Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

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Ilja
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Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by Ilja »

I have a problem I'd like to hear your opinion about.

There is a OG poster on ebay that I want to buy but the seller has written he will not ship internationally. I've tried to contact the seller with my own address, but it is not allowed by eBay, and I'm (of course) closed off from bidding on the poster because the address on my Ebay account is Danish.

The only solution I see is to change my eBay address to my ShopUSA address (a company who sends goods purchased from the States to the rest of the world), I also have that address registered with paypal.
When I change my address I can write to seller on Ebay, but If I tells him the truth, I am afraid there is great risk that he backs out due to the mixed addresses.. and leaves me with no options whatsoever.

I could also buy the poster with my ShopUSA address without telling anything to seller and hope that nothing happens with the poster on the way. I just hate having to be dishonest with the seller, but I would really like to have this piece.

If I contact seller prior, I would say that I was willing to pay half the amount as a paypalgift if he was afraid I tricked him with a "nothing in the box accusation". And that I of course will be responsible for paying all VAT and taxes. I don't know if there may be other reasons why he will not ship internationally?

Have you any advice or suggestions?

Thank, Ilja
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illyanadmc
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by illyanadmc »

from a seller's perspective, i'm just gonna say that if you're going to go with the shopUSA address, you should explain to the seller before you bid. i just sold my old laptop on ebay, and the first buyer to win my auction was using a proxy US address (i think it was a different company, but it was similar to shopUSA), which was listed as both his eBay and paypal address - the only reason i noticed that something was off is because his account is listed as eBay russia. i refuse to ship computers overseas, just because there are so many things that can go wrong, and it really bugged me that this guy got around my blocking non-US bidders by having that proxy address listed on his eBay account.

this is not to say that i don't ship prints to overseas addresses, because i certainly do, but i'm just coming at this from the perspective of a seller who is blocking non-US bidders - the seller is doing so for a reason. have you contacted the seller at all? i've had non-US eBay members contact me about shipping overseas before, so it's not like eBay disallows that type of message.

also, from a seller's perspective, the problem with those proxy addresses is that if the item is damaged in transit from the proxy company to you, how can the seller prove that the damage wasn't his/her fault? i would never ship a print that way - i'd much rather ship it directly to the overseas address.
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Optimus Rabbit
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by Optimus Rabbit »

Quit effing around and move to the US (obviously).
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jjttdw
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by jjttdw »

If you have friends in the states, have one of them buy the print and have it shipped to them. They could receive it then re-ship to you.
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whyhoo
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by whyhoo »

doesn't the package become the problem of the proxy service once it's delivered to them? as far as i can tell, once it says "delivered" the buyer has no recourse through ebay or paypal.
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illyanadmc
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by illyanadmc »

whyhoo wrote:doesn't the package become the problem of the proxy service once it's delivered to them? as far as i can tell, once it says "delivered" the buyer has no recourse through ebay or paypal.
it still seems shady to me. on one hand, if the buyer receives a damaged product that was the fault of the proxy service, is there any way for the seller to prove that (if the buyer files a claim with paypal/eBay)? and, on the other hand, if the damage is the fault of the seller, and not the proxy service, couldn't the seller weasel out of it by blaming the proxy service?
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by whyhoo »

illyanadmc wrote:
whyhoo wrote:doesn't the package become the problem of the proxy service once it's delivered to them? as far as i can tell, once it says "delivered" the buyer has no recourse through ebay or paypal.
it still seems shady to me. on one hand, if the buyer receives a damaged product that was the fault of the proxy service, is there any way for the seller to prove that (if the buyer files a claim with paypal/eBay)? and, on the other hand, if the damage is the fault of the seller, and not the proxy service, couldn't the seller weasel out of it by blaming the proxy service?

agreed, does seem like a potentially sketchy situation!
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Ilja
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by Ilja »

Hello guys

Sorry I haven't answered you. I burned the motherboard on my macbook pro last week (on top of exam period, grrrrr) so haven't had the opportunity to follow up on the thread.

After reading Illyanadmc's posts I decided to contact the seller.
I had to change my shipping address on eBay from my own to my proxy for even being allowed to contact the seller.
After a good dialogue with the seller, I was allowed to bid on the poster, and I won my Molotov Man for 240 $.
The seller has chosen to send directly to my own address over sea instead of my proxy and I'm now waiting for it to be shipped.

Thanks for all your posts

Regards Ilja
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Re: Seller will not ship internationally, what to do ?

Post by illyanadmc »

glad it all worked out! IMO, you're much better off being up-front than bidding and hoping everything works out.
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