[thanh_tan]

thansks for the tip, it is very useful

[cbaytan]

I talked to a paypal guy on the phone about address verification issue, he said address databases of the credit cards outside the US are not matching to their databases that's why their system can not collect address information from the outside, so addresses can not be confirmed...

[brecklundin]

A counter to a private sales, paid via PayPal, across country boundaries is it is always possible to accept an International Postal Money order in the currency of the seller's choice. Sure it adds about a week to the transaction, but I find it very easy. Plus the seller can verify the MO as genuine online or at the local PO. If the buyer is honest and the seller has references/established presence then this should be no problem. Before eBay's ban on mailed payments many international buyers paid me this way, in fact many preferred it, as did I. Nothing expensive, usually in the $400-$2000 area but expensive enough that one fraudulent buyer can kill a seller's income/profit needed to live on or whatever.

But, I can offer that in my area of sales, one portion gets a LOT of international buyers and the others get essentially zero international sales. I have sold camera gear to several international buyers and had great transactions. My best international buyers these days come from Ukraine, Russia, Reunion Island of all places and Netherlands. France and Italy are a mixed bag but that is usually because they have a very frustrating postal system so they kinda blame us sellers...hehehe...

FYI, I pretty much am to the point of refusing to sell to....Canada....why? Because they have a hate-hate relationship with their postal service and blame sellers...I am saying this in jest but do still cringe when I get buyers from Canookia. Love folks I have dealt with in Nova Scotia though...GREAT sense of humor dealing with them.

OTOH, I have had just stellar service from Canookian sellers. Never a single problem nor is shipping that spendy.

As for the CONUS...it costs no more for a seller to ship Priority Mail to AK or HI than from coast to coast, but in over a decade of selling online I can count on one hand the number of buyers from either state, in contrast I have had dozens of sales to Ukraine. I often suspect it is because folks there prefer to keep clutter to a minimum so antiques and such are not a high priority item. Still I would never refuse a sale to either place. Sellers who only use UPS and/or FedEx probably are tired of heard from buyers that their shipping is too high to AK/HI, because, well, both have very high rates to those states.

Very interesting discussion in this thread...

[titrisol]

Agree with this one, nice service here in Netherlands
I may reconsider going digital under such prizes

PS. PayPal in NL also allows for confirmed addresses and such

And so is the postal system in The Netherlands. Heck, in my 15 years of buying in the USA I've *never ever* lost a package that was sent to me...

[Bramela]

Further to confirmed/unconfirmed addresses, I have found (for Aussies at least) the safest and surest way to get payment into USA/Canada via Paypal, is for the seller to send a "REQUEST MONEY" message to the buyer.
It seems that this is the quickest (almost instantaneous) way of getting payment through.
A couple of times I have attempted sending to sellers email address in Paypal and struck all sorts of difficulties.
Some sellers haven't really grasped this when I have asked them to do it the way I suggest.

PLEASE NOTE US/CANADA SELLERS: Send a "Request Money" in Paypal and the hassles will be far less from overseas.

[cbaytan]

PLEASE NOTE US/CANADA SELLERS: Send a "Request Money" in Paypal and the hassles will be far less from overseas.

Sorry for chime in but I would like to know what were those hassles? I've sent money without request with no problems with paypal (from Turkey).

[Bramela]

Several times Ihave had delays, or the payment has been returned to me as unclaimed or something similar to that.
Now, it may be me, making an error in doing the transaction, but I have had some troubles in getting payment through quickly and correctly.

I am glad to hear that you, cbaytan, are having no trouble at all. I better do a bit of a check on MYSELF next time I go through the process,

[cbaytan]

Sounded like inexperienced internet users to me, I've sent&received money US, England, Germany, all it need is receiver of the money should have an account with paypal with a currently valid email address, and must accept the money from his/her paypal account, only this way he can transfer money to his account. If he fails the accept the money, payment returns to sender like 2 weeks or something. AFAI remember.

Well there might be other reasons I am not aware of so, thats why I was curious what was going on with paypal.

Hapy new year to you and all.

[brecklundin]

some PP users do not accept funds in anything other than the currency of the country they are registered in, that is one possibility. Another is some PP users have their account set to not accept international payments. Many PP users are not aware of these settings so it often falls to the more experienced person in the transaction to guide the other through the process.

I used to only accept funds in USD, requiring the sender to convert the funds and pay the conversion fee, but anymore I just eat that cost as a sunk cost for doing business.

BTW, many are not aware but there is a new-ish feature in PP where members can send funds free of charge to either party if the send it as "Personal Funds"...it can still be for a purchase and I believe you can lose what little protection there is for non-eBay related transactions but nobody has to pay and PP fees using this option...or to get some of the protection the sender can actually specify what portion of the fees they are paying. I am not 100% sure how it works on all countries and the funds must come from either existing PP funds or a linked bank account. Again, not 100% certain of the details but a friend and I can now transfer funds back and forth as needed w/o any cost. And she is even able to make international sales and be paid the same way when done outside the ebay process. She sells some stuff on boards kinda like PF but for the things she is interested in...

I have also found unless the person sending payment knows how to make it work, it's always best to send a funds request yourself, that way nothing goes wrong. And if the payment is funded by a bank account, there is the usual 10-20 day wait for the funds to officially clear, even though funds sent that way never really clear in the event of fraud. Face it, online payments, international or otherwise, are at best a crap shoot but such is life if you want the business.

[Fl_Gulfer]

I shipped a box of camera stuff to Australia last week and they told me they don't allow you to insure packages to there anymore.

[brecklundin]

I shipped a box of camera stuff to Australia last week and they told me they don't allow you to insure packages to there anymore.

that is flat out incorrect or the info is incomplete as to the reason why. It will depend on the mail class used. In fact I just ran a test print of postage to Australia and I can buy all the USPS insurance I want or need...so something is not right in what you were told. The only calss that is not able to be insured with USPS insurance is 1st class and that has been the case for a while.

I use a 3rd party for parcel insurance so international insurance is never an issue.

[Fl_Gulfer]

I tryed First Class so maybe your correct. Sorry

[brecklundin]

I tryed First Class so maybe your correct. Sorry

heck, nothing to be sorry about...just mentioning your experience will help someone else understand what to expect if they need to ship something. Here is a link you can bookmark which lists the service classes and insurance options for whatever country you are shipping to:

Index of Countries and Localities

It's kinda weird when expecting to be able to ship insured then suddenly you can't w/o spending at least 30-40% more on a difference service class (Priority or Express). Worst part is I can insure parcels sent 1st class with my 3rd party coverage but not directly through the USPS. Every international parcel does have a quasi-tracking number in the customs ID number, the issue I a suppose is not all postal services actually scan 1st class parcels on the receiving end, hence no insurance as there isn't any official way to trace the parcel, not consistently at least. So I suppose it's more about fraud than anything else.

If it helps to know, there are now some international Priority Mail flat rate options which can be insured and again the customs number is the same as "tracking" for insurance carriers as well as for PayPal because once scanned into the system, then you can always prove shipment and hopefully delivery.

I don't mind shipping internationally because I use software to manage it, Endicia. And even at the $16/mo I pay, the discounts I get along with the ability to automate and use custom labels is well worth the fee. FYI, if you sell on eBay Stamps.com now offers their service for FREE (of course ya gotta buy postage) but their software is not awful, I just preferred Endicia 8yrs ago when I went with them.

[brecklundin]

I just thought of something and am not certain if it was mentioned in this thread yet or not. But always remember describe the item as USED if it is used/not new. That is because many countries have lower or even no duty on used items. Lots of countries have no duty on used camera lenses but do have duty on camera bodies no matter what condition. Still, I try and always put used in the description in an effort to save the buyer some cash.

Just never mis-report or under report the value because it does not matter if customs actually looks in the box as they all have a list with pre-established prices for a given item and most countries will base duty on the value (usually the wholesale value though) not the price paid, it will, however, cause probs with insurance should something go wrong.

[superfuzzy]

I just sold a lens on Pentaxforums and it turns out the buyer (I think residing in the UK) doesn't have a confirmed Paypal address on file. (From this thread - confirmed addresses are only in the US, Canada, and the UK.)

The buyer instructed me to ship the lens to a friend in Brooklyn. I sent an e-mail to the buyer's Paypal address on file, and got a response, so that's legit. One more thing - he has one post on Pentaxforums and joined about 3 weeks ago.

I have the buyer's funds sitting in my Paypal account so I can return if needed. I have other interested buyers so selling the lens for my asking price isn't a problem.

Any suggestions?