Purchasing tools on ebay

[guineafowl21]

Isolated locations? I am an easy-going fella, but was pretty irate when a seller told me he couldn't post an item from the Midlands to Aberdeen without a hefty surcharge. Admitted he posted to Land's End without a problem or extra cost.
Mind you, I must admit that BBC Scotland - based in Glasgow - seem to end their north news coverage at Dundee most of the time....but I better not start about the television licence!

I used to live in Aberdeenshire:

“Sorry, we charge extra for Highlands postage”
‘I’m not in the Highlands’
”Where are you?”
‘Aberdeenshire’
“Yep, we charge extra for Highlands”
‘I’m not in the Highlands.’

Etc.

 

[Awac]

surely that is the extra cost incurred by the parcel companies? if it isnt economical or possible to use Royal Mail, I can understand why people are unwilling- if they add on extra cost people moan, if they dont they lose money. they cant win either way.

Parcels in general are a hassle (as an individual rather than a company. it is made slightly easier now that you can drop off at a local shop, but you still need a printer and packaging materials. it soon takes half an hour to package things up and address them.

I hear what you are saying, but you would think it was outer Mongolia to some people. I have no extra charged by Hermes for example. I always price the lowest I will take, and cost a small help to postage but list free postage in the UK, and if you are overseas you find the cheapest (within a time frame). No moans this way re postage. Yes parcels are a hassle, but if you want to sell you have to do it, and Hermes for example come and pick up (great web site, easy to use). Packing materials? I usually have a rice krispies box available......

	Royal Mail	Hermes	Saving

Postable (0-1kg)	£2.70	£2.66	£0.04
0-1kg	£5.10	£2.95	£2.15
1-2kg	£5.10	£4.40	£0.70
2-5kg	£8.79	£5.80	£2.99
5-10kg	£20.25	£6.98	£13.27
10-15kg	£28.55	£8.60	£19.95

 

[Chisteve]

I sell mainly woodworking tools on eBay will ship to USA through global shipping only - will always insure especially with Hermes as have had a number of tools broken in transit after wrapping well also

 

[Dabop]

I used to live in Aberdeenshire:

“Sorry, we charge extra for Highlands postage”
‘I’m not in the Highlands’
”Where are you?”
‘Aberdeenshire’
“Yep, we charge extra for Highlands”
‘I’m not in the Highlands.’

Etc.

I had to say I was unaware of how far that was.....
I have to drive a third that distance just to get to a McDonalds or Bunnings (Australias 'big name' hardware store....)
So just a quick trip down the road then LOL

 

[CoolNik]

A relatively new member here, joined in February this year.
I am user and collector of Record planes. I have purchased the majority of them from sellers on ebay UK. Just wondering why so many sellers on ebay elect not to ship to the USA? Is this something to do with customs forms or possibly they just want to keep the "good stuff" in the UK? Not knowledgeable in what ebay requires from sellers shipping overseas but in a couple of instances I have had the seller ship the item to a person in the UK whom I have purchased from previously and they in turn would forward the item to me. Sellers who do not want to ship to the USA are truly missing the opportunity for a greatly increased number of potential buyers. I have chatted with a few others in face book that are members of tool groups and live in the UK and they also agree that sellers should be more aware of the opportunity to sell in the US. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Happy Easter weekend to all and have a pleasant spring time.

As a New Zealand resident (now) and formerly a Canadian resident, I have been confronting this issue for years. I eventually found a method, that I believe is better and cheaper than using the eBay Global/International system.

I use a “reshipper’ such as MyUS.com which, for a fee, provides you with a physical address in both the US and UK. I have my items sent to my UK address when purchasing in the UK, so for the vendor it is just the “usual” domestic situation and in the US you are offered a choice of states to use, all states offered are non-sales tax states such as Florida. Even with paying a monthly fee to keep your physical address, I find this system to be cheaper that the EBay global shipping programme and more reliable.

I believe that there are a couple of companies that offer a similar service. I believe that they (the reshipper) will send parcels to most countries. I have shipped a workbench, wood, vintage tools such as early planes, all without difficulty. All NZ Customs fees and duty and any insurance are deducted at time the package departs, so it ships much more quickly than waiting for the package to be assessed for duty and taxes on arrival in NZ. Often the shipping time to me is 4 days when under the eBay global shipping it can be 10 days longer.

I hope this information is helpful, but feel free to contact me and I will try and answer your questions

 

[BearTricks]

I don’t sell abroad in the majority of cases because it just adds extra steps for something to go wrong. That’s on top of expensive shipping costs and eBay’s fees. I used to be able to make good money on eBay for things I was only really looking to get rid of. A few times recently I’ve had to settle for breaking even on things I know are worth more.

On eBay you only need to get a bad buyer and they can make your life very difficult. This is hard enough in the UK but scammers know a few thousand miles, shipping companies that don’t care, and lack of knowledge of recourse if you want to go after them, means they’ll get away with it.

I’d probably be comfortable selling to America if they were happy to pay the shipping (although I do take a hit on the shipping sometimes to make the price more attractive). It tends to be buyers from certain countries with a reputation of causing trouble. Earned reputation or not, it’s not worth the risk to me.