ebay dot other

[PeterT]

Has anyone had luck purchasing from non dot ca (Canada) or dot com (usa) like UK, Germany or Japan?

I haven't really delved into it but was hoping for something straightforward like - type the IP address in directly like ebay.uk or ebay.de Then sort by 'will ship international' (or contact seller directly about the possibility to do this) & go from there. But it gets kind of murky & I suspect ebay knows who I am. Nothing sinister but seems like they like to keep things compartmentalized to your home country account. The only reason I have a dot com is it was the original ebay & I kept it, even have a different login & default (usa based) shipping address etc. Just wondering if anyone does this or has some tips. Nothing urgent, more of another angle.

Some people have suggested 'ebay global program' from what I can tell from comments is basically a redirect to courier type services & usually not a happy story. Your 5$ item turns into an expensive bill kind of like how we lament the ups/fedex issues ordering from USA.

 

[YYCHM]

Not sure I understand your question but I have purchased items listed on ebay.com that shipped out of the UK and others with no problems. You might get dinged for duty depending upon the mood of the gods that day.

 

[Brent H]

I purchased some new rubber collars and wrist seals for my drysuit from eBay.uk. I wrote the seller and explained - free shipping and they arrived in about two weeks.

I totally get your gist @PeterT as there are some items difficult to find here or in the US. Some Australian stuff is very cheap but they typically will not ship as that is the big cost.

 

[PeterT]

I think I worded it clunky. Yes I have logged onto .ca or .com & bought items originating from say UK, no issues there.
But I'm talking about logging onto the .UK or .DE & purchasing an item that is listed there, but not cross-listed on our N-Am sites.
I'm wondering if you have to create a specific sign on account or if ebay already knows who you are & its about arranging shipping options if they will do that

 

[Tom Kitta]

Usually if it is NOT listed on our Canadian eBay it means seller does not ship/ sell to Canada. You should ask seller if he or she will ship for you to Canada. Also you may use your own forwarder. Or you may offer to pay much higher shipping.

There is a reason WHY selling say to Australia is a big deal - imagine if there is a problem - unless you are selling gold return shipping is prohibitive. Thus for someone to sell like this is very, very risky. Hence why people tend to say no even if you pay shipping.

Most of EU is better but still - it feels its all much easier the "closer" seller and buyer live.

 

[PeterT]

Tom in my first post I showed a screen grab of .UK left hand side panel of defining item location as part of search criteria if you so choose. Now I haven't cross referenced Worldwide item numbers to see if its exact same maybe cross referenced to .CA But I have a feeling they are (or many are) unique listings created by people in UK posting an item & just completing the listing specs of where they will ship to or not ship to. I do this myself depending on the item: Canada & USA = yes, other countries = no (or sometimes yes if its just as easy to ship to Europe for example)

You're right, there may be legitimate resistance to selling to far away countries but I think that's for the seller to determine. Sometimes they legitimately don't want to be bothered with customs & click their home country specifically. Others don't even pay attention when they create the listing & might be receptive to shipping abroad 'as-is' or 'no-returns' or whatever. The vast majority of things I've purchased originate from nonCanada nonUSA by a healthy margin. Its just Asia is better at the game or have better shipping terms. Anyways thats a secondary discussion. I'm just wondering if people have done this & how.

I've had mixed results approaching foreign sellers. I will ask will you ship to Canada at my/increased expense. The results can be
- NO, read the description dummy & stop bothering me
- YES, give me a minute to calculate costs, I will send you Paypal invoice
- MAYBE, stipulations or limits

Generally companies or more sophisticated sellers know what they will or wont do. But there are lots of individuals or regular folks who just want to unload their stuff

 

[Tom Kitta]

The "no returns" stuff is standard boilerplate statement that a buyer should just ignore as everyone else does - eBay has 100% satisfaction guarantee so if you say you are not satisfied the item has to be returnable at sellers expense or you have to refund full purchase price. You may offer partial refund.

Asia is whole different ball game. Item actual value is like $5 they sell for $20 and if some force a refund they are still ahead. If your margin is low or you are home seller guy of few machinist items eBay can be a killer for far away sale.

 

[Dabbler]

I have bought from both ebay in the UK and Germany. Shipping from Germany is weird - in my only purchase I checked with the seller first and he offered to ship, for a price. It was abit spendy, but all was well in the end.

From the UK is no big deal - the seller just forgot to list Canada as a shipping location.

 

[Janger]

You could use a free VPN service which gives you an IP address in that foreign country. Register with ebay.germany or whatever. People often do this to get netflix or other content that is not licensed for Canada. I do this to check on prices - especially on sites like grizzly or kbc which detect you are in Canada and give you the shaft price automatically.