Collecting American Sports Items Overseas

[otismalibu]

"No international shipping"

An Italian hoops collector I know, will occasionally ask me to bid on his behalf, in cases where the seller doesn't ship to Italy. I re-address the package, take it to the post office and ship. He reimburses the postage and usually adds some extra for my time. He has an amazing collection and much of it has come from the US.

Although, I've not heard good things about the Italian postal service.

[Dave4Reds]

I have spent 10 of the last 13 years overseas and I've been collecting Cincinnati Reds stuff the whole time. Other than a cheap Reds plastic bobbing head that I found in Hong Kong, everything I've bought has been through ebay, the Reds team shop or one of the auction houses. I've always been able to work out shipping. There are "re-mailers" that you can use if needed, but of course that adds to the shipping costs. Hope this helps.......

[Ulidia]

Any auction houses that I've used send items abroad although postal costs can be relatively prohibitive.

In my experience, the majority of eBay sellers will also but a substantial minority will not. Interestingly, Italy is one of those countries that seems to appear regularly as one of the destinations that some sellers will not send to - presumably due to problems with the Italian postal service.

Another aspect to bear in mind is customs. I'm not sure how it works in Italy but, here in UK, it seems very "hit and miss" as to what gets held up and charged by customs and what gets let through. This "hit and miss" reality is irrespective of whether the full value of the item is declared on the packet or it. If you are looking at purchasing an item with one eye on its investment potential, living abroad may be a prohibitor given postal charges, potential customs charges and, if you're being paid in € rather than $, currency conversion charges.


For info., there's a large calcio ("soccer") collector base in Italy. In my experience, they primarily collect shirts, pennants, tickets and stickers (esp Panini).

[smotan_02]

These are great comments, thanks. Does anyone have experience shipping to an APO?

[drc]

I have a friend living in Madrid and she doesn't like me to send her anything larger than a letter because has to to pay duties on it.

Luckily, baseball cards are awfully small.

I've bought from and sold to Italy a couple of times and don't recall any shipping issues. I also have shipped cards to APO and haven't had any troubles.

To tell you the truth, I've shipped to lots of foreign countries and haven't had problems. All the Western European countries are fine in my experience. I have no problem shipping to them.

Might not hurt to get an American reference or two, to vouch that you're a reputable collector who happens to be working in Italy. May help allay any foreign shipping fears of some potential sellers.

[ibuysportsephemera]

Scott,

You have my e-mail address and phone number....I might be able to help.

Jeff

[Big Six]

Hey Scott...a friend of mine played for Telemarket Rimini last year...you'll be able to get your fix of "professional" baseball that way...I'm looking for a few things from the Italian League so if you're willing to help, I can share details. Shoot me a PM...and best of luck! Matt

[smotan_02]

Thanks everyone. I think most of you are right, I'll just get there and feel out the situation. Should be interesting none the less.