@pichufan and @xzini basically summarized it already. To quote @KingPokemon :
When I buy anything, whether it’s a Pokémon card or product, Yu-Gi-Oh card, twisty puzzle, or whatever, I always look at the total price. This usually includes the two obvious things:
- the price of the product itself
- shipping fees
But in addition I’d have to keep in mind:
3. import fees when buying (usually only applies to eBay auctions from the US)
4. potential import fees on arrival. Anything above 22 euros value for which I hadn’t already paid import fees when buying, could potentially add import fees as costs. This could be around 15 euros if the value was just 25 euros for the item; or even 325 euros I once had to pay for a 2000 USD item from Japan.
5. middleman fees. When buying from Yahoo Japan, or asking online contacts/friends to buy cards for me, I either help them with cards, or add some additional money as a thanks for the help and time. I right now have four middlemans who help me pretty often: one in Brazil for Portuguese releases; one in the US for sellers who aren’t shipping worldwide; one in Indonesia for the new Indonesian releases; and one in China for the new Chinese releases. I also used to have a Russian and Korean middleman in the past (and Italian, German, and Australian contacts who helped me once or twice), but I’ve completed all Russian cards in my collection, and unfortunately my Korean middleman doesn’t respond anymore (which is why it’s my least complete language in my Pikachu collection right now, and I’m looking for a new South Korean contact…)
5b. middleman shipping fees (both from the seller to my middleman as well as from the middleman to me)
6. PayPal or shop/website fees. On CardMarket this is usually 10% of the buy-price. And PayPal/eBay has a general fee as well usually.
7. Currency conversion PayPal fees. Never much, but can still add around 0.50 cents here and there for purchases in US $, Canadian $, Australian $, UK £, etc. (anything non-€)
So yes, most prices of the products themselves are (way) more expensive in Europe than in the US; but the total price of all points above is comparable or usually still cheaper in Europe for us than from the US. Especially for sellers from the US who use eBay’s default international shipping options, which is 22-28 USD shipping even for 5 USD items…
The first time I used eBay back in 2013 for a twisty puzzle I really wanted and was willing to pay 180 USD for, I lost when it ended at 140 USD due to the 65 USD shipping fees the seller had listed for the 150 grams puzzle (and who knows how much additional import fees on arrival I’d have to pay)… I remember being pretty pissed at losing a rare puzzle I was willing to pay 180 USD for by seeing it end at 140 USD… But buying online for the past 10+ years I’m used to it tbh.
And there is also shipping time to consider I guess, although in general I personally don’t care about that anymore. I’m used to waiting 2-6 weeks for anything, and have 5-25 products incoming at any day of the year tbh. I’m still willing to pay a bit more to buy from a Dutch seller, since I know it would have arrived within 2 days, but if I can get something cheaper from Canada or Australia, I don’t mind waiting a few weeks.
Greetz,
Quuador