eBay help please.

[Osi Osgood]

I recently was selling a 35mm print of the Pluto cartoon, "Cold Storage" (1951), and a gentleman from Germany asked how much shipping would be to Germany. I went down to the Ye Olde Post office, and the cheapest quotes were between 45.00 and 47.00 dollars with a rediculously high third shipping of 158.00 dollars. I made available the item to overseas buyers, but when the seller bought the item, it dropped the shipping down to 25.00 dollars! Bewildered, I canceled the auction, refunded the German buyers money and explained that I would attempt to relist the item with the proper shipping and then let the German buyer know, but eBay is not allowing me to make the shipping what it's actually supposed to be. I don't rip off folks when it comes to shipping, especially with overseas buyers, but the danged eBay's shipping calculator is WAY off. I would hate to have to dis-allow this German buyer from purchasing this item, bit I am not going to be screwed out of the proper sales price because eBay's shipping calculator is screwed up. Any advice?

[Michael Lattavo]

Either sell it to him off-site, or allow him to win it off ebay, but tell him not to pay until you send him an invoice; then adjust the invoice accordingly.

[Osi Osgood]

Good advice there, Micheal. I think he did a buy it now, however, so I think I am still in the position of having to somehow fix the actual auction.

[Larry Arpin]

Or just use Ebay's Global Shipping Program. They will set the price for shipping to him and you only ship to a US address.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Why didn’t you simply send him the film and in addition the remaining money via PayPal or as a bank transfer?

[Osi Osgood]

Hah! Yeah, I'm I the habit of not only sending free films, but paying the person I'm gifting the film for the honor of giving them the film. The thing that's so unnerving, is that no matter what I am trying, I can't seem to find any button that will allow me to select my own overseas shipping. I have been stung by excessively high shipping thru that global shipping program, and I'd never do that to anyone else, it's just a rip off on the buyer.

[Steve Lee]

I had a similar experience last month. A buyer ask if I could ship outside of Europe, I stupidly said yes. Got the shipping cost from the post office, as there is no other way of knowing what the cost will be, and sent the details to the buyer.
The buyer paid, I then go to send it through Ebay, and Ebay have doubled the price on the shipping. You have no option but to use the shipping system, If you try to bypass this and go directly through the post office, Ebay will not accept this. You can place a tracking number on the site, and even when the item has reached the destination and the buyer has left feedback, Ebay will still not accept that the item has been shipped! and then they start with the threats, that they are going to close your account.

I had no option but to pay the shipping cost. On top of this Ebay charged me an extra 20% because it was being shipped outside of Europe.
Ebay also takes a 10% cut of the shipping cost, on top of everything. So everything has to be shipped with the most expensive service that exists, and there is no way of changing it.
It seems that it is there way or no way. But for me never again will I sell outside of Europe ever again.

[Osi Osgood]

Update. I was finally able to put in the shipping properly, the person bought it at the butit now price, AND, since they overpaid a little in shipping, I have the good pleasure of sending him a refund in over payment on shipping. It's funny, I selected the shipping that allows the amount of actual shipping, the shipping they allowed goes from 42.00 to 65.00 dollars, so when they sent him the buy it now option, they charged the maximum amount for shipping, hence a nice refund. If there is one thing that a buyer likes almost as much as getting they're item, is getting shipping money back, when the seller could easily keep it!