Why is it sold more in the United Kingdom?

Summary: The discussion concerns the reason why sales are higher in the United Kingdom. No details are provided in the messages, since they were all posted with the content 'None'.

Hi everyone, on Ebay I’m mainly a buyer but every now and then I sell something.
For example, right now I have some used picture frames that I’d like to sell.
To understand how the market is going I search for "picture frame" and then click on "used" and "sold items", so I can get an idea of the price too. I’ve noticed that the list that comes up from this search is made up almost entirely of items coming from the United Kingdom, but this is also the case for other used items that I’ve tried to sell in the past.
One thing isn’t clear to me though: do these completed sales refer to items shipped to Italy or anywhere in the world?
In any case, I was wondering why they sell so much more in the United Kingdom than in Italy.
Do they have a more thriving used market? Does posting listings in English with international shipping sell more?
Then why do I find so few listings from Italian sellers written in English and with international shipping?

dan6872

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Posted 11 months ago·Last reply 11 months ago

2 comments

dan6872

OP11 months ago

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Thanks for the detailed response, I’ll do some tests with my sold items.

Bye

heavenwelkin

·11 months ago

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@dan6872 wrote:
Hello everyone, on Ebay I am mainly a buyer but every now and then I sell something.
For example, right now I have some used picture frames that I’d like to sell.
To see how the market is doing, I search for "picture frame" and then click on "used" and "sold items", so I can also get an idea of the price.
That’s what many people do; the only note is that not all sold items appear in the sold items history, but there is nothing official or documented about this PROBLEM and the possible reasons why this happens can be different.
The fact that only items from the UK show up could be realistic, or not.
The final test you can do is to create a few listings for your items, setting a realistic market price maybe with best offer, and see how the market moves.
I noticed that the list that comes up from this search is made almost entirely of items from the United Kingdom, but this also happened with other used items I tried to sell in the past.

What you’re finding is not an isolated case: it’s a known issue that may depend on eBay-side bugs, interface updates, internal display logic, or differences between platforms.

If someone wants to try seeing whether their sold used items appear in the sold items search history.
I find that some items appear and others don’t.

One thing isn’t clear to me though: do these completed sales refer to items shipped in Italy or anywhere in the world?
Completed sales (if you don’t specify "only Italy" in the search criteria) refer to all items sold on eBay, including foreign items that have international shipping enabled for Italy as well (if you are using the ebay.it site).
In any case, I was wondering why they sell so much in the United Kingdom compared to Italy.
There isn’t a definite answer to this question; it is certainly a matter of different markets where ebay.uk still enjoys excellent trust and health and where evidently sellers perceive greater safety on ebay.uk at least on a psychological level. There may be other reasons why ebay.uk, despite the years and time passing, remains more popular than ebay.it.

Do they have a more thriving used market? Does posting ads in English with international shipping sell more?
International sales from England to Italy and from Italy to England are subject to payment of customs duties, VAT, tariffs, courier fees, so posting ads on ebay Italy in English and/or bilingual could favor sales toward the UK as well, everything depends on whether the items you sell are of interest to the English market.
Basically, it has to be worth it for an English buyer to take a bigger risk by making an international purchase and also paying the related customs charges.
But then why do I find so few ads from Italian sellers written in English and with international shipping?
Because most Italians do not know English, while the English use their native language, and most Italian sellers do not feel comfortable shipping to the UK because the whole customs procedure also requires knowledge.
Also because in Italy we do not have the eBay international shipping service that takes care of everything.
On ebay uk and ebay Usa, eBay has the international shipping service active, managed directly by eBay.
A UK or US seller only has to ship the item to the address provided by eBay and then eBay takes care of managing the international shipping.

Best regards