Recently there have been some cards that I have been interested in from UK sellers
Upon trying to purchase I found that the seller even though it was not notified the seller used the E Bay GSP system
The price for this service was phenomenal mostly between $40 $60 US and with E Bays Import Duty added came to a large ammount
I have tried to contact E Bay but no luck
One sale had the Import Duty at 125% above the shipping charge of $64 although this was a fairly expensive item
As New Zealand dose not charge Import Duty and E Bay make me pay how do they get the right to charge a tax that is not charged by a government and is there a way that I can get it back
Dose anyone know about the E Bay UK system it is a lot more expensive to use than the USA system
I know that E Bay use the UK company Pitney Bowes for their USA or are they world wide now
Any info would be appreciated including on how to be able to get to someone on E Bay

I don't know the answer but I have found the same issue when trying to purchase cards from the USA. The card is priced at $5 but with Duty, Postage and anything else that the eBay system adds on, the final price can be as much as $50. It's not the seller but the system that racks up the price. I just pass the cards by and hope they come up again. They often do.

Sorry can't help as i just ignore anything that uses the GSP.

I think I've only ever bought one card that was sent via the GSP. Shipping was literally a third of the total price (£50 of £150!!). An absoulte joke I think anyone would agree.
I did ask the US seller* if they would ship it via a cheaper method but it was a flat "no".

Had the card not been so hard to get, and not a must have for me, I can't think of much else I would submit to the GSP for. Consequently, I pretty much scroll past anything with the GSP as every purchase is prohibitively too expensive overall and/or postage is too expensive in comparison to the card itself. Other examples with more reasonable postage usually pop up down the line.

It is such a shame as I used to buy LOADS from overseas but it just doesn't make financial sense anymore.

*Despite scrolling past lots of GSP listings, if I see stupidly high overseas shipping on a card I REALLY want, I usually do reach out to the seller to see if they are prepared to ship via a different/cheaper method. I have been pleasantly surprised that they will, on more than one occasion. I've had many happily oblige and advise they did not know shipping was set so high. I'm convinced some of this is down to too many different, and some default, shipping options. So always worth asking the seller the question...

If I remember correctly when GSP was first introduced in the UK you had to actively opt out of the con , sorry programme , so a lot of sellers like this one may not even be aware they are using it .

If I remember correctly you had to opt in, but as a private seller you can then choose whether to use GSP on every single listing, or also offer other methods. Then it can be a choice of the buyer as to which they use, or if you offer alternatives to certain countries.

I admit to using GSP when selling, but usually on bulky items such as 1/6th scale figures, statues etc, as ebay allow heavier and larger dimensions than Royal Mail's limits and it's actually cheaper than using Parcelforce or DHL for items weighing over 2Kg. But for smaller things like cards I wouldn't bother with GSP. As long as you use a trackable method of mail then you're covered. But all postage worldwide has continued to jump up in expense to almost eye-watering levels.