I got back into collecting about 2 years ago and during the past 5 months I started selling on eBay. Last month I had someone in the Philippines buy a shadowless charizard from me but after reading about some possible scams in a forum, I didn’t feel comfortable shipping there and canceled the order. My next sale was to Australia but the guy’s address was in Cali. I looked up the address and found out that it was a company that receives mail that is foreign bound and then ships it to that person at a cheaper rate. the reviews for the address on google all showed up really negative and tons of people said that they got scammed through selling to eBay users using this address. I canceled the order and messaged the guy… I ended up selling it to him outside of paypal so it worked out for me but I need some help with understanding how to sell on eBay. I now only ship to the US and Canada but I’m not sure If i’m limiting my market a great deal or not…? As a seller, what are the top things to be aware of and avoid. How do I protect myself because everything that I am reading online makes it seem like Paypal and eBay won’t really protect me when it comes down to it.
Thanks in advance!
I’m a US domestic seller and I ship to Canada, Australia, and Some parts of Europe. I’ve had no problems so far with scammers trying to buy off me… yet…
Anyways, I would say that maybe if you’re new to selling on e-bay then start off small by shipping to the U.S. only. And as time passes, then you can expand your horizon.
You are in no ways limiting your market, there are people who buy these items. (As you can see there is a whole website dedicated to Pokemon TCG)
I would recommend, each time you sell, check the buyers feedback for any negative comments. If no negative feedback then go ahead and ship to them!
Paypal and Ebay DO help sellers. BUT that is if you have provided a tracking number of some sort. If not then they will most likely side with the buyer. When sending high-end items like PSA cards or just expensive cards, probably take a few snapshots of the wrapping and the box so the buyer can’t scam off you saying the item was damaged.
Avoid people who message you asking to pay later or who cannot pay because they don’t have paypal. Its BS.
If I recall, there was a thread where people have listed countries to be cautious about when sending items…
If you have doubts, send tracked / signature confirmation. Make them pay.
I personally wouldnt ship to any other shipping company that forwards mail. And I do not ship to Asia.
I think you should include most parts of Europe on your shipping list. I think there is more of a Pokemon market there than in Canada.
As a Canadian, I can confidently say be wary when sending to Quebec, especially if the package looks like a card. Lots of scammers in that Province, buyers and CP workers
I recently started selling to a select few countries other than Australia; such as US, Canada and the UK
My sales on higher end items have dramatically increased, and have noticed a large demand from UK buyers in particular
So you would be limiting your sales by only shipping to the US and Canada, but that being said, you should do as much research as you can into what you need to do to protect yourself when sending to different countries
As a Australian buyer I buy 75% of my cards from the United States and there is a lot of legitimate Australia buyers here so I would definitely recommend opening up your listings and auctions to us
When listing check the box to enable “Sell internationally with the Global Shipping Program. Just send it to the US shipping center when your item sells.”
This enables the GSP. Anyone anywhere in the world (or you can restrict it down) can buy your card and you will ship to a transfer center in the US. Mine always go to Kentucky but maybe for west coast there is another? In either case, all you need to do is ship the item tracked to the US. The transfer center takes care of the rest and once they receive it and confirm it there you are free from all INAD, and not received claims. It is a wonderful way to open yourself up to the worldwide market with zero risk to you. Your buyers will pay a premium but most of them don’t mind paying a premium to items they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. (Some will whine about it though).
Be weary of cancelling too many items, your defect rate will increase and ebay will drop your seller performance. If it drops too low ebay will drop the ban hammer on you
If you have decided not to ship international then the GSP will allow you to do it without the risk. It’s better than not shipping internationally at all.
Italy here. I buy a lot from US, not only pokemon cards, and on ebay I only buy if USPS international First Class is available. It is cheap, not really fast (but for me is not a problem, we are talking about 2-3 weeks) but it never give me any kind of problem (no lost orders, no heavy delays, customs messing up things just a couple of times in about 5 years…). Consider that italian postal service is really shitty, so in other parts of europe it works even better.
Btw i don’t buy graded cards, but iirc USPS First Class intl packages is more or less 13 usd. You should look into GPS at that price point
Does the “Global Shipping Program” cost extra money or will eBay charge me an extra fee for using that feature? I currently list under 50 items each month so I just use eBay’s free service.
Here is a scam that I have seen. Scenario #1- Someone orders a card, receives it, claims the card was not as stated, returns the item but stuffs it with garbage, the buyer receives a package that weighs the same amount but does not have the item. The seller is screwed. Scenario #2 (from a buyer point of view)- The seller sends a package with shipping but it has a phone case that weights approximately close to the weight of a PSA graded card.
Has anyone ever known either of these scams to happen to anyone/ do they know of any protection offered for the victim?
GSP is 100% free to the seller. It actually pays you to enable GSP when not otherwise shipping international. It opens you up to a pool of new buyers. If an international bidder wins then you can be ensured the GSP just increased your profits as that was a buyer you couldn’t have reached prior.
As I said before the GSP 100% shields you from scams. You ship to the center in KY and they verify the item. Once they receive it and verify its content and integrity they 100% take over all liability when it comes to transit damage or return claims.
I’ve never actually used eBay’s GSP - I am curious though on how it works. As a seller, you just package / mail the item to the Shipping Center within the U.S. - then they will take-care of the International Shipping. Do you have to enter weights of everything though so that eBay knows how much to charge for International Shipping? How much does the buyer originally pay you in shipping - is it just a domestic-rate (then eBay charges them another shipping-rate)? Not sure how that portion works…
Then, what happens when the item arrives at the Shipping Center. I know your responsibility is met at that point; however, does eBay still keep you in the-loop - or does the buyer now have to work with eBay? Do you get a notification saying that the item has arrived / been shipped-out again for International Shipment with X Tracking Number?
Sorry for all the questions - been curious about how exactly that works.
When I make a GSP sale it looks normal to me however I cannot invoice through eBay so sometimes that is how I notice. I have free shipping on all my listings so if they win an item for $100 they pay me $100. When I print the packing slip I can see what they actually paid overall which on $100 may be something along the lines of $110-$130. I never see the excess over $100 though. So if you charge $2.50 shipping you’d get $102.50 and the transfer center gets the rest.
Then I pack and ship to Erlanger, KY. I never check up on it again but they do send e-mails saying when it is received at the center and then shipped out from the center and then when it was delivered to the end customer. Most my PSA cards I have 3 oz on and single cards 1 oz. I however once did sell a 48 empty tin lot for something like $80-$100 free shipping. Huge box and it cost me about $30 to ship it to KY. I have no idea how much it cost them to ship it international but it must have been a ton. Interesting part is I didn’t think it would ever sell so I didn’t even have a weight in the listing. I have no idea what they charged to the buyer nor how they came up with what to charge them.
Seconded on shipping big bulky items through GSP without measurements or weights. They have never forced entry of sizes or weights and I’ve shipped some big and weird items through the system. Never had an issue.
@gottaketchumall - THANKS for the Info. I’ve always wondered how it works with GSP Sales. May have to look into offering that type of shipping at some point; sounds like it avoids a lot of headaches!
I’ve had some experience sending cards to Australia and the UK through GSP. It is no hassle and 100% legit. Yes, the cost all covered by the buyer, including calculated customs. These numbers are made known to the buyer, so if the buyer paid BIN, etc, they are already aware of them. Simply put: easy.
I do ship Internationally pretty often myself - and thus far haven’t had any major issues. However, Domestic Shipping is always much easier - and gives you a much better peace-of-mind! Some of those “odd-ball” countries I receive orders from every once in awhile are awful at updating tracking information.
