games back from Europe for very fair prices, so to assume that everything goes into Europe 'disappears' is silly.

Also, I'm pretty sure USPS has an online quote thing, and tape measures are cheap, so there's really no excuse for a buyer to not know what he's paying for freight ahead of time, and it should take the seller less than a minute, several sellers on this forum have done that for me.

One other thing, this thread has alot of overseas shipping concerns, some of which are valid. I think alot of those concerns don't really apply to Canadian buyers, I mean, we're just over the fence, there isn't an ocean between us or anything, instead of 'USA buyers only' how about we do 'USA/Canada only'?

Just a thought.

[EmperorIng]

I've been considering toying with the new international shipping option with ebay, but I don't think the items I sell are worth enough upfront to pay for out-of-country shipping costs.

I remember when I tried looking up how much it would cost to ship some Saturn game to South America, and $30-50 for shipping sounded like a very unappetizing offer.

From my post office, a padded envelope (holding say, a Saturn game) puts an extra $10 of shipping to Canada.

Has anyone shipped internationally with the ebay option thing that just came out?

[GaijinPunch]

people here were bitching about the Europeans,

Ever since Obama uttered the words NHS, America has been on a Euro-hating binge. You know, b/c your communists w/ compulsory health insurance systems.

[Crafty+Mech]

Has anyone had experience with the 3rd party international shipping brokers? One of my mini SLG customers used a service here in the US, and I just shipped to an address in the US, they took care of the rest. I'm not sure how much it cost him, and I kind of felt the whole time that it would have just been easier & cheaper for me to ship directly to his address.

I've shipped mini SLGs all over the world, but the packages are usually only a few ounces so I use First Class International, and I can ship pretty much anywhere for $14. No tracking outside the US is the downside (except for Canada). The other annoyance is that the USPS website won't let you print First Class International labels, so I have to pay Stamps.com $16/month for that privilege. Saves me a lot of time standing in line though, so I can't really complain.

[broken harbour]

people here were bitching about the Europeans,

Ever since Obama uttered the words NHS, America has been on a Euro-hating binge. You know, b/c your communists w/ compulsory health insurance systems.

Ha, while that does kind of describe canada, I just want to buy some games...

Our dollar took a dump this month, so now everything just shot up 15% in price anyways...

[Xyga]

people here were bitching about the Europeans,

Ever since Obama uttered the words NHS, America has been on a Euro-hating binge. You know, b/c your communists w/ compulsory health insurance systems.

We also eat children and rape animals.

Joke aside it's not alway easy to buy stuff whithin Europe, for instance many German sellers on eBay don't offer internatinal shipping or even paypal payment. Several times I had to contact the seller to request and get a shipping quote, then move my ass to the bank office to do an internatinal bank transfer.

[chempop]

if you're scared that a European is going to buy your $500 PCB and turn around and sell it again in the EU for $750, why don't you list it for $750 in the first place?

I can't even tell if that is a joke?

[opt2not]

Not shipping to your Canadian cousins is just a downright dick-move. Yeah there's hoops to jump through, but it's really not that bad. Luckily I live 40 mins away from the border, and have a PO box in WA for people who can't be bothered with filling out custom forms. Helps for ebay purchases too.

But there was one guy on KLOV who denied selling me an item, from what I thought was because of shipping it here. He refused me, even after I asked him to ship to Washington state. Turns out, he has a prejudice against Canadians. Which is just ridiculous...there is no reason to hate on any Canuck. We're so benign, and our relationship with America is the most symbiotic in the entire world. Why can't we just be bros man??

[broken harbour]

if you're scared that a European is going to buy your $500 PCB and turn around and sell it again in the EU for $750, why don't you list it for $750 in the first place?

I can't even tell if that is a joke?

It was halfhearted sarcasm. Seriously, if you sell something, who the hell cares what gets done with it? If someone else finds a market to flip it and make money on it... too bad for you, cry me a river. If you list an item, and get what you asked for it, why are you complaining? If I sold my coveted copy of Tomba to someone who wipes their butthole with it... I gave up the right to care once I sold it, conversely, if he finds an idiot willing to pay $300 for it... well... next time I'll try and find said idiot.

[emphatic]

Most eBay sellers will ship internationally once I ask them as I have 100% positive feedback and lots of it. I just tell them I'll pay the shipping if I win then ask if I am free to bid even though the item's listed as US only. I've done this about a dozen times, and only once I was turned down. IIRC, you can have Paypal handling the shipping for you, and it's supposedly very easy.

[Crafty+Mech]

It was halfhearted sarcasm. Seriously, if you sell something, who the hell cares what gets done with it? If someone else finds a market to flip it and make money on it... too bad for you, cry me a river. If you list an item, and get what you asked for it, why are you complaining? If I sold my coveted copy of Tomba to someone who wipes their butthole with it... I gave up the right to care once I sold it, conversely, if he finds an idiot willing to pay $300 for it... well... next time I'll try and find said idiot.

True, a buyer can do whatever they want with an item that they bought. However a seller has every right to not sell you that board in the first place. One side of the argument is financial, the other side is the seller's personal ethics with respect to the community at large. There is middle ground between "X for Y, done deal no complaining" and "I will only sell you this board if you promise to play it every day and resell it at a fair price".

[BIL]

I think I'll start requiring a 3,000 word essay from any potential buyers in the US and Europe, just to make sure my precious NTSCJ r@rez aren't going to merely sit in some poser's collection. Pah! For example:

Compare and contrast Top Secret: Hitler no Fukkatsu's grappling arm mechanic with those of the series' arcade, Game Boy and Game Boy Color entries, detailing the merits and drawbacks of each and their suitability (if any) to their particular hardware platforms.

The Saturn mode of Hyper Duel is proof of Tecno Soft's inability to match their console pedigree in the coin operated arena. Agree or disagree, supporting your answer with specific reference to at least two other multidirectionally firing horizontally scrolling shooters of the eighties or nineties.

[Crafty+Mech]

I think I'll start requiring a 3,000 word essay from any potential buyers in the US and Europe, just to make sure my precious NTSCJ r@rez aren't going to merely sit in some poser's collection. Pah! For example:

Compare and contrast Top Secret: Hitler no Fukkatsu's grappling arm mechanic with those of the series' arcade, Game Boy and Game Boy Color entries, detailing the merits and drawbacks of each and their suitability (if any) to their particular hardware platforms.

The Saturn mode of Hyper Duel is proof of Tecno Soft's inability to match their console pedigree in the coin operated arena. Agree or disagree, supporting your answer with specific reference to at least two other multidirectionally firing horizontally scrolling shooters of the eighties or nineties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

[BIL]

Just the lack of standards I've come to fear - I won't be selling you Taromaru or Osman anytime soon, buster!

edit: a minter than mint and complete Holy Diver's about to go up in the trading station, but I'll require footage of a one credit clear and a short essay on the propriety (or lack thereof) of the final stage's introduction of potentially unavoidable random death via unripened raspberry.

[Some-Mist]

Which is just ridiculous...there is no reason to hate on any Canuck. We're so benign, and our relationship with America is the most symbiotic in the entire world. Why can't we just be bros man??

Montreal hates Americans/English speakers. This doesn't come down to just my personal experiences tho... but what about that lady who just got kicked out of a Montreal hospital last week for requesting an English speaker?

Those are just some examples, you can literally find a reason to hate on anything... I'm a huge fan of Canada tho

[ZellSF]

Don't get the "people won't think it's worth the shipping costs" angle. Really, just leave it as an option, you would be surprised about what shipping costs people are willing to pay and how rare your exact item is.

Communication problems (lots of europeans don't understand English) and region problems (lots of europeans don't understand region coding) I understand some people don't want to deal with though.

[Xyga]

Communication problems (lots of europeans don't understand English) and region problems (lots of europeans don't understand region coding) I understand some people don't want to deal with though.

Not an issue with members of these forums though.

[Ed Oscuro]

Don't get the "people won't think it's worth the shipping costs" angle.

Educated people will understand that it takes money to ship things. Many people don't understand this. Maybe not at the forums, but there's certainly people out there on eBay and the like who don't understand this.

[opt2not]

Montreal hates Americans/English speakers. This doesn't come down to just my personal experiences tho... but what about that lady who just got kicked out of a Montreal hospital last week for requesting an English speaker?

Those are just some examples, you can literally find a reason to hate on anything... I'm a huge fan of Canada tho

Well that's fair, since everyone in the rest of Canada hates french-speaking Canadiens.

[Xyga]

Well that's fair, since everyone in the rest of Canada hates french-speaking Canadiens.

Calice d’hostie de tabernacle ! Maudits anglophones.

[opt2not]

Actually, that's not entirely fair...people do like Georges St Pierre.

[emphatic]

Canadians are awesome.

[Ed Oscuro]

Moffet: These are Americans, Fraser - if they think they can walk all over you, they will. It's a delicate balance - you've got to be just as shrewd and cunning and ruthless as they are - and then, being Canadians, we have to be polite.
Fraser: Polite? Sir?
Moffet: What's the one thing you hear Americans say about Canadians over and over again? They're such nice polite people. So we use that against them.