Sellers who don't offer international shipping

Because it's their choice in selling their item? They aren't obligated to conform to what you want or to give you a reason. If someone says no to international shipping I take it as a sign to be patient and keep looking.

 

Because it's absolutely their choice if they do or not...? You can't MAKE someone sell to you. They simply don't have to if they don't want to. Also it IS extra work to send something internationally, because you have to fill out the forms and, at least at my post office, stand in line to hand it to a person instead of using the really convenient postage machine and drop box. Simply put though, if they don't want to send something internationally you are not going to be able to convince them to, especially with that line of "I don't think there's any real excuse for not offering international shipping."

(Also I'll say this: I've looked up the shipping price for my item on the website, and been charged something different in-store.)

 

Some people don't like shipping overseas because it's harder to keep track of things if something goes wrong. I was selling some of my anime figures recently and I had to ship a lot overseas, and I was really nervous about things going missing or getting damaged or delayed (and some of them did get delayed in the end). If a buyer opens a PayPal dispute it's very easy to get a refund, and there's no guarantee the seller will be able to successfully claim compensation from the postal service, so they may choose simply not to risk sending overseas.

 

Some people have had a lot of trouble with shipping overseas, with clients refusing to pay custom fees, or asking to mark the value down and then complaining about the lack of insurance despite being warned, or not knowing that there were bans on specific products, and then blaming it on the seller.
Others just don't want to spend about half an hour filling out all the export forms - once I had to fill one _twice_ because the post office worker didn't know their own rules -__-" And you really need to carefully write the information, because the person on the other end might get charged fees or won't be able to receive the package at all.
And then there's definitely the difference in prices. When the post office pricelist says one thing, the post-office worker says another, and then, when you are actually giving the parcel, it turns out that you have to pay a third quote because that specific country has suddenly (I mean it, the very next day after originally visiting the post office) seized to accept light parcels and now only accepts these as "full" parcels (double shipping cost, hello?)
Basically, if a person doesn't want to sell outside their state, they might have all the good and valid reasons for it. Even if they don't, it's still their choice, just sigh and keep moving - you will definitely find the same thing later (or something even better).

 

I get that there's more effort involved in posting overseas, and sometimes more than the profit is worth, but... lol.

I live in Australia so I feel your pain, Demonique. At the same time, silverholly pretty much summed up whatcha have to do, and that's go find another seller, though I know it's a drag and sometimes super hard to find, espeically if it's a popular/sold out thing or whatever.

On ebay, I noticed there's a lot of sellers who won't post to certain places because of packages getting lost; I don't blame them if that's the case. I wouldn't want to take the chance, either, not when you're dealing with someone else's money.

 

Like other people have said, some people don't like to ship overseas because it's extra hassle and stress and more chance of something going wrong. Having said that I think it's easy for us to get frustrated with that because there being so few of us in Ireland (also HI YOU LIVE IN IRELAND! ) we pretty much have to ship EVERYTHING overseas. Problems of being a small island, huh? Also, knock on wood, I've never had anything go missing in international post, so I kinda feel like people are being overly cautious sometimes.

 

It is absolutely up to the seller. It is easier to sell in your own country -- there's more hassle with shipping over seas and not everyone wants to deal with that. If I'm trying to get rid of a few items, I'm probably not going to want to bother with shipping internationally when I know there is a market for them in my own country *shrug* It's nothing personal, really -- it's just that getting things sold is already a bit of a pain in the rear, and why add to that with further complications?

I understand that it can be frustrating to want something and not have the person sell to you, but try and see it from their point of view too and realize that there are always other sellers out there.

 

Yeah, that does sound pretty bad, since I didn't mention that we have only one post office in our town that's gotten REALLY big, and I've seen lines going out onto the sidewalk and have had to wait about an hour and fourty-five minutes in a line before that wasn't even that long, because there was one person taking packages and one person handing them out to people with slips. So... Yeah.

 

It can get a lot more expensive if you don't have a car, too, and can't arrange the shipping online. That can mean delays -- which some buyers are more understanding about than others -- or additional costs, which, again, some buyers are more understanding about than others.

 

Eh, one bad experience can turn you off of shipping to other countries. I have a friend who sells on etsy who sold a coat to someone in the UK. She gave the girl free shipping, but when the parcel got there the buyer demanded that she pay the customs fees or else she'd be getting the coat back and negative feedback on her Etsy. In another doll hobby I'm in, there was a charity event. Someone from another country who didn't speak english tried to claim that the items were never received, demanded a full refund from a charity event, AND was selling the items at the same time on her ebay.

Not to say that problems can't happen when you ship in your own country. But, generally, shipping and tracking is cheaper in your own country. When shipping's expensive, people complain. How many times have we heard 'I wish they offered airmail!' in response to doll companies? If you're an independant person just trying to sell stuff, and people are nickle and diming you to death with their complaints of 'Can't you do better on shipping? I know you're making a profit' when you're just charging them the shipping? It's a hassle.

If you can't get anything from the 'bay, you may want to check doll sites. They usually offer shipping pretty much everywhere.

 

Not to mention near heart-failure status for days if a really 'spensive doll ends up in tracking limbo... O_O It's one thing if you get delays on a wig, or a letter, or something small... but if you're shipping something that costs a couple months' rent and the person at the other end is ALSO having her heart fall into her shoes...

well, it doesn't make the decision to ship international any easier, let's just put it that way

(fortunately the above story had a happy ending, but geez. O_o)

 

Reasons to not ship internationally;

1 - You don't want to deal with the customs charges.
2 - You don't want to risk putting your goods in the hands of possibly-unreliable postal services.
3 - International shipping from your country is expensive, unreliable and slow, and liable to net you bad feedback ("She's gouging me for shipping!").
4 - You've had problems shipping internationally before.
5 - You don't have time to go to the post office, stand in a queue for an hour, then be told that your package is wrapped wrong, so youu have to do it all over again.
6 - In somewhere with a doll community as small as the UK, it's sometimes nice to know that you're helping out someone else in the same boat as you, who would otherwise have to pay hefty customs charges.
7 - You want to save on airmiles - These dolls have already travelled across the world once.
8 - You prefer the fast sale-dispatch-receipt-feedback times of selling inside your own country (a few days instead of a few weeks).
9 - You're shipping something that doesn't take well to airmail (MSC, perhaps).
10 - Your currency is currently a lot stronger than other buyers' currency, so you'd rather sell to someone you can ask a higher price of. (Eg - I bought a doll for $600 dollars, which was £500 at the time, now the exchange rate has changed, so if I was to sell if for $600 I'd only get £350 of real money. However, I could still sell it for £500 inside the UK).
11 - You're an artist just starting out, who wants to create a high visibility for your product. If you sell a hundred custom wigs in Manchester, more people are going to be talking about them and creating demand than if you sell a hundred wigs across the world., and their owners never meet.
12 - Insurance hiccoughs are less likely in your own country. If I'm shipping internationally, and the buyer has asked me to mark a box down, it's their problem if the box goes missing and insurance doesn't cover the contents.
13 - Uncertain legalities of shipping certain items - Not so much a problem in the BJD world, but when it comes to various types of sealant, craft knives, spirits, fur/leather, it can get complicated.
14 - Preferring to conduct sales in your own language - Two native English speakers will have an easier time than an Englishman and a Japanese communicating in Japanese, or a German and a Japanese communicating in English.

...And finally, I suppose, it's your item, so you can sell it wherever you like.

 

My room mate makes amazing props, but he will not sell internationally any more due to customs and sometimes people not getting the item they paid for. It's frustrating to him, as a seller, to have upset buyers try to hold him responsible for things he hasn't done incorrectly. After the latest fiasco with an upset customer, he's said never again for international shipping.

It is a drag, but unfortunately, it's the way the cookie crumbles. I'd say try to find it from someone else. Consider it for your safety too. You pay X-amount for an outfit/a wig/a doll and customs loses it, or it gets lost in the mail.... as long as the seller can prove it was sent, and sent the way the customer asked for, they aren't held responsible for things the mail has done. If a seller has had previous experiences with packages being lost in certain areas/countries, they don't want a repeat performance.

 

On top of the reasons other people have rightly given, there is something else I would like to add to this which it doesn't seem anyone has mentioned yet and is a possible reason that you may have not considered. Some people when selling internationally might have had issues with their postal service who banned them from shipping internationally anymore even if they wanted to. I've known more than a couple people both in my real every day life and eBay sellers who have had this happen to them.

There was one woman I know who had shipped some hairspray from Korea to the U.S.A. and in the process of shipping the box got damaged and so did the can of hairspray where it got punctured and "exploded", when the postal workers noticed this they banned the seller from selling any items internationally anymore because she had broken their rules which say that they do not allow individuals to ship aerosols and not only that, but she marked the package as "Cosmetics", which they defined as her trying to fool the postal service by not mentioning it was an aerosol.

And in the way of actual hobby-related issues, specially with wigs, I know many eBay sellers who will only not ship internationally with wigs. There are a few which list in their listings for shoes/eyes that they ship internationally but don't on their wigs because some countries (specially in the U.K. where packages are more often hand-opened) will confiscate anything which is a wig because they may not be sure if it is made of real human hair or not and it is illegal to import human hair wigs in a lot of countries. You'd be amazed the amount of sellers who don't have any proper paperwork to support the fact that the wigs they sell are not real human hair. Then when the wig gets confiscated, the buyer gets angry and demands their money pack and leaves bad feedback and the seller is out their money, their time, their feedback and their item. I can easily understand why these people don't sell internationally, hopefully this can help you understand a bit better as well.

 

Shipping to Spain made my 100% good feedback on eBay go the way of the Dodo.... and resulted in me being so upset I closed my eBay account entirely and never made a Full-set again.
Because the ^%#^*&# bought a Puki Fullset I made and forgot to pick it up at her local post office, then got all in my face in the worst English imagineable how I was a filthy scammer (yeah, I will scam someone for a $250 doll when just the month before I sold a doll worth $1000 with no problems at all...*facepalm*), left me a neg. feedback AND opened a Paypal dispute! I got the package back with stamps on it from her spanish postoffice and everything! Paypal still gave her her money back, even though I sent pics of the package with the stickers AND proof of sending!
Paypal SUCKS for sellers anyway. Buyers can scam you out of your pants and PP will 99% of the time rule in the buyer's favor WHAT EVER evidence you send them...

So yeah, I'm REALLY anxious about Int'l shipping being a seller due to the lack of protection for sellers.
Unfortunately I live in such a small country that it's unavoidable if you want to be any succes as a face-up artist at all...

 

There is much concern over what is going on now with the mail system. alot of international sellers wont be selling to USA anymore due to the restictions and delayed and missing items shipped here.. I suspect so goes the case to sellers from USA afraid of customs problems with other countries. Untill all is sorted out I suspect alot of people on both sides of the world will think twice before shipping either way. Some sellers dont want to go thru the hassle of items not arriving or not arriving on time etc etc. It's understandable and unfortunate all at the same time

 

Because I don't want to...?
I hate going through the grief of not knowing where my package is all the time. That's why I hate USPS. Honestly if I don't offer International shipping, you don't have to buy from me.

 

Right now there's another thread in which a seller is dealing with an unpleasant international buyer, who is complaining about having to pay customs on their item. (O RLY?)

Honestly, while these issues (customs, delivery times and high shipping fees) are in theory the buyer's problem, a complaining customer is in practice the seller's problem, even if the seller has done nothing wrong. Paypal's sellers-finish-last policy regarding refunds also doesn't help. So some sellers skip the risk and don't sell internationally at all. I do not blame them.

(I personally accept foreign buyers, but they have to really want it--EMS only, no underdeclaring, full insurance--the works. I spell this out fully in advance. I figure an expensive option is better than no option, because the alternative is for me not to sell to them at all.)

 

I think it sucks :/ because I get like "OMG it's the only one on the whooooole site and I was looking for this for MONTHS and want it soooooo badly *dance dance* sh-- he doesn't ship in canada. bitch =__="
PLUS that they are missing a lot of opportunities to sell the said item. but meh, it's their choice.
just kinda crual for buyers xD

 

I still usually ship overseas but I've recently been considering limiting it to just certain areas. Overseas shipping is expensive to get for a doll so when I get those buyers, they usually go with the shipping that takes over a month, and during the entire wait IM stressed out of my skull worrying about it. I've had packages lost, delivered a month late, or I check online and get to the post office and it is ALOT more than expected to ship.
Some people won't ship to Canada, it's not often but it happens. I feel dissapointed but move on. I understand completely why someone overseas wouldn't want to deal with shipping to me. Sucks but that's life. It's not like we need these things to live atleast.

 

I always offer overseas shipping, but I do find it a pain in the butt filling out the customs form and arguing with the post office employees about how much they should charge me (i feel like each employee works the system a different way and some charge less than others)

 

Actually I had more headaches over buyers in my own country than abroad I don't mind selling internationally as long as the buyers is willing to pay for full insurance and tracking.

I also think that people who demand sellers to pay their custom fees must be inexperienced with international transactions, because as far as I know no one in Scandinavia would demand the seller to pay for the customs. And our customs are hardworking lot, there's always a lot of complaining about them and their "evil" ways .

But I do sympathize with not wanting to sell to countries where packages are known to get lost often.

 

A lot of us are hobbiests, just like you. We've got full time jobs, school, families, kids, etc. with the dolls on the side, and then any selling on the side of that. Most of us really haven't got the time to spend a Saturday afternoon at the post office. This goes for people in all countries. I've seen plenty of marketplace posts where the seller won't ship outside of Europe, or the UK. I've always offered shipping internationally, but it seems the regulations are getting more nit picky, and the price higher which makes me seriously consider domestic shipping only. ): I'd love to cater to anyone who wants my items, but I don't have the time or patience to run back and forth to the post office multiple times in order to get one international package out. It's not the fault of any specific person, or any specific country. It's all the hassle at the post office.

 

I have a problem with Italy the most.. there system is often corrupt with mail carriers stealing the packages. I had a first hand experience with this when I sold a head to a lovely DOA member here.. she actuallys saw her carrier trying to steal it and had to go to post office to get it.. this was a while ago but I remember asking my post office about it and he told me, Italy often hires outside help for low wages that have nothing to lose in the way of benefits should they get caught just lose their job. that did it for me I wont ship there. my package was even EMS that went there. I guess some of the extra hired workers are often notorious for this. and dont care about losing their job at all. since learning this I have stopped shipping there, and it a shame cause I really dont mind shipping international but will not ship to a country that doesnt protect its mail from people like this. so unless something changes over there it's on my list of dont ship to countries.

 

I've almost always offered international shipping and I'm happy to say I've sold dolls to people all over the world. Two countries that lots of people won't ship to are Italy and Russia and I've sold to both of those, and both were unnerving because the tracking didn't work and they took ages to get there. Still, all worked out in the end, but between irritations about payment (Paypal is different in Russia so I was paid through Western Union which was fine, it just required me to go pick it up at a WU branch), annoyance about shipping (it should've cost $11 to ship to Italy and the place I brought it to charged me $22, failed to mention beforehand they had a 100% markup on international packages, and lied when I said it was too high), long customs forms, language barriers, etc. I can definitely understand why people won't sell internationally, it's indeed a headache. And NO ONE should feel they are entitled to service from anyone, anywhere, that's just silly.

Note: Before I sell internationally, I always make absolutely sure I state that I am no longer responsible for the package once it leaves me, whether through loss or damage, nor am I responsible for any customs fees and I make sure the buyer acknowledges and agrees. That's for my own safety.

 

When you talk about ebay sellers, too, sometimes they want control over where they'll send to. The option to sell internationally has circles to click on, and most cover several countries or regions or even whole continents. It doesn't hurt to ask the seller if they'll consider shipping to your country, just in case they'd prefer to go on a case-by-case basis, based on past experience.

 

The sad thing about this, especially, is that it's very easy to tell a synthetic wig from one made from natural hair. (Natural hair could mean human or animal hair, however, so it's not a perfect solution.) Removing a few fibers and performing a simple burn test would tell them which is which; synthetics will ball up and bead, since they're essentially plastic, and will become a hard little black ball. Natural hair will crumble into ash. The smell is also different.

I would imagine that various liability issues related to performing tests like this are what prevents them from being done. Damage to the item -- no matter how negligible since it can be done on a single removed strand if needed -- is unavoidable, and setting things on fire in the workplace is, well, generally frowned upon.