Last week, after about two years of procrastination, I finally got around to listing an unused Vapalux 320 on that well-known auction site. I started the bidding at just 99p with a Buy-it-Now price of £99 which I thought was reasonable. I also clearly stated that this was a UK-only auction at least twice in the listing and that bids from overseas would be cancelled. The first bid of 99p came in quite quickly but that just removed the BIN option. Further bids then arrived up to £54; not bad - so far, so good. Then I got a question from someone in Japan asking if I'd send the lantern overseas and how much the shipping would be. I politely told him the answer was 'no'. There then followed the usual 6 days where absolutely nothing happened and then the bids started coming in again this afternoon and quickly rose to £86. About 30 minutes before auction end, I thought I'd just check to see who was bidding. The high-bidder was based in Germany so his bid was cancelled. The next bidder turned out to be American so his bid was also cancelled. The third bidder was from Taiwan and the fourth was from Thailand. After cancelling those bids, we were back down to £53 and I wasn't prepared to sell the lantern for that so with a mere five minutes to go, I pulled the plug on the whole auction thinking that was the end of it all. Despite that, the lantern 'sold' for £103 to one of the people whose bids I'd cancelled! I had to cancel the order which eBay allowed me to do on account of an issue with the buyers address. Two of the other bidders who'd sneaked in a late bid were from Japan. So a big thank you to eBay members tony_1688 and burca etc. (and all the others whose names I didn't write down) for completely ruining my first attempt at an eBay auction in a decade or so... Any advice on how to get around this problem, folks?
Hi David A lot of overseas buyers use a UK mailing address; a self storage depot or other, the lamps are usually delivered there and then shipped on. Once they are delivered and signed for at that UK address then from there on it’s not your problem.
David I think you have to get used to the idea of shipping abroad because Asian buyers are the whales of lantern collecting , they don't mind big prices or big shipping charges. All the lanterns I've sold have gone to Asia; Japan, Vietnam, Thailand , China. They are going to be especially keen on your lanterns because they like quality. I've never experienced any problems shipping abroad. This week I sold 2 lanterns to a Chinese national who wanted a shipping quote for China and the USA ,luckily he opted to use his American drop ship address so it was easy but I would have shipped to China . Ebay to me makes it pretty easy to sell abroad , the shipping quotes and customs forms are a snap , then its just dropping off the box at the post office or a shipper.
Delivery to them is barred, too. There was too much hassle with them a few years back. Things must have changed then. Apparently they held on to stuff until they had enough to fill a shipping container going to the country in question so delays were common. Also they had a very bad reputation for handling and re-packaging items. On another matter, I listed Europe as one of the barred destinations. When I just checked I noticed that Jersey and Guernsey are included in the barred list. Last I heard they were still in the UK. They are, aren't they?
David , you should have taken the UK shipping addresses, that 'Tony' chap would have had it delivered to a 'Big yellow storage unit, if you want good money, sell to the oversees chaps
I don't mind sending overseas to members here which I've done on many occasions. It's the other 6 billion folk on the planet I don't trust. I just can't be bothered to face sending the lanterns overseas, them saying they haven't arrived and then eBay/PayPal refunding the payment without me having any say in the matter. They end up with the lantern and I end up with nowt - probably having to pay the shipping charges to boot. How do you get round that? It happens quite a bit, apparently...
List it as a buy it now and state on the listing it's for UK only post, or if you do want to do international post send it tracked and signed, I've sent hundreds to Japan and never had any issues at all they are good buyers and don't mind paying the postage prices.
Exactly as Rickylee says--if they want it sent outside the UK, then they pay for the tracked and signed service. Been doing it for years with no problems, but to be honest next to no foreign buyers have me ship to their home addresses in the last few years. I'm in Canada and 99% of my Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Kuwaiti, Vietnamese, and Taiwanese buyers have the item shipped to the west coast of the USA. Zero hassles so far. They are typically very fast with payment. Why use eBay if not to open up the world's wallets to your item? Mike.
It is always a risk and generally in these cases the seller loses out. I have bought and sold on EBay but personally I prefer buying and selling face to face with a hand shake and cash in hand, sadly those opportunities have been limited over the last 12 months; for me one of the drivers behind quite frankly some ridiculous lamp costs we have seen recently. Sadly if you want the highest price for lamps the vehicle is EBay and most likely to buyers in Asia.
What you can do is simply state in the ad that you are only selling to ebay members with a transaction history and positive feedback. It works just like for domestic members the feedback tells you if they are trustworthy or not. Even if you state domestic shipping only collectors will still ask you to ship internationally. That's what I do on ebay international sites and Tradera , if domestic shipping only ,I always ask if they'll ship to the states and most will.
It is listed as a Buy-it-Now and stated it's for UK only. After relisting and having to cancel and block another daft tw@t, it's back to BIN. Could I be more clear? Read it:- 284251533944 The problem is that they do have a transaction history and positive feedback - they're just overseas and I don't want to trade with them. They obviously don't actually read the listing - or maybe just the bits they want to read. Because I don't want to open up the world's wallets. I simply want to open up the UK's wallets. Is it so difficult to understand? The other thing someone mentioned - unbelievable as it may seem, I don't want to get the absolute maximum for my lamps and lanterns. That's because was a collector - I've never been a trader or dealer and I've no intention of starting now. I'm not particularly motivated by money (I've got enough already) so I'm happy to get back what I paid for my stuff or perhaps make a little profit and also make someone in this country happy with their new lamp...
My experience is that I sometimes save items found whilst browsing ebay dot com when using an American address. If I try to bid on some of those saved items using my Australian address it won't allow me to bid because the seller isn't posting to my region. Are you removing bidders based on their country of origin without checking their shipping address? My point is, they may well be shipping to the UK if they can see your listing.
Well, in my collecting history I’ve been stolen 450€ by Spanish sellers that didn’t post to me, I’ve avoided a big bluff in Italy on a radius lamp because the fake seller used too nice photos for a local listing (he took them from collectors website) so I got it! Then I’ve sold many many items to Asia and then to the same persons that became collectors friends, so I am always in touch with them and they are great great collectors and persons, never a problem with them! I have seen some of their collections and what to say, just wow, they clearly are dominant on the market. I think the bad guys can easily found also next door, so David I suggest you to give them a try, just use good and express shipping solutions that will make you sleep well. Nicola
There’s a reasonable amount of smug opinion being cast about on this thread. David is, quite reasonably, trying to sell a slab of his considerable, historically important, collection to UK collectors and finding eBay somewhat difficult to deal with. Dismissive comments won’t help, and this site is renowned for helping people, not dismissing their inquiries. I collect pressure lamps that were imported to and sold in Australia. I will sell those, when the time comes, to people in Australia (for the most part) because I don’t believe in exporting cultural heritage. Like David, I’m not in this game for a fast buck. Tony
Whilst I use E Bay regularly for purchases, I rarely use it now for selling unless a free listing deal is announced. The sheer cost of selling puts a serious dent in the price realised, and then PayPal take thir cut too. Yes I understand that the system opens up a huge market, but like David I will never sell abroad for the good reasons he has outlined. (I am not referring to lamps here as I have never attempted to sell one either on E Bay or elsewhere. I am happy with my modest collection and they are going nowhere).
Well, I just shared my opinion about “trusting” foreign buyers and also eBay. By the way, being more in topic, I think eBay is not the right channel to sell locally also because eBay itself pushes sellers to sell to a greater market (to get higher commissions) so each national eBay isn’t a really closed market and if a listing is visible to everybody, clearly foreigners try their luck trying to convince sellers about shipping abroad, and very often they succeed. Problem is that who really doesn’t want to sell abroad have to deal with this problem. Additionally, this problem is very hard to bypass, because all these buyers use UK addresses that are to those companies that collect purchases from foreigners and redirect packages to their countries. They’re not real PO Boxes, so it’s hard to block these addresses by the shipping options of the listing. Obviously you can cancel the sale at the end, but then this is exactly the problem you are describing. So, to sell locally, I would choose Facebook Marketplace or groups, this forum and all those platforms intended exclusively for local listings.
Thanks, nep, but I'm aiming to sell nationally rather than locally. I should be so lucky! Apart from one Japanese person who did ask (but assumed the answer would be yes) the others didn't bother to contact me at all... I've tried here several times without a great deal of success. Generally what happens is, I ask for offers - little or no response. I mention a price in the ad - no response at all. Facebook Marketplace might be a good suggestion, though - many thanks...
@David Shouksmith When I say local I mean national in this case. I think that Facebook Marketplace could work nationally, it should display listings in a 500 miles range, but with the last updates it also shows result that are not into this area. I kinda agree about listings here... I think it’s psicological. We all love to make great deals and buy cheap, so with fellows collectors we tend to avoid to make offers that could be offensive Nicola
Sorry to disappoint you here. When I do a fb marketplace search I get result from the USA (I live in Europe). So the 500 mile radius doesn't work. Or the definition of a fb mile is different from that of a mile in real life.
Another idea is to set what you feel is a reasonable price you'd then try gumtree or preloved websites. They are not as well known and have much fewer views but many collector's do prefer the more personal touch . Nothing ventured nothing gained!
@WimVe well it works to me. I explain you why. Once there are no results into the 500 miles range it shows you results from longer distance. Clearly if I search in Italian the engine will probably find only results that match my keywords. I didn’t try to search in English. In any case, also if visible outside the country, the way of selling is only through messages, so David can respond only to English people and it’s easy to see if someone is really English by looking at their fb page. On eBay you have to wait 7 days to complete an auction and then eventually cancel the sale because a Chinese has set a UK address in his profile.
