International Shipping

I’ve shipped overseas several times before without incident. You simply fill out one of two types of customs forms either at the post office or online, and other than that it’s no different from domestic shipping (at least as far as USPS is concerned, I’m not sure about other carriers). I’d definitely recommend insurance though, and make it very clear to your bidders that you won’t be responsible for a refund if the item is damaged in shipping. Make sure your dragons are well packed, and that’s all you can do.

I’ve always checked off the ‘gift’ part on the customs form. I’m not sure what, if any, extra process goes along with marking your package as ‘goods’. This might be for retailers, and there might be different shipping forms if you were a business. The best recommendation I could give you would be to go to the post office and ask to make sure. Either way you, as the seller, makes the rules when it comes to shipping method.

As for discouraging international bidders, when you list your item I think there’s a way to have your item listed only on the North American Ebay, and not ebay.uk or Ebay’s other sites. But if you didn’t have international shipping rates posted in your shipping calculator, both of your bidders should have at least asked if you would ship to them before you bid.

Best of luck to you, I hope it turns out well!

technically, unless you are genuinely sending a gift, you are not supposed to check it as a gift. People do anyway, but a special word of caution to those that sell items then ship them overseas as a ‘gift’, this is indeed a type of fraud as you are trying to avoid customs on goods that have been sold or bartered for. You may never get caught, but it’s not a good risk, especially if you are a good seller and include an invoice in the box.

That said, you can indeed fill the forms out online. You will still need the special clear envelope the forms go in though, and I believe that an official US Mail Carrier (or someone at the post office) must stamp them. For me, it’s just much less headache and heartache if I go to the post office.

Depending on where you are shipping you may not be able to do insurance. Again you will need to talk to someone at your post office.

Unless you are ready to shell out an arm and a leg for registered international post, tracking tends to be 50/50 at best on international shipments, as once it leaves the US they are not obligated to scan the item. It all depends on where you ship to and if the postal carriers are having a good day or not it seems!

Not to scare anyone off of international shipping. But I have had problems with it before, and there is not often a lot you can do about it.

I get alot of items shipped form the US to Canada and it doesn’t really matter if the gift box is checked off or not….customs goes by thethe value of the package, at least thats what it seems like to me, I always end up paying customs if the total value is over $50.00.
Also just a suggestion make sure you get tracking number just in case the package gets lost… 😀 and make sure to package the item really well to prevent it from any damage…. 😀

That PayPal rule doesn’t go into effect until May 1st. They can pay for it, and you’ll get it right away.

It’s one of the new Ebay rules going into effect on May 1st.