Now I have an E-bay Question...

I got a request from a possible bidder in Bolivia for permission to bid on some of my latest auctions. Does anyone have experience buying or selling to Bolivia?

Shameless plug for this week's sale:

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Are you selling a Butch Cassidy or Sundance Kid action figure?

No, no experience selling to Bolivia but as another poster said, as long as you have money in hand, why worry? And if PayPal works in Bolivia, even better (faster)

--- Stephen

You have a point there. He did offer cash. I'm just not too crazy about cash. If it goes missing there's no trail and I could look like a liar.

I haven't checked yet. I wanted to ask for experiences here first.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

WmB's Guide for Selling/Shipping Internationally:

1) Insist on payment via Paypal within a couple of days of the close of the listing, from a confirmed and verified account. That means the address on file for their credit card matches their shipping address. I'm batting about 50/50 on that one, but I figure by insisting upon it in my listings I've scared away a couple of bad actors. The honest folks that do not meet the buyer's restriction either ignore it or email me to see if I'm serious. That gives me a chance to look 'em over and take an out if they make me nervous. Either way, Paypal gives me a chance to deny their payment if they are not confirmed and verified. So far I've approved all and haven't been burned. I'm not bragging, I know it is likely to happen one day.

2) Airmail Parcel Post at a mnimum - no surface shipments. If you ship Airmail and it is undeliverable, the PO will return it to you for free. If you ship it surface rate, you'll have to pay to get it back - if they even bother to contact you. I had a very expensive kit returned to me because someone between here and the Port in NJ removed the customs papers from the outside envelope - but because I wrote both addresses in ink directly on the box (as advised by the local clerk) I got it back and shipped it again.

3) The USPS website is your friend, either linked thru Paypal or directly. By bringing up the rate calculator you can select international shipments and figure a price out. When you're thru doing that look around and you will see a link for a table of restrictions and information regarding whichever country you are shipping to. Check the girth and weight restrictions. Most are about the same, but take nothing for granted. There will also be notices on any service interruptions or restrictions. Check out Iraq's some time.

3a) Look around Ebay, for less than what the USPS charges for a 5 pound scale, you can pick up a 25-30lb digital scale that should pay for itself if you do even light amount of selling. Interestingly enough I checked mine out against my digital bathroom scale and found that it was accurate within the postal scale's 2oz tolerance. Even so, the postal scale is more convenient.

4) Fleet and APO addresses get different treatment. Be careful here and make sure you do your homework. I once shipped a kit to another country's military post system - I can't recall the one but the restrictions were more numerous than had it been to a civilian address. I believe USPS APO/Fleet shipments have to be processed manually - I was never able to get it done thru Paypal, it would always get hung up trying to reconcile the address. Minor complaint, but I'm spoiled now that they let me walk into the PO and go to the front of the line and drop off my prepaids and leave.

5) By using Paypal on international shipments, you get to fill out the cuistoms forms online and print them out. It does a heckuva a lot better job than I do filling them out manually in quintuplicate. Lesslikely to make amistake that will cause rpoblems down the line. You also get a peak at the restrictions while you're processing the customs forms online - if by chance you didn't bother with them on the USPS site. I believe you can also fill them out online directly from the USPS site but you have to manually enter in a lot of the information ebay and Paypal auto fill into the process. I haven't used the USPS site to do customs forms so I really don't know much about it. I would guess that you would have to have acredit card on acct so they could charge the postage against it instead of Paypal.

6) Listen to your instincts. If it doesn't sound right, it likely isn't, or you do not have all the information you need. To me the single worst thing are the appeals to your vanity and your greed. One guy put a bid in on several listings, when it came to pay he picked up on my mention of having more kits than I had listed. He kept trtying to make a sweetheart deal for a large shipment. In the end he wasn't a crook so much as a bullshit artist. Not only did he not honor his bids for the three things on ebay he bid and won, he hemmed and hawed for a month on the other items he was dying to have. Check's in the mail excuses, while all the while I'm checking his feedback and making note of who he is paying while he's stiffing me. I pulled the plug on the deal, there was no doubt in my mind had he paid up and I shipped that he would have turned the thing back on me somehow and file a coimplaint with Paypal - getting his money back and keeping my kits in the process.

Maybe, maybe not - but you get a feel for which deals are going to go smoothly and which ones can't turn out any other way than bad.

That's more info than you wanted, but for anyone else interested there might be something useful in there. Let me end by saying international buyers are now my best customers accounting for more sales than domestic. If you use the online tools at your disposal to take up the load, preparing the labels and forms is easier than it ever was - especisally if if you have several shipments to manage.

The rest is common sense. Personally I'd pass on the offer to pay with cash. For every kit I have sold I didn't sell five others that I answered as many questions about without making the sale. But eventually they sold. I would look at it that way, another buyer will come along if you have reservations. And if it's for a lot more money than the kit is worth, watch out.

WmB

I have had some international people pay with cash before and didn't have any problems. I didn't like it and let them know up front that if something went wrong, (i.e. I never saw the money) that was too bad for them. They were all cool with that. For a variety of legitimate reasons, it may be difficult or impossible for them to get a paypal account, but its not like they can get their cash back once they have the goods. Just make sure they fully understand they are assuming -all- the risk for sending cash in the mail.

--David

I think I would worry a little. You want to maintain "all positive feedback" on ebay if possible. Make sure you ask the post office if you can get a "proof of delivery". I would build whatever that costs into the shipping charges for sure. That is you only protection for the "I never received it" problem.

Thanks for all the good tips. The bidder stated that Paypal isn't available in Bolivia which was the reason for the cash. I checked the shipping price to Bolivia and it is quite steep - on the order of three times the purchase price of the kits. I advised him of that and my deep reservations about cash. I told him that it was his choice. We'll see. I've discovered that people just don't read things. After my last go-round with euros I added that cash must be in US currency. Last week I got another 5 ? note. Oy!

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I agree people don't read. I recently sold one of my customers' real airplanes on eBay, (yeah, a real Cessna 182). My description left hardly any room for a question. 90% of the questions asked were already clearly answered in the description. For these dumbasses, I usually respond by asking what they don't understand about what's in the description. It seems to happen in most auctions.

Mad-Modeller wrote:

if it is in cu condition, i will buy it. that's crisp uncirculated, meaning no folds, tears, or dirt. so if it's new, it will do.

what part of stupid don't they understand? blame the schools. listening is not taught and by extension, rtfm is a dying art.

If I got my eBay fees back for every stupid question I answer per listing, eBay would go broke.

Listed: I ship worldwide Q: "Do you ship outside the US"

******************************* Listed: I will combine shipping costs Q: "I am interested in several of your items, but the accrued shipping is outrageous! Will you combine shipping?" ******************************* Listed: Scale is not indicated on this sci-fi model Q: yep - "What scale is this kit?" ******************************* Listed: Item listed with the shipping calculator - just plug in your zip, right. Q: "How much is shipping to 90210?" ******************************* Listed: Action figure set, never removed from box [picture shows fig in box] Q: "Is the figure included?" [I figured this one for a prank, and didn't reply - but the woman bought it a few days later] She pricked me a little in feedback saying I was slow to respond. Well I guess no reply is in the neighborhood of a slow reply. ******************************* Listed: Reproduction kit - this is not the original 60s Monogram kit Q: "Is this the real Monogram Classic I built as a kid or the one I saw in the hobby shop with the same looking box a few years ago?" [I was tempted to ask him - "I don't know, where do you live and when were you in there?"] ******************************* Listed: International bidders - please do not ask me to fudge the sales price or provide false information on the customs papers. Q: "I'm really interested in this item and willing to pay your price, which I consider high - would you mind reporting this as a gift on the [gives form number I can't recall] customs papers and recording a value of _____. [If you were wondering - this one was yours Canada.] ******************************* Listed: Accepted payments are Paypal and USPS Money Orders ONLY. Anything else will delay shipping or be returned. Q: Never really a question about it, they just Paypal or mail in payment. Now of those mailed in payments how many would you care to guess are USPS Money Orders? Well if you said 1 in 10 you'd be pretty close. ******************************* Listed: Opened kits will have the lid removed in the picture displaying the contents, sealed kits will of course be sealed [lid attached] Q: This is a popular one, pic shows sealed kit - "Is this kit sealed" Q: This only happened once, pic shows opened kit, sprue trees laid out on table - "Is this kit sealed" ******************************* Listed: Last one, MIB and worth what I've listed [which was about $150 on this big heavy oversized item, not a model kit] Q: [Dec 23, 2006] "My mom just died of cancer, so I don't have a lot of money - $100 is the best I can do, including shipping. What is the quickest way to get this before Christmas?

My Spidey senses began tingling.... I looked up the bidder - they're a flea market out West - Zone 9 to me. I didn't bother to reply. Two days later a new account created that day with 0 feedback hit the Buy It now button. The buyer is from the west and as you might expect - the item is still sitting here awaiting payment or any contact from the buyer.

Hmmmmm....

******************************* Listed: Model kit, requires assy Q: "Do you think my husband/boyfriend could build this?"

OK, I made that last one up - but someday!!!!

WmB

I have a few things on eBay for sale now (TACAMOPAC) and it has been a while since I did any selling, but I seem to recall that PayPal does not verify foreign addresses.

That being said, I have sold to other countries (including South America, but not yet to Bolivia) on numerous occasions and have never had a problem. The biggest deal was a sale to Spain which seemed to take FOREVER to get there - finally arrived over 2 months from shipping date. Whew!

John Alger IPMS 10906 Charlotte Scale Modelers

That couldn't have been airmail. I just sent a 2 pounder over in 6 days and a 15 pounder got there a couple of months ago in about 12 days. Spain been a bery bery good to me so far.

WmB

well, it's still good for a couple of pints at the pub. damn airfare will kill you. i suppose a bank would charge 2 bucks to convert it.

Sorry to say but this one's been around the block more than Britney. It's outright limp.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I wish! The last time I tried the Euro was valued around $5.71. The only bank in the area that changes currency wanted $5. I kept it and eventually sent it (along with a $5) over to Jules for his tsunami relief fund.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Can you belive that was just over 2 years ago, wow how time flies

Yeah, including me. I "won" 3 accurate miniature corvette kits at a terrific price, didn't notice that the seller was in singapore. he followed through on his end fine, shipped promptly, except when the kits were delivered they sort of looked like an elephant had sat on them en route. Any flatter and the mailman would have slid them under the door.