[leeperry]

 

I think it depends where you live really. I usually have no problems with the USPS line where I live. Of course the USPS near my house is not in a very populated area so it's not as busy as if I go to a post office in Manhattan. 

 
Yes, it's the same story in every country....the lines in big cities are unbearable. Ppl who live in Paris refuse to ship anything most of the time...noone wants to wait a half-hour at the post office.

 

[krmathis]

Pleased I live in a rather small city then (Oslo, Norway).
Although capital and largest city in Norway it only have 600.000 inhabitants. Nothing like NYC, Paris, Toronto, etc.

 

[mark2410]

ditto

 

[jrosenth]

 
 
Customs is one extra step to go wrong and i used to sell outside us until multiple bad experiences with it (customs loosing one outright, other thought lost then later turning up, taking 4 weeks to get through customs with time confirmed via tracking)
 
also many buyers are not prepared to pay import duty and are surprised by it or assume it was the seller's duty to check this out and notify them about it
 
often they ask the seller to lie and misrepresent the item as a gift, technically violating law and exposing the seller
 
even if a seller does so (even putting say a nice grado in gift wrap with a birthday card) customs may still exercise their right to assign duty
 
every time i sell something i get a host of canadians pleading for int shipping even though i say i am expressly interested in a quick no hassle deal - in most recent times i decided to but asked them if they were aware of the import fees they might be assessed - they (all) were unaware and shocked once they did their research, all backing out of the deals
 
not only are those are those not easy transactions, but imagine if i hadn't informed them of what to expect about their own country's import (that too happened and i refunded the guy his own country's import even though i told him it may apply) - and everyone of those came after pleading to lift the CONUS only!

 

[momomo6789]

customs just returned this for me and charged me $2 address is on it correct check the date hong kong and back takes time =/
 
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8561/img8611n.jpg

 

[xx0xx]

1. Because I'm lazy. 
2. More hassles, longer waits and shipping time. Huge hassle if anything goes wrong. From working with a large clothing company that ships to Canada (a country close to us compared with elsewhere), I found that there were still way more hassles and problems with shipments compared to US shipments, and you'd think Canada would be pretty easy. More lost packages (a TON), more issues with return shipping and customs and tax issues.
3. Because I have no obligation to ship internationally. I don't care, honestly, how much you want the product or how (appallingly) entitled you feel to be able to purchase my items. They are my items and I have the right as a seller to choose who is eligible to purchase from me in terms of geographical location.
4. It's not my fault that audio products cost three times as much where you live. I didn't create that problem and I don't have to be the solution. 
5. Summary: It's just not worth it.

 
And before you jump on me for not having sold anything here yet, I'm still a seller, I just mostly sell computer-related stuff on [H]ardForum or other places. I'm mostly a lurker here more than anything else and I forget to even sign in half of the time.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

1. Because I'm lazy. 
2. More hassles, longer waits and shipping time. Huge hassle if anything goes wrong. From working with a large clothing company that ships to Canada (a country close to us compared with elsewhere), I found that there were still way more hassles and problems with shipments compared to US shipments, and you'd think Canada would be pretty easy. More lost packages (a TON), more issues with return shipping and customs and tax issues.
3. Because I have no obligation to ship internationally. I don't care, honestly, how much you want the product or how (appallingly) entitled you feel to be able to purchase my items. They are my items and I have the right as a seller to choose who is eligible to purchase from me in terms of geographical location.
4. It's not my fault that audio products cost three times as much where you live. I didn't create that problem and I don't have to be the solution. 
5. Summary: It's just not worth it.

 
And before you jump on me for not having sold anything here yet, I'm still a seller, I just mostly sell computer-related stuff on [H]ardForum or other places. I'm mostly a lurker here more than anything else and I forget to even sign in half of the time.

I don't know how anyone could argue w/ that.  The item is yours to do w/ as you please till you sell it.  Luckily I've had a good experiences selling outside the US.  So far.....  
 
Selling on here is peanuts though compared to the operation above.

 

[ironbut]

I sold a number of items that I wasn't using enough to keep.
On several of the items, I did ask for buys from ConUS only, but on a few I didn't.
 
On the few items I didn't, I had a few inquires and one sale from folks who lived overseas. On the average, I spent more than an hour hunting around for the best shipping prices and on one item, it was more like 3 or 4 hours.
All in all, I'd guess that I spent 6 hours more than it would've taken if I'd just written ConUS only in my for sale post.
None of these items ended up being shipping outside of the US.
 
I've always tried to be as professional as I can be when I sell stuff and treated folks as I wish to be treated. If I say that I'll ship out of country, I'll do my best to find them the best deal no matter how long it takes and how much the item is worth.
I'm not sure if I'll ever sell out of country again since it's difficult to fulfill this oath and not go crazy!
 
Another issue is customs. Filling out the paperwork is no big deal as far as I'm concerned but there's a little thing called "Customs Review" which is.
Customs Review is generally the search for contraband such as drugs. From what I've been able to find out, it doesn't matter who is doing the shipping (UPS, FedEx, USPS etc), customs has the right to open and search any item crossing the border. This usually entails opening the shipping container (box) and examining the contents. If they find it necessary, the contents can be dismantled or otherwise be searched internally. As far as I can tell, unless you're there and witness any destruction of property, no claim can be made.
Unfortunately, I found this out first hand when a buddy of mine sent a pair of HD800's to me from Mexico. Customs opened the box, took out the headphones and proceeded to use a box cutter on the lining of the storage case during their search. When they didn't find anything, they just put everything back, resealed the box and sent it on it's way just like nothing had happened.
Believe me, I've sent UPS 10 emails (so far) regarding this matter and they won't even tell me who to contact at customs. Their stand is that "the item must have been incorrectly packaged" for this to have happened.
 
Luckily, Sennheiser has refurbished boxes or $25 (or new ones for $141).
 
One of these days I'll start a thread with pic's but I'm still hoping that I can find out some way to avoid this sort of problem and share it with you guys. So far nothing.

 

[oqvist]

Quote:

Pleased I live in a rather small city then (Oslo, Norway).
Although capital and largest city in Norway it only have 600.000 inhabitants. Nothing like NYC, Paris, Toronto, etc.

Less pleased Norway isn´t part of EU I assume

 
Where I am from Sweden there is no hassle at all shipping internationally. You check on the web pages what it will cost shipping a parcel that weightx X and is the size of Y. That we don´t have like 10 options to choose from just make it simpler.
As for payment money transfer is really easy these days when it´s all done on the internet. Paypal is bad for both accounts. The buyer have to pay extra fees just about always more then the fees for money transfer. As a seller you have no protection if the buyer after receiving the item want to ispute the transaction and keep the product.
Have yet so far to be scammed on anyone but Germania on these forums though. But if there is total newbies with no feedback I like to play safe.
 
I do preferr to sell within EU since I don´t enjoy paying extra VAT myself but I never rule out international buyers... At least not for headphones that weight nothing... It´s another thing if you are going to send some 10 kg fragile tube amp or something. Have sent stuff to Philippines, US, Switzerland and don´t know where. Ordered stuff from all over the world as well. Takes a bit more time with money transfer and delivering but not to bad.

 

[Sesam]

I have sold hundreds of items worldwide on Ebay without problems. It's really not that difficult.
 
If you want to do this easy and with no risk, here is some advice:
 
- You pick the shipping company, even though it is not the cheapest, and stick with it.
- Ship insured with correct amount on the customs form, and with proof of delivery (this is necessary if you accept PayPal)
- As for what countries to accept, as a general rule https://www.paypal.com/international-money-transfer , if the country isn't listed there, it is probably not worth risking shipping to. 
 
Shipping Price:
If you want to avoid any debate/discussions about the shipping price, look up the price for shipping beforehand, and state in in the sale information. To simplify this, use continent based flat-rate prices. The tariffs are generally very similar for each continent, so for example if you accept shipping to Europe. Look up the most expensive European country to ship to, and then state it as a flatrate price for all of EU (if you are a high volume seller, the best approach is just to calculate a median). The difference in shipping price compared to the actual price is usually so small, it's neglible in context . 

 

[krmathis]

 

Less pleased Norway isn´t part of EU I assume

 
Actually not!
I think Norway is much better off standing outside the EU. We have one of the stronger (if not the strongest) economies on the world, having no foreign debt and sitting on the worlds second largest investment fund (NOK 2 800 000 000 000 / ~USD 500 000 000 000).
 
Ok, it have some downsides as paying VAT when importing from the EU. But in return our economy is not that affected by the horrible recessions in Spain, Latvia, Greece, etc.
 
So No to EU it is!

 

[Socrates3000]

The items can often take much longer than expected to reach the destination in which case the buyer may accuse you of fraud and not shipping the item at all, the items can be lost in which case the buyer may try to file a claim against you on ebay or leave negative feedback against you on headfi, often times you may end up receiving less than the actual cost of shipping from the buyer in which case it costs you for the privilege of sending said items over seas, the buyer and seller are both worried constantly that something may go wrong, and often times it does.

 

[markmaxx]

I sent a set of Grado GS 1000 with a black dragon balanced cable to Italy,,($1000.00) Never saw them again,, refunded the money to the member here.. The USPS worker at the desk (must have been new) advised me that there was no insurance offered to shipments to Italy, (I thought,, I have never lost anything before what the heck

) she gave me a tracking # that stopped at customs in NY... end of trail.. USA only now..

 

[leeperry]

 

I sent a set of Grado GS 1000 with a black dragon balanced cable to Italy,,($1000.00) Never saw them again,, refunded the money to the member here.. The USPS worker at the desk (must have been new) advised me that there was no insurance offered to shipments to Italy, (I thought,, I have never lost anything before what the heck

) she gave me a tracking # that stopped at customs in NY... end of trail.. USA only now..

yay...I would never refund anyone until I have a paper from the post office stating that it's been lost. But then again I wouldn't ship anything to Italy w/o a drastic insurance, so I would refund the insurance once received. I've actually sent some pricey stuff to Italy several times, only registered/insured...otherwise no deal, it's the worst country when it comes to parcels theft.

 

[kiertijai]

      I am from Thailand and would like to share my experience with the others.
I ordered several items from ebay, sellers from head-fi directly e.g. moon-audio, RWA, Eddie current, bluejeanscable.com,
Thecablepro. The cableco ,ALO,  whiplash audio, and from other sellers.
I have also purchased from audiogon and ebay but there is not much of the hi end things on ebay.
      The most convenient and reasonable price is the USPS express international mail from US.  I usually
don't buy thing from Canada because Canada post is very slow.   I used to buy CD's , cables from amazon.co.uk
jpc.de.  The items from Europe is more reliable and arrived faster than those of US.
      I have problems with Fedex and DHL , It's not that they are not reliable or slow to deliver, I do think they provide
the fastest delivery.  However the problem is with Thai custom because they will charge items from Fedex, DHL
30% from (real value + S&H )  and then they will add 7% VAT on top of that which will turn out to be around 45% of
the declared value.  The usual custom in Thailand is 7% for electronics.   So this make me ask the seller  to send by USPS express
international mail and may have to ask the declared value to be lower.   With this type of shipment I have to pay tax but it will be
around 7% which we think it's reasonable.   Please remember we would like to pay custom but it should not be overcharged.
      There is one site that I like very much that is bluejeanscable.com  I have ordered several cables from them and they will
include 7% custom into their charge, and the items will go through custom fast and without extra charge for custom because
it has already been paid.  If most of the seller can do the same way as bluejeanscable.com do , wie will have less concern
about the custom and we will also have good tracking.  Of course we will more willing to order more if we know that we don't
have to pay overcharged custom
      Just to let the head-fi members to understand the problem with the developing country.  Please undestand us that we would
like to pay custom , we would like purchases items from US or Europe however we would like to have them delivered on time
with good tracking.  We would like to deal with honest sellers but once in a while you will meet some seller which is not so
reliable , so before we do purchase we have to look at the history of the seller .  It is easier to examine the seller history from
ebay because they have good feedback record but not from other site which we will accept that there may be some risk.
I also agree that there is some buyer who is also dishonest but I think those who comes to head-fi most of them are not like
that.  You can find that a lot on ebay.