[folkertino]

Well to be honest high shipping charges from the US is not at the top of my problems list. Because:
1- That would mean that a US seller is actually willing to sell/send to my country.
2- I already have to endure my government deciding it was ok to charge me a percentage for every international charge that I make.
3- As much as I complaint I understand why a lot of people won't sell to us. Every time I buy something I cross fingers that it won't get stolen by someone in my post.
4- If I surpass a certain fee (That some people here could pay for an 1/8 of their card) I need to pay %50 for anything above that.
5- Oh and from tomorrow my government is only allowing me to buy twice a year if I don't want to have to become an importer. No idea how trading counts to all this.
So yeah no high in my priority problem.
Sorry this post turned out so negative. It wasn't my idea but I guess I needed to vent.

Wow, I hope my side of the trade arrives fine with you nevertheless.

[buckunteer]

I agree with these issues as well. Unless I'm selling a card that has a min. bv of $50, I won't even do international shipping anymore because who wants to pay $8 to ship a $10 card?

Occasionally, however, if you can get on the good side of the people at the post office they will send the padded envelopes as flat envelopes and not packages. Takes a $9 package to Europe and makes it less than $4 even with tracking. Just a thought!

[nicholsr98]

When I sometimes sell I also don't ship International because shipping is crazy cost especially to track once it leaves the states, I've heard that a lot of international buyers are getting COMC mailboxes now so shipping is easier and more cost affordable and it gives them a state shipping address, anyone else have more info on this and how it works....

[Caffrey]

Where are you located? That is terrible you have to go through all of that. You can only buy twice a year? You mean your government only allows you to make international card purchases twice a year? That is ludicrous.

I'm located in Argentina. And yes, as ludicrous as it sounds, the government has restricted what we can buy to two shipments per year. Unless one registers as an importer.
I don't have further details as how it's going to work exactly. They decided this a couple of days ago and it's going to be implemented next Monday. I guess I will see once the two packages I already had coming arrive.

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i heard Argentina updated to that system a few days ago for invoices above $25... to favor their own industry

Well, yes that's one of the explanations they gave. But, and this is just my personal opinion and you are entitled to disagree, if you just restrict what's coming from the outside without doing something to strength your own industry at the same time, it becomes a pointless effort.
Talking about this country's politics/economy might be too intense of a conversation for this board. But let me be clear about something, we don't have a card industry here. Is either buy from other countries or don't get them. So I'm just hoping this doesn't force me to stop collecting.

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Wow, I hope my side of the trade arrives fine with you nevertheless.

Me too. Great timing ah? Luckily I just had two packages coming my way (including yours) so it should be fine.
I saw that you got mine. Were they ok? I hope they were as good as you were expecting, specially the auto one.

[jdetter23]

From eBay I get a lot out of Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. They charge US $3 to get cards to me in Spain. US sellers are becoming less and less of an option for me. Especially since eBay installed that international shipment program, those costs are on the border of extortion.

How much does it say you have to pay for the shipping from ebay for their shipment program? I only chose it because as a seller i'm covered so as long as I were to get it to Kentucky its on ebay. My only international shipping was international first class to I think Japan and it never updated once it left Miami so it made me a little uneasy shipping something myself.

[djohn]

The problem isn't eBay it's the USPS online system. It won't let you send an International package using online postage unless you send it Priority or Priority Express. The cost for International Priority in a padded envelope is over $20, so the problem is that eBay's system is simply using the online USPS system to make the postage and hence passing the high charge along.

[hegotgame1515]

I'm starting to only use EMS for buying cards in the U.S (I'm from Australia) any other option isn't working for me, USPS Express is starting to take longer and longer to get here..

As for the Global Shipping Program that is the worst thing on earth, yeah it's great that it opens up more cards to the worldwide market, but they are hopeless to say the least...

2 cards( 1 $650 the other $1100 ) have gone missing in their Sort facility in the U.S and no matter what happened to them, it's not good enough.

So ok you get your money back, but sometimes the cards can be worth a lot more than the dollar value you paid!

EMS seems to be the only way for hi end stuff, I haven't had a single issue using them.

[folkertino]

How much does it say you have to pay for the shipping from ebay for their shipment program? I only chose it because as a seller i'm covered so as long as I were to get it to Kentucky its on ebay. My only international shipping was international first class to I think Japan and it never updated once it left Miami so it made me a little uneasy shipping something myself.

anywhere between $24 and $29

[carrollm09]

What I don't understand is how I've never had a card lost when it's been sent from Taiwan, China, or Hong Kong, sent signature confirmation for $5, but to send the same card back costs $20...

[folkertino]

Ebay should follow the example of sites like magiccardmarket or it might soon be a US domestic site.

I remember coining the idea of a European branch to the CEO at COMC. This is when they had just opened their Canadian satellite and he told me they were going to see how that worked out first before going cross-atlantic. No luck so far

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What I don't understand is how I've never had a card lost when it's been sent from Taiwan, China, or Hong Kong, sent signature confirmation for $5, but to send the same card back costs $20...

In a nutshell:
1 Through the Universal Postal Union member nations' postal services have an agreement to deliver incoming mail from another member nation.
2 You pay your national postal service for postage.
3 Your national postal service is subject to the domestic Consumer Price Index.
4 Ergo: in countries with a low CPI you pay less for international shipping.