Ebay shipping costs

[juxedo]

Anybody else shocked at the exorbitant postage fees being charged by sellers on ebay. What's the deal with that? Are there any ways to get around this? It's frustrating when the postage fees are nearly as expensive as what you would buy the card for.

And to make it worst the Australian dollar is very very weak compared to the US dollar making any purchases 30%+ more expensive.

How can us Aussies afford to purchase cards on ebay.

 

[Coopz05]

How? Comc mailbox.

 

[OutlawNinja]

Anybody else shocked at the exorbitant postage fees being charged by sellers on ebay. What's the deal with that? Are there any ways to get around this? It's frustrating when the postage fees are nearly as expensive as what you would buy the card for.

And to make it worst the Australian dollar is very very weak compared to the US dollar making any purchases 30%+ more expensive.

How can us Aussies afford to purchase cards on ebay.

I have seen a few on ebay charging $42 for postage, wtf is up with that?
For that price I expect the card to arrive at my door in 2 days on a silver platter.

 

[Coopz05]

I figured that someone wouldve cleared it up by now, so Ill take the lead

The $42 shipping to Australia is part of eBays global shipping program.

The gsp is something US sellers can nominate for to protect them against lost mail etc for international shipping of any item.

So what the seller does is ship the card to a local ebay shipping hub at no charge, then ebay ships the card to Austalia.

BUT.... Ebay wont ship anything internationally without tracking to protect themselves and the seller. The minimum tracking international package is $42.

Make sense?

The seller has to opt of of the program to ship to you independantly for say $5-$9 usps first class international, but then they wouldnt be covered for lost mail, so its not appealing to lots of sellers.

Get your card shipped to a comc mailbox (which you can set up for free) they charge 50c per card ($2 minimum) then you can let them bulk up and send any amount of cards for $3.50 to Australia.

In most cases that is cheaper than the $7ish is costs if a seller does ship to Australia via usps first class.

Hope that clears it up.

I feel like we should have a stickie thread about this topic, so we can link it to every thread we get for this question.

 

[Chris_Paul3]

Totally understand for high end paying this but some people are just plain stupid charging global shipping on a $4 card .

 

[Chris_Paul3]

As someone else has stated to get the cheaper cards for a reasonable shipping you need to use COMC mailbox , But i have read on other forums that they now charge you for the filler cards .

Not sure about that as I have not purchased a card for over 12 mths so maybe an active buyer that uses COMC mailbox might be able to chime in on that aspect .

 

[juxedo]

Thanks for the replies. I'll do some research when I get some free time but it would be great if someone that actively has used COMC recently chimes in and shares their experience and tactic.

 

[Greg_B]

Yep, I can confirm COMC are charging the processing fee for all cards received - no rebate of the charges if you donate the extra cards to their charity account any more

 

[juxedo]

Thanks Greg. Still a lot cheaper than paying the standard ebay global prices

 

[goehring9]

As a seller in the states, I'll speak up... COMC works great. I've sold numerous cards to traders overseas and just ship to their COMC mailbox. They get shipping for under $3.00 US and COMC consolidates the orders into one parcel, saving everyone costs. The high rates you see are the eBay Global sales program, and whilst it seems odd to have crazy high prices listed on cheap cards, the t is likely due to default settings when posting new listings. Very few sellers in USA like the global program, but for some it's just a way of getting exposure internationally. My advice- if you see a card there but the freight cost is high, just ask. Many sellers, myself included, will reduce the rates to the minimum. Try it- nothing to lose.