Tim,
I could care less about a "confirmed " address. What I want is to be paid and have an address to ship to. I can’t get paid via a credit card by PayPal’s own rules. Their protection policy isn’t worth anything anyway. My feedback is the best protection policy I have. I don’t understand where my (PayPal’s) policy limits my sales. I sell regularly overseas and either get paid via PayPal , money order of bank draft. The latter two just take longer.
Andre’
I bet I’ve sold over half my items to overseas buyers. You really limit yourself and cost you some money, if you won’t ship overseas(easy to do). Jerry
I don’t limit myself to USA only. As I posted earlier I sell regularly overseas and you’re right Jerry. Its easy to do. I also transport some items to the UK when we travel back there. Saves postage and VAT for UK folks and much less shipping when going from there to Europe.
Andre’
Hope this isn’t off topic… but I’ve been reluctant to sell into Europe because there is no tracking. Even if paid thru PayPal, have you had items go missing with USPS? It seems you’re sending a valuable package off into a black hole. I once had a registered letter go missing between the US and Germany. I filed a claim or tracer and all they could tell me is that the German Post would not respond to my query. And registered meant there should have been a signature track each time the envelop passes hands. Appreciate any thoughts re shipping risk in addition to PayPal.
Jim,
there are many post office ‘black holes’ in Europe, Africa and Asia. Best suggestion is if in doubt then exclude from your countries that you sell to (or buy from). I would not sell to Indonesia, China, India, ex-Eastern bloc countries and Italy. Unfortunately, hard times brings out the worst in people and the operative word is ‘scam’. I will not deal with Germany, simply because of the language difficulties and the Germans only accept bank drafts or cash (Euros), not PayPal.
In my several thousand eBay purchasing transactions (99% in the States), I must state that there are scammers on the continental United States, as well and eBay and PayPal are unable/reluctant to pursue them, particularly if they are eBay 'power sellers' or eBay storefront sellers. It seems that the more feedback a power seller or storefront seller has, then the more credibility that they have with eBay, regardless of the hundreds of negative feedback they have received. EBay's protection policies are merely paper tigers. Predominantly though, the American sellers are extremely friendly and helpful and I would deal with them again and again.Tim… I like your idea of selective global selling. I’ve bought/sold a a few items globally thru Ebay. I’d say: Canada 20x, UK 5x, Euro continent 10x, and Far East 5X so maybe my experience is limited to 40 plus deals. I’ve had only 2 problems but they were big ones (Germany and Hong Kong). But in today’s economy and LGB decline, selling globally would sure be better. I don’t worry about buying abroad, have most of all I need. But still have some extra stuff to sell, but the risk, it seems to me is either 1) postal service fails, or 2) uncertainty about delivery and then, I think, Pay Pal will side with buyer and seller is charged back, etc. So maybe the tradeoff I’m wrestling with is: is it worth a bigger market for a bit more risk. I can say that in US, I’ve had a few problems but not BIG ones like those mentioned above. Appreciate your thoughts, I’m thinking I should definitely include UK and Australia in future sales.
I find it rather interesting that the US Post Office refuses to allow you to insure parcels (beyond the $68 or so (depending upon the weight) indemnity automatically included in the Priority International postage) to several countries (Mexico for instance)… Seems they feel their counterparts (not the buyers) are somewhat less than honest there. I had a list someplace but can’t put my finger upon it.
Also, for whatever reason, I have occasionally had rather bad luck with the Canadian post, and British and German customs taking FOREVER to get stuff to my buyers. (for instance, over 3 months for an airmail package to Saskatchewan, and a steam engine kit tied up in British customs for 37 days)… At least the USPS just loses it, and United Parcel just smashes it…