Ebay Global Shipping Program

[mjsid]

Do you use the Global Shipping Program on Ebay to ship international?  What has been your experience?

[Lordoflego]

It's a beautiful thing, cheap shipping for seller (not for the buyer), stress free sale.

[Jivepicnic]

It's a beautiful thing, cheap shipping for seller (not for the buyer), stress free sale.

I agree. I've never had any issues with it, and I don't have to worry about knowing export rules or international shipping rates. I've heard that others have had some problems, but it's been fine for me.

[waddamon]

+10, I hated selling international before this program was in place.  It is a piece of cake.  Never had a problem, not once.

[emmers]

GSP has really been one of the few positive things eBay has done over the past few years. Lately, I've been selling significantly more through GSP than domestic sales with no issues whatsoever with my transactions. 

[Trains 'n boats]

I always turn off global selling because I don't know how it works.  Is there a wiki or something that I can see through al these fine folks, or a quick explanation?

Cheers!

[Dr Jedi]

I use it, and as a seller I like it.  I've had two problems with it, but both problems seem to have been caused by the buyer screwing up their address in some way.  Both times the item got shipped back to the Global Shipping Center near me, but I never personally got them back.  The beauty is that if there is a problem between ebay's global shipping center and the buyer, as a seller, you are not responsible for the mess.  All you've got to do is get the item to the shipping center.  

[mjsid]

Thank you all for your input.  I have shied away from using it before

[Captain_chaos]

I've just used it for the first time. Very easy from my perspective to dispatch it. My concern would be an item not as described return request. It sounds like that would be an expensive mess. 

[fuzzy_bricks]

2 hours ago, Trains 'n boats said:

I always turn off global selling because I don't know how it works.  Is there a wiki or something that I can see through al these fine folks, or a quick explanation?

Cheers!

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html

Even if you haven't participated in the GSP, you may have shipped to a freight forwarder before.

The PayPal fees for an international payment are higher than the 2.9% for a domestic transaction, 4.9% I believe.

Just an FYI, if you want to see what a buyer pays for the GSP service you can select print invoice and it will show the cost.  Some locations are pricey.

[Blake3741]

8 hours ago, Trains 'n boats said:

I always turn off global selling because I don't know how it works.  Is there a wiki or something that I can see through al these fine folks, or a quick explanation?

Cheers!

The Global Shipping Program, as mentioned above, is very easy to use. When it is activated on your item, then buyers in other countries can see your item listed with there domestic shipping charges and any applicable import fees. If you're curious what this looks like, just pull up a popular item on eBay and scroll down to the international listings. There you will find items that usually have fairly high shipping costs, and they usually say shipping from wherever.  These sellers are, more often than not, listing with the global shipping program, and you as the potential buyer are seeing their listing with any applicable shipping charges and import fees. 

Now, when you sell an item internationally through the GSP, eBay has a global shipping center in Erlanger Kentucky where you will ship the item. I'm pretty sure it is the only global shipping center in the US, but there might be one on the west coast. If somebody knows, please chime in. There, eBay will take care of any customs forms and prepare and ship the item to the buyer. Again, I'm pretty sure they keep the item there until they have a shipment going to the receiving country. Occasionally I've had items sit their for a couple weeks. But usually they get the item out  within a week. 

Anyways, that's the extent of it. Pretty much, eBay has already done all the work for you in determining import fees and international domestic shipping charges. All you have to do is mail the item to the Global Shipping Center, and they handle the rest. 

FYI, the Global Shipping Center will be the buyers address that shows on your items purchase page. You won't even see their physical address. 

[Blake3741]

6 hours ago, fuzzy_bricks said:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html

Even if you haven't participated in the GSP, you may have shipped to a freight forwarder before.

The PayPal fees for an international payment are higher than the 2.9% for a domestic transaction, 4.9% I believe.

Just an FYI, if you want to see what a buyer pays for the GSP service you can select print invoice and it will show the cost.  Some locations are pricey.

I mostly use the eBay app on my phone, and when a buyer purchases an item, all I  have to do to see what they pay for their fees is scroll down the page and look at the number listed under shipping charges. This doesn't give me a breakdown, but it does give me an idea of how much in excess to my price they paid. I didn't know that an invoice would show the costs.  Does it give a breakdown of the fees? 

[jaisonline]

20 minutes ago, Blake3741 said:

I mostly use the eBay app on my phone, and when a buyer purchases an item, all I  have to do to see what they pay for their fees is scroll down the page and look at the number listed under shipping charges. This doesn't give me a breakdown, but it does give me an idea of how much in excess to my price they paid. I didn't know that an invoice would show the costs.  Does it give a breakdown of the fees? 

The buyer's GSP shipping breakdown is only shown on the shipping slip you print during the postage purchase process.

At times the buyer's GSP price was insanely high so I let the buyer know these fees are not from me but ebay itself.

[Alpinemaps]

There's only the Kentucky location. I wish there was a west coast location - it would make shipping from California to GSP much cheaper.