Ebay (Shipping to UK Question)

You can go to the USPS.com web site and go to calculate shipping, then international shipping (air letter post). As long as you know the weight, you can get a quote. You'll have to fill out a little green customs tag to stick on the outside of the package. Mail to the UK is reliable, so there should be no problems. You could register the package if you want to be extra safe, but I've never had any problems shipping to the UK.

 

shipping to the university of kentucky shouldn't be that much.

 

yeah like the other guy said, UK shipping is normally pretty reliable. I normally charge for actual shipping cost (shipping) plus Ebay and Paypal fee (handling).

 

I'm glad you brought this up, my wife has been active on ebay lately and has been asked a couple of times

the problem is we arent sure what (if any) gotchas are involved with shipping small parcels (or even a little bigger ones sometimes) out of the US.

anyone with experience doing this got tips/procedures/etc?

 

I sold 20 DS Lites to the UK during November and December. I used global priorty on them in the beginning, and quickly learned that the service was too inconsistent with delivery times (delievries ranged from 4 days to 3 weeks), they even lost an item. I eventually switched to using Global Express which was almost double the fees, but the delivery time was more consistent plus you were able to insure your shipments (not available on Global Priority). The shipping fees are much higher but it's more reliable.

If your wife is doing high volume to UK, I suggest using Global Priority and keeping your fingers crossed. However, if it's just one or two big items and your profit margin is over 50 bux with priority shipping, take the extra 10 or 15 bux hit and ship it Express.

If the package is lost through Global Priority, she's technically not responsible for it since the Post Office lost it and your buyer is covered through PayPal, but most of the time the buyer won't care and will give her a bad rating which can damage her future selling power on Ebay.

Tip #1: NEVER EVER do drop off or carrier pickup. ALWAYS ALWAYS take the packages to the post office yourself and make sure you see them scanning the package in. Any other method and you're asking for their remarkable inefficiency to kick in.

Tip #2: Unless she wants to spend 40 minutes at the post office filling address labels and customs forms, grab a few and take them home with you so you can fill them out at home instead. Global Express and Global Priority use different Customs and Address Label forms, so make sure you get the correct one.

Tip #3: If you're selling anything electronic. Do not declare it brand new or as merchandise nor declare the value to be anything higher than $50 otherwise the buyer wiull get charged 17% VAT and most likely the buyer will be annoyed since they bought it from her in the first place to avoid VAT.

 

I send packages to Europe by air letter post and air parcel post every week. You can get price quotes at the usps.com site, as long as you know the weight of the package. The global express and priority are quite a bit more expensive, so it's usually best to give the customer the choice of how they want it. Delivery is usually decent 7-10 days for just regular air letter or parcel post. You can track the parcel post packages online. The recipient will usually get hit with a customs tax for anything over $30, and they'll probably ask you to declare it for a lower value, or mark it as a gift. Customs forms aren't that hard to fill out.

You can also look into dhl, fedex, or ups. They cost more, but are also reliable. It's not usually a good idea to send a package by usps economy (surface) post, especially to Australia or Italy. It can take up to 6 months to get there.

 

If you are shipping like 4 or 5 of them at a time, filling out 5 customs forms and 5 address labels for them can be quite repetetive and time consuming. I'd rather do it at home so I can spend less time at the post office.

 

I go to Ace Hardware. tehy have a post office inside the store. no lines, and quick service... only drawback is that they dont take credit/debit cards

 

just tell em u charge 20 bucks flat rate to ship to UK. i do that on all my ebay sales. anything outside the country im gunna charge a fee for my time to fill out those forms.

 

For the forseable future, I think you will find lots of Europeans on US eBay. The dollar is so pathetic relatve to the Euro and the GBP that it makes lots of sense for them to go overseas.

 

OK. I will tell them I dont want to mess with it but I will do it for 20. Thanks.

 

yeah i just charged $20 for shipping to Sweden once. Then I used global priority mail insured.

 

they musta changed it in last few motnhs then. they dont offer insurance on global priority anymore =(