Buying from E-Bay?

[irv]

Finally got around to changing my password yesterday and updating my info with Pay Pal so I am curious what is all involved with purchasing/bidding on something from E-Bay?

I was just in, looked at some cards, hit the "bid now" tab and it looks like I could have if I proceeded?

I see most/all have name like this "A**B" or something like that, I assume I should also come up with something like that for me as well?

Is there anything more to it, something I am not aware of, fees etc that is associated with this?

I have never bid on something before in my life so any and all info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.........Irv

[irv]

Found/read this so I guess that pretty sums up my questions?
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bidding-overview.html

Just curious what I need to be aware of, if anything, so I don't get burned etc.

Thanks

[Shoeless Moe]

If your just buying, and not selling, there are no fees.

Buyers just pay the price they win the item at, and then if there is a shipping charge shown, some sellers have free shipping.

My 2 cents, if its an auction and not a buy it now, bid at the end, within the last minute......it avoids you getting in a bidding war early.

Just know what your max price is factoring shipping too, and bid that, sometime you will win, sometimes lose, sometimes well below your max bid sometimes right at it.

Good luck!!!

[gregr2]

Another good method is to use a sniping service such as gavelsnipe.com

You enter the URL of the eBay auction and you max bid and in the last few seconds of the auction it bids for you. Same theory, you'll win some and lose some but it takes out the urge to keep pushing up the bid.

[irv]

Thanks guys.

I tried to enter a bid and it wouldn't accept it? Tried a few times, read some stuff then called E-Bay.

Was informed, due to my lack of use, that I had to be reset. The lady on the other end was great, although a tad hard to understand at times, but things went smoothly.
She reset me, I tried it and it worked. Thing is, what I bid on wasn't exactly what I was after, nor did I pay much attention to what it actually was, so I also learned how to retract a bid today.

After being careless, I will now pay closer attention, be more careful, and definitely look over things better, including shipping fees. Those vary greatly and there doesn't seem to be a reason for it that I can see?

[irv]

Well, I got my feet wet and purchased a couple cards from E-Bay last night.
A 1959 Fleer Ted Williams and a 1961 Fleer Goose Goslin, both PSA graded.

Like what has been already mentioned, shipping rates vary exponentially!

Passed on a few I wanted more but the shipping rates/fees killed it for me, plus when I add up the CDN exchange rate, a $10.00 card can easily turn into a $40.00 or $50.00 dollar card!

Being since I was given a bunch of 52 Topps cards, I thought I'd give back or contribute to the hobby, but I am not sure, especially with what I mentioned above, if I can do this very often or not?

Any idea why shipping rates are so expensive compared to others? I assume the sellers also make money off of those?
I can understand, maybe, an expensive card, but when you see a $10.00-$20.00 dollar worth about half the shipping costs, it sure makes you wonder!

Edit: Can someone tell me why some cards/ads have an import fee/charge and others don't? I seen last night and today, some of those are just as much if not more than shipping costs.

[D. Bergin]

Unfortunately, International Shipping Rates going outside the U.S. have been going up exponentially in the last few years, with another huge jump this last month.

Import fees are the fees your country or Postal service charges to let items into the country. It has nothing to do with the seller. Some sellers have Ebay's Global Shipping Service activated, which means they ship the item to one of Ebay's clearinghouses, and then they get shipped internationally from there.

Ebay collects those fees from the buyers up front (the sellers don't see any of that). Sellers who use that service would generally not ship Internationally at all if this was not available to them (it's less risky for them), but it generally ends up being much more expensive for the buyer, since Ebay usually rounds way up on any shipping calculation in their favor.

Other sellers who are more confidant shipping internationally themselves won't have that tacked on to their listings, and it's up to the shipping service on your end to collect any associated fees from you, if the type of shipment being sent applies, usually based on value.

[irv]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Unfortunately, International Shipping Rates going outside the U.S. have been going up exponentially in the last few years, with another huge jump this last month.

Import fees are the fees your country or Postal service charges to let items into the country. It has nothing to do with the seller. Some sellers have Ebay's Global Shipping Service activated, which means they ship the item to one of Ebay's clearinghouses, and then they get shipped internationally from there.

Ebay collects those fees from the buyers up front (the sellers don't see any of that). Sellers who use that service would generally not ship Internationally at all if this was not available to them (it's less risky for them), but it generally ends up being much more expensive for the buyer, since Ebay usually rounds way up on any shipping calculation in their favor.

Other sellers who are more confidant shipping internationally themselves won't have that tacked on to their listings, and it's up to the shipping service on your end to collect any associated fees from you, if the type of shipment being sent applies, usually based on value.

Thanks, D. Bergin. I appreciate the info. It's going to make it tough for me to purchase any cards State side now and in the future.

It's funny the shipping/importing differences between cards? Some, it looks like it is based on the value of the cards and others, there doesn't seem to be a reason for it?

I appreciate the explanation.

Thanks again........Dale

[Ray Van]

Irv/Dale ... run far away from any auction that is attached to the Global Shipping Program. You are very correct that a $10 cost can quickly become a $50 cost. I can't understand why ebay charges, for example, $25 US shipping on an item that would normally cost $5 shipping. Outside of this program, most items (95%) shipped through regular means will not get stopped by customs and will not have extra duties and taxes added to them, that's just my experience and I buy a fair amount on ebay.

I can speak from experience as I am also located in Canada.

Also not sure if you are accessing ebay.ca or ebay.com but note that some US sellers on ebay.com will not ship to Canada. So it's safer to view items on ebay.ca but understand the selection, especially for baseball, will be smaller. You still see US sellers on ebay.ca, but only those that are willing to ship to Canada.

Ray

[chaddurbin]

to op,

serious question...did you just come out from living under a rock last month? you just discovered ebay and the high international shipping cost now?

[irv]

Originally Posted by Ray Van

Irv/Dale ... run far away from any auction that is attached to the Global Shipping Program. You are very correct that a $10 cost can quickly become a $50 cost. I can't understand why ebay charges, for example, $25 US shipping on an item that would normally cost $5 shipping. Outside of this program, most items (95%) shipped through regular means will not get stopped by customs and will not have extra duties and taxes added to them, that's just my experience and I buy a fair amount on ebay.

I can speak from experience as I am also located in Canada.

Also not sure if you are accessing ebay.ca or ebay.com but note that some US sellers on ebay.com will not ship to Canada. So it's safer to view items on ebay.ca but understand the selection, especially for baseball, will be smaller. You still see US sellers on ebay.ca, but only those that are willing to ship to Canada.

Ray

Thanks for the info, Ray Van, I did not know that about Global shipping.
Still learning, hopefully not the hard way with those 2 cards I purchased last night.
(I live east of you, in Durham Region)

Originally Posted by chaddurbin

to op,

serious question...did you just come out from living under a rock last month? you just discovered ebay and the high international shipping cost now?

Serious answer, chad.......... I am new here and new to all this card trading/bidding/E-Bay thing so if you'll excuse my ignorance and bear with me a while, I'll eventually learn and hopefully someday I'll be as smart as you?

[irv]

Originally Posted by Ray Van

Irv/Dale ... run far away from any auction that is attached to the Global Shipping Program. You are very correct that a $10 cost can quickly become a $50 cost. I can't understand why ebay charges, for example, $25 US shipping on an item that would normally cost $5 shipping. Outside of this program, most items (95%) shipped through regular means will not get stopped by customs and will not have extra duties and taxes added to them, that's just my experience and I buy a fair amount on ebay.

I can speak from experience as I am also located in Canada.

Also not sure if you are accessing ebay.ca or ebay.com but note that some US sellers on ebay.com will not ship to Canada. So it's safer to view items on ebay.ca but understand the selection, especially for baseball, will be smaller. You still see US sellers on ebay.ca, but only those that are willing to ship to Canada.

Ray

Found this, Ray. (Below) Thanks again for the heads up!!
I noticed, out of the 2 cards I purchased last night, the Global one I have still received no info on but the other, International shippers, is already on it's way.

Also appreciate the info on E-Bay.ca. I will make sure I use it more/all the time in the future.
http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling...m/td-p/2728257

[gnaz01]

Originally Posted by irv

Serious answer, chad.......... I'll eventually learn and hopefully someday I'll be as smart as you?

Doubtful

[MooseDog]

Irv -

If you know or visit anyone in the States and plan on buying a lot it might be worth having your shipments sent there, it will be MUCH cheaper in the long run. Of course you'd have to trust your recipient.

I have a couple of regular customers from Canada, one lives in Vancouver and has a mail box service in Blaine, WA just across the border that he has me send to. Another lives in Toronto and has a son in Buffalo so he has me send stuff there.

[grainsley]

EBay's Global Shipping has indeed made life difficult for us Colonials. I have had very good luck contacting sellers and asking what they would charge to just put a card in a toploader in a p.w.e..........most seem to be quite reasonable about it, $2 or $2.50...and they seem surprised that Global Shipping to Canada for a single card is something like $16.75. (U.S.$$$), so more like $20 to us. A lot of them lose good potential Canadian business because they aren't aware of this total rip-off that they are party to.

[irv]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

Irv -

If you know or visit anyone in the States and plan on buying a lot it might be worth having your shipments sent there, it will be MUCH cheaper in the long run. Of course you'd have to trust your recipient.

I have a couple of regular customers from Canada, one lives in Vancouver and has a mail box service in Blaine, WA just across the border that he has me send to. Another lives in Toronto and has a son in Buffalo so he has me send stuff there.

Originally Posted by grainsley

EBay's Global Shipping has indeed made life difficult for us Colonials. I have had very good luck contacting sellers and asking what they would charge to just put a card in a toploader in a p.w.e..........most seem to be quite reasonable about it, $2 or $2.50...and they seem surprised that Global Shipping to Canada for a single card is something like $16.75. (U.S.$$$), so more like $20 to us. A lot of them lose good potential Canadian business because they aren't aware of this total rip-off that they are party to.

Great info, guys!

Thanks.

[irv]

Originally Posted by grainsley

EBay's Global Shipping has indeed made life difficult for us Colonials. I have had very good luck contacting sellers and asking what they would charge to just put a card in a toploader in a p.w.e..........most seem to be quite reasonable about it, $2 or $2.50...and they seem surprised that Global Shipping to Canada for a single card is something like $16.75. (U.S.$$$), so more like $20 to us. A lot of them lose good potential Canadian business because they aren't aware of this total rip-off that they are party to.

I recently contacted a few sellers who use Global shipping, and your are right, most don't realize we have to pay these extra fees.

One guy, who also referred to Pay-Pal as Pig-Pal, said he wasn't surprised so he said he was going to look into other alternatives as he doesn't want to lose business.

An another also looked into it and stated it was $9.50 per card and that he'd have to fill out a Customs form, which was enough for him to say sorry, he wasn't going to even think about shipping to Canada.

I guess, likely, different states have different rules/costs etc than some other states do?

[irv]

Another showing the crazy prices using Global Shipping!!

Just hope more and more on here who use, and are unaware of these crazy fees, consider using something else in the very near future.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-Topps-W...UAAOSwoudW13It

I have seen a lot of nice cards that I'd like to throw a bid on but when I see the shipping/import fees using Global, even at the very low priced cards I am considering bidding on, I quickly change my mind!

Shipping: $19.07 International Priority Shipping to Canada via the Global Shipping Program | See details

Item location:
Voorhees, New Jersey, United States

Ships to:
United States and many other countries | See details
Import charges:
$29.58 (estimated and based on current bid)
No additional import charges on delivery

[rascalsally]

Originally Posted by irv

Thanks, D. Bergin. I appreciate the info. It's going to make it tough for me to purchase any cards State side now and in the future.

It's funny the shipping/importing differences between cards? Some, it looks like it is based on the value of the cards and others, there doesn't seem to be a reason for it?

I appreciate the explanation.

Thanks again........Dale

Dale, My main selling items on ebay are usually jewelry items. We have a buyer in Vietnam who likes old watches. We no longer ship internationally (due to some real bad experiences) so he has a friend stateside who lets him ship to his (paypal verified) California address and then when he has a few items he then packages and ships in one box to Vietnam. It saves him a ton of shipping charges.
If you have a good friend in the States this might be an option for you?