8 replies to this topic

[Paul M]

Just spotted this rather nice Waterman on ebay:   131165820484

 

The shipping cost of £52 outside of the EU made my eyes water.  Is this a record, or are there others out there who appear to be throwing in the delivery vehicle along with the package. 

[Paul-H]

Hi

 

I am seeing this sort of thing quite a lot now.

 

Not to defend it but you cannot blame them as both ebay and Paypal now take a cut of any postage charged so it has to be 20% higher than it actually is just to get enough to pay for the actual postage.

 

Plus secure Door to Door Tracked postage can be expensive in some countries, America and Canada seem to have the highest International Tracked Prices to start with plus adding eBay & PayPal cut makes it even more so.

 

Add to this the risk of Import Duties as well, it now make buying from North America quite a risky and pricey option.  I now only by from American sellers if the price is really good and that is very rare these days.

 

Paul

[david i]

When I ship internationally from the USA, I generally must charge $43 or so. Most of my payments are by Paypal. In a delivery dispute, barring proof of delivery, Paypal will unilaterally extract funds from my account to repay the buyer. Thus I must send Tracked Express or Registered. Registered is impractical. All exposed seams must be covered in matte finish brown tape, which requires wetting to stick. I cannot cover the address with clear tape to protect ink. Paypal and USPS.gov do not offer online Registered label generation so hand label and hand customs forms must be done. Then I must wait in line at post office. So... $43 Express mail.

 

Too, some collectors probably put hefty price on shipping to discourage international mail. At least here, international mail is a bit of a pain. On other hand, 1/4 or so of the pens I sell via Vacumania go to international customers.

 

regards

 

d

[Deb]

All the seller's shipping prices, even the domestic one, are excessively high because he chooses to use a courier service rather than Royal Mail.  Not to heap undue praise on Royal Mail but it is a lot cheaper and I have found it to be very much more reliable than couriers.  Nice pen but if I were an overseas buyer I'd probably pass over this one.

[Paul-H]

Hi

 

I know Royal Mail does come in for some stick at times but compared to some their prices are can be quite reasonable

 

I can send a pen from the UK to America Tracked door to door fully insured for £10 which is about $16.  

 

The trouble with it going the other way is not only the higher cost of shipping but with our customs now hitting everything with a value above £30 with not only duty at 20% but a Handling fee as well which has also just been put up from £8 to £13.50

 

So in the example David has Given if I buy a pen from him for £100 ($160) you then add £25 ($42) for shipping plus £20 Duty plus £13.50 Handling fee so my £100 pen has now cost me £158.50 ($265) just over $100 for the privilege of buying from outside the EEC so its no wonder more and more people over here are no longer seeing the US as a place worth trading with.

 

What ever happened to our special relationship.

 

Paul

[david i]

Hi Paul,

 

I regret the situation, but I don't see much I can do about it.

 

Nickel-and-dime-ing the populace by the powers-that-be seems to be the wave of the future.

 

regards

 

david

[Paul-H]

So true

They have been doing it for so long now you would think we would have been used to it and accepted it as normal wouldn't you

Paul

Edited by Paul-H, 23 April 2014 - 05:42 PM.

[Peterg]

It's £25 duty Paul. So your £100 pen has now cost you £163.50. You forgot to add the shipping cost to the purchase price for the VAT calculation!

[Readymade]

High shipping costs? See 'em all the time - I'm in Singapore. Small city-state south of Malaysia. Not many vintage pens