Why offer so many sellers from UK only UK shipping?

[Neniel]

First of all, excuse me for my bad english.

I'm looking on Ebay often for beautiful muberry bags.

Mostly I find them in the UK, but lately I meet more and more sellers who only offer shipment to Uk.

Is it particularly difficult or risky to sell abroad? It costs no more money for them, because I pay the entire shipping cost.

 

[vernis-lover]

First of all, excuse me for my bad english.

I'm looking on Ebay often for beautiful muberry bags.

Mostly I find them in the UK, but lately I meet more and more sellers who only offer shipment to Uk.

Is it particularly difficult or risky to sell abroad? It costs no more money for them, because I pay the entire shipping cost.

No it's not particularly difficult to sell from the UK to overseas but you can only insure items up to £500 with our Post Office. Anything beyond that has to go by courier and that becomes VERY expensive and time consuming for a random seller. Additionally, if sellers don't know which services to select then they become worried about tracking parcels so just avoid shipping overseas.

Switzerland isn't an EU country so assume you would also be liable for customs charges which buyers don't tend to like.

But sometimes it's just a case of asking a seller to ship overseas as many just don't seem to know which options to select to make shipping overseas available to buyers.

Hope that helps.

 

[Neniel]

No it's not particularly difficult to sell from the UK to overseas but you can only insure items up to £500 with our Post Office. Anything beyond that has to go by courier and that becomes VERY expensive and time consuming for a random seller. Additionally, if sellers don't know which services to select then they become worried about tracking parcels so just avoid shipping overseas.

Switzerland isn't an EU country so assume you would also be liable for customs charges which buyers don't tend to like.

But sometimes it's just a case of asking a seller to ship overseas as many just don't seem to know which options to select to make shipping overseas available to buyers.

Hope that helps.

Thank you very much, that helped me a lot. I think I will from now on always ask the Seller. I also have a friend in Germany who can accept packages for me. so that the charges should be no problem.

 

[vernis-lover]

Thank you very much, that helped me a lot. I think I will from now on always ask the Seller. I also have a friend in Germany who can accept packages for me. so that the charges should be no problem.

No problems. Another issue is there may be confusion over postage charges. For posting a bag within the UK then sellers can only charge a maximum postage amount of £7. Bags will often cost more than this to post via insured and tracked methods. They may believe there is also a limit on international postage (there isn't) so may be put off even investigating the option.

Anyway, contacting sellers is probably your best option and ask them to quote you for INTERNATIONAL SIGNED FOR or AIRSURE postage through Royal Mail. They can do this online at www.royalmail.com so all they will need is the weight of the parcel. If it's a bag valued at over £500 then I doubt you would want to pay the courier postage in all honesty as it's ridiculously expensive!

 

[wulie]

I always set up my listings as UK only, but often state that buyers from other locations are welcome to enquire. This allows me to check them out (location/feedback etc), agree additional postage charges and ensure that they understand their liability for customs/import duties before changing my settings to allow them to bid.
I am always happy to respond to a polite enquiry (and have had some good sales that started this way), but any demands for eg customs undervaluation / lowball offers get immediately blocked!

If you're planning to have your friend receive packages on your behalf then I'd suggest you have their address set up in your paypal, as shipping to other addresses may void seller protection - another reason that would make sellers wary of sending overseas.

Good luck though - I know that Mulberry can be difficult to get at a good price overseas so ebay can be a good place to buy.