Quote:
Originally Posted by thecatspajamas
I ship to Canada (and other countries) on a regular basis, but I have to admit, it's a bit of a crapshoot. I have gotten so many e-mails starting with "Where is my item?" that I have worked up a standardized response. The reality is that when you ship outside the country, you're working without a net. You can ship only Fed-Ex or UPS, or you can refuse to ship internationally. The result will be the same: no international business.
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But, all that said, I still continue to sell on eBay. Dealing with fraud-minded customers is a part of any sales business (which is another fun quote from that conversation. Thanks eBay rep). Thankfully, there are still far and away more honest buyers out there than dishonest, even north of the border  So I say that the sellers should do what they have to in order to feel comfortable, but if you want to sell outside the country, you just have to suck it up and do it. It's really not that much of a stretch over selling to US buyers. It just takes longer. |
While I agree in general, I do think this only applies for people who use ebay as a business.
Accepting risk, in various forms, is part of being a business owner. I think Cat is correct is that it must be factored in when calculating the "cost of doing business."
The problem lies in the part-time seller. If you're someone who does it to raise money to continue collecting or similar, there may be very little profit built in, so one loss could make a huge difference to them. As was stated above, you either use UPS/Fedex, which cost a lot, or USPS and have no protection. Most small sellers can't afford the loss.