Why selling inside the country only?

[RC_FunLand 167]

I agree with all of the above statements. I personally sell on eBay (not R/C, but plumbing/electrical/industrial parts), and it’s been quite a frustrating experience.

Say, you’ve sold an item anywhere; doesn’t matter if it’s within the country or outside of it (but selling outside is even more of a hassle/aggravating experience). If someone wants to return your item, they WILL, under eBay’s rules. eBay doesn’t give a flying badword about the seller’s judgment, and any “claim” created by the buyer will immediately be accepted by eBay. I’ve had people mark the item as “damaged upon arrival” when their description was “sorry I didn’t end up needing the item”, causing me to lose another $10-15 on postage (within the contiguous United States!) when I specifically state I do not accept returns (unless damaged or special cases).

If there were any normal options, I’d hop off the eBay train in a heartbeat.

[87lc2 2662]

14 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

I sold one of my Nikkos F10s. I tried to stop people in Italy buying them, but I couldn't really get around it, so I put it on the Ebay International seller thing, which is meant to make it easier.

once sold the guy wanted the money back as he couldn't plug the battery in. Honestly. My options were quite literally finding a courier in Italy to pick up the car (it was on me to return it and pay for it) or letting him have it for nothing. With a month old baby, guess what I picked. £100 down the drain, plus the sellers free, plus postage to the UK address in the first place.

Never again.

Basically Ebay badwords over sellers if the buyers want to be complain for no real reason. Organising a collection in the UK is one thing, internationally is another.

Despite my name, my issue with Nikko buyers (constantly messaging to buy outside of eBay, or refusing to pay) put me completely off the cars and collection culture.

I don't even mind the money, but the whole thing really left a bad taste in my mouth about selling on eBay, and I'm sorry, but in particular internationally. 

 

Exactly, very well said!   The few dollars I make from selling RC stuff that I no longer need is not worth any hassle or drain on my mind whatsoever.  I only do it so I dont feel bad throwing it in the trash, not worth one second of trouble for me.  I'll only sell it if its extremely easy for me to do.  If it will cost me any time or grief I'll either keep it, trash it, or give it away.  

 

[Fabia130vRS 2098]

43 minutes ago, RC_FunLand said:

I agree with all of the above statements. I personally sell on eBay (not R/C, but plumbing/electrical/industrial parts), and it’s been quite a frustrating experience.

Say, you’ve sold an item anywhere; doesn’t matter if it’s within the country or outside of it (but selling outside is even more of a hassle/aggravating experience). If someone wants to return your item, they WILL, under eBay’s rules. eBay doesn’t give a flying badword about the seller’s judgment, and any “claim” created by the buyer will immediately be accepted by eBay. I’ve had people mark the item as “damaged upon arrival” when their description was “sorry I didn’t end up needing the item”, causing me to lose another $10-15 on postage (within the contiguous United States!) when I specifically state I do not accept returns (unless damaged or special cases).

If there were any normal options, I’d hop off the eBay train in a heartbeat.

In my recent case, I was buying of ebay kleineinzeigen, there is no buyer protection at all. I want blindly to pay money to a man to ship me his car, but he refuses. We are both in EU and no customs. It is a Mugen Seiki MTC1 for 120€ shipped inside Germany. it costs only 10€ more to ship to me here down in Croatia. I am German myself and I even had a nice politely approach etc...

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/mugen-mtc1/2350154517-249-2651

I hope somebody else gets it, I can't watch it anymore. And already bought something else... 

37 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

Exactly, very well said!   The few dollars I make from selling RC stuff that I no longer need is not worth any hassle or drain on my mind whatsoever.  I only do it so I dont feel bad throwing it in the trash, not worth one second of trouble for me.  I'll only sell it if its extremely easy for me to do.  If it will cost me any time or grief I'll either keep it, trash it, or give it away.  

 

I guess this is the best answer that suits my case. The person just don't want to for whatsoever reason. But that is wrong, we must keep helping people and do good only everyday. I literally would have paid the man paypal F&F just to ship it. 

[87lc2 2662]

1 minute ago, Fabia130vRS said:

In my recent case, I was buying of ebay kleineinzeigen, there is no buyer protection at all. I want blindly to pay money to a man to ship me his car, but he refuses. We are both in EU and no customs. It is a Mugen Seiki MTC1 for 120€ shipped inside Germany. it costs only 10€ more to ship to me here down in Croatia. I am German myself and I even had a nice politely approach etc...

I guess this is the best answer that suits my case. The person just don't want to for whatsoever reason. But that is wrong, we must keep helping people and do good only everyday. I literally would have paid the man paypal F&F just to ship it. 

I get it and it can be frustrating for us buyers, but you have to look at it from the sellers point of view.  Too many headaches with international shipping and also scammers or people that will try to get their money back as happened to @Nikko85

Not sure if what you're looking for is on Ebay in another country, but there are third party services you can use that will buy the item in the sellers country and then ship it to you.  I don't use them, but someone purchased some TXT-2 parts from me on Ebay and I shipped to a third party in the US for them to deal with.  The guy kept messaging me asking to buy (think he was from Australia) and I said no.  Finally the item sold and noticed it was him but a third party actually purchased it.  I guess it got there OK as I never heard anything abouut it, but shows that it is possible even with sellers than wont sell outside of their country. 

[GeeWings 2830]

I buy and sell a lot on eBay (over 1000 transactions). I used to ship internationally a lot especially when I was buying (and then selling) expensive camera gear. The problem is that it can come with lots of extra cost, which isn't always clear when listing. Also, there is paperwork and other hassle. Scamming is more prevalent when dealing internationally and complications with tracking etc just generally make it too much of a hassle.

I would still offer international shipping for premium items where a buyer will expect high shipping costs so I can use DHL or similar.

[Gebbly 588]

Some words get thrown around rather too carelessly these days and accusations of racism are one of them, sadly. @Fabia130vRS , I think everyone understands now that it was just a bad choice of words. No harm no foul  Maybe just a little more careful with those sorts of accusations in future.

Regarding the actual question about international shipping, I was trying to find a few very small parts recently and only managed to find one online shop in Germany that sold them. But the UK was not in the drop down list when specifying the delivery address. I sent them an email asking how I order for delivery to the UK and they sent a very polite email explaining that since brexit there is extra administration to send to UK and also extra delivery costs which are more than the value of some of their items so to keep things easy for them they just dont ship here anymore, reasonable enough really, their shop and their choice. I certainly didnt take it personally. I just had to continue my search elsewhere.

In this day and age I think most business decisions are made on a mostly profit/convenience reasoning rather than any ulterior motives.

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

On 2/12/2023 at 5:51 PM, Fabia130vRS said:

Buyer pays cost whatsoever, in my case it really is only 14,99 eur

Definitely pro-racism behavior   It sure isn't solidarity that knows no borders either

 

I don't think racism plays any role in the absolute majority of cases. I've been consistently active on eBay as seller and buyer for 24+ years, and have sold and bought all over the world without encountering anything even remotely resembling racism. Also, as a Norwegian living in Germany, I frequently buy for friends and TC'ers outside Germany from German eBay sellers and German shops that sell to domestic customers only. Many of these sellers have been informed that I act as a (non-German) middle man for buyers outside Germany, and I have never experienced any negative reactions to that.

Of course, racists do exist on eBay as they do everywhere else, but most people solely focus on getting the highest possible profit in a combination with minimum hassle and act accordingly. Depending on the circumstances, I may not always think that selling only to domestic customers is the wisest decision, but I accept it without causing any fuzz or trying to find any (additional) hidden agenda from their side. People are different and as long as their decisions are legal, they are entitled to them. 

[kontemax 1725]

22 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

I sold one of my Nikkos F10s. I tried to stop people in Italy buying them, but I couldn't really get around it, so I put it on the Ebay International seller thing, which is meant to make it easier.

once sold the guy wanted the money back as he couldn't plug the battery in. Honestly. My options were quite literally finding a courier in Italy to pick up the car (it was on me to return it and pay for it) or letting him have it for nothing. With a month old baby, guess what I picked. £100 down the drain, plus the sellers free, plus postage to the UK address in the first place.

Never again.

Basically Ebay badwords over sellers if the buyers want to be complain for no real reason. Organising a collection in the UK is one thing, internationally is another.

Despite my name, my issue with Nikko buyers (constantly messaging to buy outside of eBay, or refusing to pay) put me completely off the cars and collection culture.

I don't even mind the money, but the whole thing really left a bad taste in my mouth about selling on eBay, and I'm sorry, but in particular internationally. 

 

I'm sorry for your bad adventure.

Max

[HonkSolo 21]

Quote

I want blindly to pay money to a man to ship me his car, but he refuses. We are both in EU and no customs.

Yeah, I had that many times too. No discussion with the seller usually helps.

In many cases refusal to send to other countries is written in the article descriptions in a way that makes you think that people from other countries are all criminals.

Even with payment in advance by bank transfer some apparently still think there might be ways to make the money magically disappear after the item was shipped. Or, if not that, that the buyer will certainly complain aggressively afterwards.

IMHO, there is a lot of fear of the unknown online that borders to paranoia. Strangely I get the impression almost never from buyers, just from sellers that sell only a few times a year stuff (online).

Just for your reference: I'm buying and selling new and used stuff online on all platforms to all countries (even a few times outside EU/USA) using all payment options (even Western Union once) for 20 years now. (I'm not a professional or a business, just hobbies)

Zero troubles except one fraud attempt.

No lost packages at all, just one package taking 15 weeks to Sweden. Even in that case the buyer was patient (I had mailed him a photo of the package before shipping and then a photo of the shipping receipt, sadly shipping was without tracking).

All that is needed is a clear and concise description of the articles with useful photos.

EDIT: Thinking of it I find the fixed price agenda to be related. Some ads rather rudely state that their offering is fixed in price, no offers will be even responded to (why?? Are no offers better than one a bit lower in price?). I often get told that people refrain from selling online because they fear to constantly get "what's your lowest price" messages (which apparently they would find overly annoying). For me that's also part of the "fear of the unknown" as I don't have any such experiences. Certainly, people are often asking for a discount, because - quite understandably - everyone wants to save money (that's why we buy 2nd hand in most cases, no?). I usually consider that already in my initial price offering and can always go a bit lower.