That's my question. Where did all the Inkworks Pieceworks cards go to in the big sell-off? Did Razor buy them or did they go some where else? Anyone...anyone...Bueller?

There all over Ebay from a UK seller who purchased them all.

they charge so much for shipping to the states, i hate it. i wish razor had purchased all them. would have been neat set

quote:

Originally posted by tragicend:
they charge so much for shipping to the states, i hate it. i wish razor had purchased all them. would have been neat set

Funnily enough I was thinking the exact opposite as I live in the UK and have to pay high shipping costs for Razor autos from US sellers .

Seriously as someone who also sells on Ebay it's just a fact of life that shipping outside the country you are in is expensive,especially when you have to use insured tracking to cover yourself with Paypal.

Strange that the seller ships many items in bulk for an adjusted bulk rate to several locations in the US, then those locations distribute them to US buyers. They are making a fortune on the shipping. I know this because an item I purchased was damaged during shipment, and I had to go through Fed-Ex for the complaint. When I looked into the shipping location, it was out of Jamaica, Queens. NY, not the UK.

yea its too bad they cost so much more shipping, i would have bid on alot of their cards.

and to triplefrog- i charge only 2-3 bucks to ship to united kingdom. maybe u should buy some cards from me lol

I would have purchased more items too. But at $8 & $10 per purchase U.S., it was just too much.

It's getting a little bit off of the topic, but ...

The high charges from that seller have applied to the first item. They appear to use a mailing service that takes their packages and combines them with lots of other packages into a bulk overseas shipment to a Fedex center, where the parcels are separated and relabled for delivery by Fedex. Most of the cost is the minimum charge for insured Fedex shipments within the US.

But after that "minimum Fedex charge" thing, they have charged me very little for additional items. I won an Inkworks pieceworks card with a shipping cost of US$8, which is higher than I would prefer for a single card. But I combined that shipment with 3 auto cards and 4 complete sets, for a total of 200 cards in 8 auctions, and the combined shipping charge from UK to US, then within the US, was $12.00. (The auction descriptions for each of the 8 items said $8 to $10, but I knew beforehand that the seller would combine shipping.)

Another time, the first card was $8 but combined shipping for four auctions was $10.

Thus, I tend to look for times when I think I'm likely to win more than one auction from the same seller.

With their methods, the charges for insured-and-tracked shipments from UK-to-US are lower than what you can find for insured-and-tracked shipments in the other direction. And for my example of 8 items (including 4 sets), compare what I'd pay to some US sellers who would charge me $4 for the first item and $2 for each additional item even if it they were single cards.

The other UK dealer who has a lot of the pieceworks inventory has a lower shipping charge for relatively low-value first item(s), uninsured, but once you get to $30 to $40 on the invoice they charge for insurance and tracking through Royal Mail. The total for combined shipping can be considerably higher, comparable to what US Postal would charge to the UK for a similar service.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
There all over Ebay from a UK seller who purchased them all.

Which UK seller are we talking about here? I wasn't able to locate him or her.

I'm not allowed to say on the forum but if you email me i will point you in the right direction.

Also don't forget all the dealers in the dealer section of this forum who also stock some of these items and support this board.

One of the chief players in the company is a fairly frequent poster in Card Talk, and I bet he can or will read this thread.

I picked up another package from them today, this time it wasn't transshipped and Fedexed -- it was sent Royal Mail International Signed For. Two auctions, combined shipping of US$10.

Postage was £5.85, which equals about $9.60 in today's exchange rates. So I've never seen this seller pad the S&H charges. They have even sent invoices with a lower shipping charge than the auction description showed.

The trouble is that tracked shipping over borders is expensive these days, and I can't fault sellers for requiring tracking because eBay will always side with the buyer if something goes astray if they don't.

I might suggest to sellers that they make this clear in their listings, especially the fact that second and later items shipped together don't add much to the postage. (Whenever this is true, of course.)

As Triple-Frog pointed out, it's worse going from USA to UK. If I wanted the same amount of tracking I got for today's parcel, it would cost $41.95. Of course, one could argue that UK could ship cheaper to US because the seller doesn't need to pay VAT out of the final auction price (yet). That can give a double-whammy to people in Europe who buy from US sellers -- high tracked shipping to start, then followed by a 17% charge from the guvmint and maybe also a handling fee from UK Customs.

I remember the good old days when the rules for "printed matter" were lax. You could send a parcel cheap, paying for "surface" mail, but small and friendly packages were almost always tossed into the airplane anyway.

Yes yes yes, so very true. I think that often people don't realize just how much shipping costs and just how much of a risk it is for sellers. Without tracking a seller is S.O.L. if something goes missing. Tracking is not cheap these days, the post office is making a small fortune off eBay. I have an item on right now that states:

Shipping for this card will be by
Express Insured Mail (USA & Canada)
Registered Insured Mail (all other countries)

I have already received three e-mails asking why shipping is so much for one card!

Ummm, tracking, insurance ....

quote:

Originally posted by Tamara:
Yes yes yes, so very true. I think that often people don't realize just how much shipping costs and just how much of a risk it is for sellers. Without tracking a seller is S.O.L. if something goes missing. Tracking is not cheap these days, the post office is making a small fortune off eBay. I have an item on right now that states:

Shipping for this card will be by
Express Insured Mail (USA & Canada)
Registered Insured Mail (all other countries)

I have already received three e-mails asking why shipping is so much for one card!

Ummm, tracking, insurance ....

At this rate it will soon not be viable to collect cards as the postal charges are becoming greater than the value of the cards. Most of the time I appreciate it just sellers charging what they need to for insurance purposes as ebay/paypal more often than not favours the buyer if no tracking is available. This continued increase may just kill off the international collector as most sets are produced in the U.S.

At shows in the U.K. buyers often state that they have seen a card sell for X amount on ebay and expect it for that price not realizing the cost of having the item shipped from the U.S. and Import Taxes on top of the price it sells for on ebay.

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
At this rate it will soon not be viable to collect cards as the postal charges are becoming greater than the value of the cards.

Welcome to my World My main hobby involves collecting Lobby Cards and film related photos. Most of these are only available outside the UK and the shipping costs have been exceeding the value of the purchased item for quite some time

One thing to note with regard to shipping from the UK, there are two 'tracked' options offered by the Royal Mail: Airsure and International Signed For. However, there is a huge difference between the two. Airsure is supposed to be fully online trackable in transit and requires a signature on receipt. However, International Signed for only actually offers the requirement of a signature when it is delivered without the online tracking. Both of them only offer £39 (UK Pounds) of cover as standard. For an additional flat fee of £2.20p you get between £250 and £500 of additional cover. So as a quick guide:

100g Small Packet with a card worth £50 would cost:

International Signed For= 1.68 + 3.70 + 2.20 = 7.58 UKPounds
Airsure = 1.68 + 4.50 + 2.20 = 8.38 UKPounds

Add on about £0.30p for each extra 20g in weight and don't forget to include the cost of the jiffy bag or other protective envelope. Last time I checked, if you look at other carriers the costs are even higher !

Kevin, if you read the fine print, the difference might not be "huge" and might support a different conclusion. Both services state that the item will be tracked specifically until it leaves the UK, and then it is handed over to the "destination country's postal system as a priority item."

From my watching, it appears that the two methods are tracked exactly the same once things are handed over to the US Postal Service, "handled as Registered Mail." But I have (rarely) received Airsure parcels in the home mailbox without having signed for them.

Airsure does *not* require a signature upon delivery. "A signature is not taken but the electronic delivery confirmation is used to update our Track & Trace. If you specifically want your item to be signed for when it is delivered, we recommend you use International Signed For™."

Given the fact that the item will tracked by the USPS tracking system over here with either method, I consider ISF to be better than Airsure (for the specific case of UK to US). Airsure can be delivered to the wrong address; Signed-For assures that the correct receiver signed for it.

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:

At this rate it will soon not be viable to collect cards as the postal charges are becoming greater than the value of the cards.

This is becoming a big problem. There are many cards on ebay that i would have no hesitation in buying but then you look at the shipping costs and just run away.
I have in the past had items sent to someone in the same country as the seller who then sends it to me. It works out a lot cheaper and there is none of this recorded tracking business. I have never had a package go missing and never worry that it might happen.

If you buy more then a few cards it's not bad, I see why they charge so much having a few overseas people "claim" they never received their item and unless you spend the money for insurance or tracking paypal refunds you money and you are out the card and money...

People complain about the shipping prices but then they file a complaint if the item doesn't get there so you can not win either way with some people...

You hit it on the nose, Jim. It only takes a single bogus "claim" to erase all of a seller's potential profit from a dozen auctions. And I use "profit" loosely, because the difference between original cost and selling price could be what pays the rent and puts food on the table.

Even tracking services can be tricky, but at least eBay is trying to protect sellers who use them. Postal workers almost always deliver parcels to the right address. But there are lots of apartments, townhouses (aka rowhouses), etc. where the mailboxes are only big enough to handle letter-size mail. Anything that doesn't fit might be left outside the locked box where anybody who walks by might pick it up.

One time I tried to send trades to a guy in Europe and he said he never received them or replacements. I tend to think he was honest, but one of his neighbors wasn't.

I'm surprised that we don't see more theft from outdoor, unlocked mailboxes even when they're big enough to hold everything. It helps to have honest but suspicious neighbors.

As a buyer who sticks to only domestic sellers I never make any single card purchases anymore. If I can't find multiple items to combine at the same time along with my primary card I will look for another seller. Its just a matter of hating to spend an additional 30% -50% in shipping and handling on a mid level card.

When I paid $2.00 a pop for an uninsured card it was no problem, but now I have to justify if I want the card enough to fork over the S/H and insurance fees. Its kind of like the Seinfeld episode where Elaine was judging who was "sponge worthy" and who was not.

Ironically - the only problems I have had this year have been domestic. I don't seem to have any overseas issues. I try to get the cheapest available postage, and if its lost its lost, its not worth paying for $10 on insurance say for 20 packages, but end up losing an odd package worth $50.

Just my 2p