Here is a couple for you…
http://www.modeltrains.com
http://www.pwrs.ca/main.php
I buy and sell off of Ebay all the time. What really pisses me off with some American sellers is that I will buy a Loco for 40 bucks but on the customs forms they put the value at 150 for the item that was probably only 60 new. Guess what, we pay customs on 150. Another thing that bothers me is the USA, USA, USA shipping only crap. It takes all of 10 seconds to fill out a customs paper at the post office and you probably need to go there anyways to get a total for shipping. There was a Proto 2000 SD 60 demo unit on Ebay this morning that I really wanted but the dude selling it wouldn’t send it to Canada. The thing sold for 14 bucks, lolol. I hope he choked on it.
He´ll probably send the winning bidder an email that he “accidentally dropped the item while packing it” and relist it a few weeks later. Sad to say that this is one of the more recent Euro-Schpiels…
TA462
I haven’t sold anything on ebay, but I do have some stuff that I am considering selling off. While I never really gave it much thought, after reading what has been posted here I would hesitate in shipping to Canada because I would ship UPS as the Post Office is not convenient for me to go to. Would feel bad if a buyer (and fellow MR) got stuck with that brokerage fee that I’ve seen discussed.
Of course if I do decide to sell then I will do some digging and make sure I understand the various rules and fees before deciding - if it’s no big deal - it would be silly to cut out potential bidders.
living in australia i tend to sell local and to buy from the usa… when i buy from the usa it is usually for something i want … for example i will go to proto 1000… put in gondola then buy now… this will give me lots of listings for the wagons i want then i look for a seller (usually a shop ) and see if i can get the items… for example 12 x proto gons in conrail then i work out the cost for each item comparing individual items compared to 4 x packs…then if things look good i look at the seller and see if they ship to australia… they are usually happy to ship when you buy now and buy a number of items… only look at buy now because if i want 12 x items i dont want to buy from 12 x sellers and get outbid on 11 of them, plus combined postage is i abig advantage …never had a problem buying… had a problem selling once when the buyer got very upset when the peco crossing i sold didnot have joiners on it… they dont come from peco with joiners so please know the product you are buying… as for not selling to germany,australia has troops in the war with the usa… so do we get a discount… peter… ps any canadian modellers want to say hello send me an email
Dave,you can believe what you read about UPS.I’ve had one experience with that firm (one too much) and they are pretty nasty with canadian customers.I purchased a loco from a very nice guy in Colorado about a year ago.Since I had sent him more than sufficient amount for shipping,he though well to ship it UPS,believing I’d get it much faster.First this is not really true since it took 10 days (tracking allowed me to see that it stuck for three days somewhere in Wisconsin I think).Then when it finally ended up at my door,there was an $18. CDN brokerage(mail charges $5 flat rate) fee plus the taxes.I could live with this but what is most frustrating,the delivery guy wouldn’t deliver if he wasn’t paid right away which I can also understand.But the irony is that my lady had to search her purse,shelves and drawers to find the EXACT amount because that creep didn’t carry any change.And if this wasn’t enough,my lady said he wasn’t even nice mannered.Talk about poor business running…
Jacktal,
Thanks to your post and others here I will make sure should I ever start selling on ebay and the winning bidder is from Canada that I ship via USPS. I would hate to know that a buyer got stuck with a large fee that could have been avoided.
Perhaps a short email to the seller explaining the simple (at cheaper) way of shipping to Canada would help? LIke your Colorado seller, many folks in the U.S. dont’ see shipping to Canada as shipping to a foreign country. Yes it’s a burden that should be done by the seller - but as the idea is to have a smooth transaction - perhaps it would help.
Dave
Dave,my purchase from Colorado was my first ever Ebay transaction and possibly was the gentleman’s first shipping outside U.S. He probably didn’t know,just as I didn’t either.In fact I was thrilled when he returned an email with the tracking number,believing I’d have my loco in no time,so no hard feeling over this.
However,since then I always specify my sellers not to ship UPS and they all kindly agreed.The other side of the dice is I make sure payment is lightning fast and hasslefree.Results have always been positive feedbacks,both ways.
Jacktal,
Of course you could have just left negative feedback on the guy - but then that wouldn’t be the cool thing to do. I think your assessment of the situation is accurate and I applaud you for giving the guy the benefit of the doubt - many folks would not have done that. Your second paragraph is a gem. I wish more folks would look at life the way you do - but then I’d be out of a job lol.
Dave
The one other point is the mention of someone selling air impact wrenches for $4.99 with a shipping fee of $60.00. This is an attempt by the seller to sell something for $65.00 and only pay the Ebay fee for a $4.99 item. You might want to report things like this to Ebay, I think it’s called Safe harbor, because it’s a blatant attempt to defraud Ebay.
And I have to agree with the things said about UPS. I thought it was just our local office that was a PITA, but it seems like it’s corporation wide that they don’t like to handle individual’s shipping, just big companies. That’s why in my selling I state that I only ship USPS, much better service and better to deal with. Go to their website for a shipping calculator and some supplies and all forms can be ordered if you use them a lot. Priority Mail boxes used to be free, but I haven’t done that for a long time so that may have changed.