First sale on eBay, panic about international shipping
Summary: The discussion concerns simonaok's concern about handling international shipping after her first sale on eBay. technopartsbay, heavenwelkin, and fra_929674 take part in the conversation, but the exact content of their replies is not specified.
Good evening, sorry if this is a topic that’s already been discussed somewhere, but I couldn’t find any reference to it.
I’m deciding to post my first listing, but I’m having serious trouble finding fair/right prices to enter for international shipping. I’ve compared the eBay tables, and it seems to me that I only see Poste Italiane Crono Internazionale, and I’ve run some simulations with the "eBay shipping" platform. It only finds UPS, which is very expensive even for very small parcels. The service for creating labels directly from the eBay site seems definitely the most convenient to me, but I can’t figure out how to choose between multiple couriers so I can offer a cheaper shipping option. Any advice is welcome.
Best regards to everyone
heavenwelkin
·7 months agoRecently I shipped with Crono Internazionale to the UK and it took 3 days to deliver.
The service works great if in the customs declaration you clearly and understandably write what the item is, avoiding descriptions with strange abbreviations or ones that are hard for a non-specialist to understand.
If you happen to get an inexperienced customs officer, they can label everything as PROBABLE DANGEROUS GOODS and the package gets sent back.
That happened to me twice with an inverter board for a notebook, where I had used wording that was too technical and evidently incomprehensible to the officer checking it.
I should have simply written notebook replacement part ......
Then clearly specify that the import taxes have already been collected by eBay and include at least two copies of the customs declaration, also add the eBay order summary and where the buyer-paid taxes are shown, highlight it with a marker and write "taxes collected by eBay".
That way you can be sure the buyer won’t get charged twice and the whole customs clearance process is much faster.
Crono Internazionale includes home pickup. You can’t take Crono Internazionale to the post office because they won’t accept it.
For the UK, Packlink offered me Crono Internazionale for about 10 euros and then UPS at double the cost......
With UPS you also need to attach a photocopy of your ID to the customs declaration, otherwise the courier who picks it up might not accept the shipment.
With Crono Internazionale, you don’t need to include an ID document.
Then there’s the free export of goods declaration to fill out in English and Italian.
Kind regards.
fra_929674
·6 months agoVery interesting! Can I ask whether this procedure also applies to books? that is, are they considered "documents" or "other items"? and are they subject to customs duties? I’m referring to books with a value of 20-30e each. Thanks in advance
heavenwelkin
·6 months agoTheoretically, in some non-EU countries books benefit from reduced VAT or are exempt.
For example, in the United Kingdom VAT is 0%
But in practice I can't give you a definite 100% answer
You should try and see whether eBay asks for VAT on a book sold for 30 in the UK as a private seller.
Then maybe let us know your experience.
Kind regards.
technopartsbay
·7 months agoPackLink (which is the broker partnered with eBay) has great prices on international shipping with UPS, DPD and DHL.
In the EU it’s around €15 for 1 kg. (prices obviously vary depending on whether you choose home pickup or not, etc.).
Prices that, however, rise exponentially if you ship outside the EU: something that is common to all carriers anyway.
Not to mention that customs procedures require specific additional documentation.