As collectors, we’ll often have the need to sell stuff just to make room for even better stuff. It’s just a fact of acquisition.
After an especially troublesome incident last year in which a $500 item arrived broken in Germany, and my PayPal account was decimated by an overzealous and anxious collector, I vowed to never, ever sell overseas again. In fact, I spent half a year just avoiding eBay entirely after that, as if I were deeply, emotionally wounded. eBay had crippled themselves by changing too many rules too rapidly, and I always came out on the short end of the deal when it came to dealing with entitled buyers overseas. I understand that there is tension when there is money at stake, but my enormous feedback rating should be more than enough to quell any suspicions of my intent. I just want to sell crap to make room for more robots and Batman, guys.
I began to include a statement in all of my auctions which states that I do not ship internationally. Certain countries don’t have postal services that can be relied on, and I am unwilling to take the financial brunt of this ineptitude. Of course, I get questions during just about every auction I list asking if I’ll ship to Bulgravia or to New Porkinghamshire, and like a fool, I usually say yes. At best, I’ll attract one extra bidder to amp up the final price of my item a little more, and at worst, I’ll have to fill out complicated customs forms and swallow a whole lot of annoyance from a system that’s practically broken when it comes to protecting the seller against international fraud – and there’s a lot of it. Somewhere over the vast ocean between here and everywhere else is this force that just screws everything up.
The most telling trait of a person who will be an issue is that they will send multiple e-mails in rapid succession, all asking tiny questions about issues that the auction’s description has already answered, or if the item is really, truly as you described it. Really? There’s no dust? Has it ever been near someone named Lloyd? I’m sure you kicked it after you took that photograph, so don’t lie to me. It’s these neuroses that bleed into just about everything they do. During my most recent encounter, I sold a $100 set of action figures to a guy in China with a penchant for asking lots of stupid questions.
After the auction closed, he gave me his address – but completely in Chinese characters. Of course, these are useless when filling out the extensive US customs form, and the package would never make it out of the states in one piece. So, I asked for his address in English.
Because of a language barrier, the buyer transposed the number of his building with the number of his room. So, three weeks later, when the package did not arrive, I tracked it to find that his local post had attempted to deliver it to a building that did not exist, based on the instructions that he gave me. This is when he suddenly started a PayPal claim against me. For shipping to an incorrect address. That he gave me.
Anyone who has been through one of these ‘claims’ knows that they are a complete pain. PayPal immediately puts the disputed amount of money ‘on hold’, and drains it from your account. If you do not have enough money, they leave you with a negative balance. This also means that if you intend on purchasing anything via PayPal, you will need to pay for the item in full, plus your negative balance if you want a transaction to go through at all. And, of course, in a fashion that matches the type of luck that I have, this all arose only moments before a very important, limited pre-order went up which I had been awaiting for two weeks, and could only be purchased via PayPal.
It is worth noting that the Post Office is currently trying to digitize as much of the mailing process as they possibly can, and all customs forms should now be filled out online. This avoids a good deal of hassle and the possible ambiguity of information, but the USPS website is also broken about half of the time which I attempt to use it, with sections randomly just not working, and at least a dozen times when my zip code spontaneously vanished from this mortal plane. My town might feel like that, and now I had proof. It was during one of these frequent and mysterious outages that this package needed to be sent, which did not help any. And don’t try clicking on ‘Live Chat Help’ at the USPS website either – it’s basically a non-functional image that leads nowhere. Very funny, Post Office.
While I’m not saying that you should never ship anything internationally, be careful of those people who ask a ton of questions, and if you have any doubt, just say no. Once your collectibles leave the relatively regimented US Postal Service, there is no guarantee for their safety.
After all of this, the buyer continued to ask questions about resolving the issue of the missing items, which he still wants, and are now being sent back to me, apparently. My answer?
“You stated a PayPal claim. Let them deal with it, moron.”
