imo at some point it will be the only way to buy cards from abroad with customs prepaid. Also people can charge for collecting the customs duty so its worth their while to force people to do it and charge a fiver [or whatever] for the 'service'.

as for trust if its the first time i dealt with someone then it goes full metal jacket but once u got repeat i will send without if they take the hit if it goes missing.

in a funny way its coming back full circle with fees, customs, postage making it where the most efficient way to get cards is direct from a trusted dealer. Who knows even trader shows that make it worth going to might spark up again lol.

I agree with Richnet, I think this system has been introduced by ebay to stop a potentially gigantic class action style lawsuit from countries who are losing tax revenue when your item 'makes it through' without paying the correct import tax or VAT in the UK. This has effectively killed the non sport business in the UK, with only half a dozen full time sellers, when there were 20-30 before.
If everyone in each country had to pay the same amount of tax and duty then the business would be a lot more healthy, and would encourage competition, and there would be more collectors, as when the sellers fell away, a a lot of collectors stopped attending shows, and buying in general. It's a shame as the business is still great fun, but the disparity in pricing just killed it for me.

yes but it is a pain when you only want one card that say is $5 and they want to charge you $17 to post it to you ,I myself will not buy from people who sell through this system to expensive

quote:

Originally posted by cardcollectors uk:
I agree with Richnet, I think this system has been introduced by ebay to stop a potentially gigantic class action style lawsuit from countries who are losing tax revenue when your item 'makes it through' without paying the correct import tax or VAT in the UK. This has effectively killed the non sport business in the UK, with only half a dozen full time sellers, when there were 20-30 before.
If everyone in each country had to pay the same amount of tax and duty then the business would be a lot more healthy, and would encourage competition, and there would be more collectors, as when the sellers fell away, a a lot of collectors stopped attending shows, and buying in general. It's a shame as the business is still great fun, but the disparity in pricing just killed it for me.

I have to disagree with you here. eBay have introduced this as they clearly did not think they were getting enough money from sellers by only taking a cut of their declared shipping fees and are remedying that through this new scam....er...scheme. The upfront price being asked to ensure that are no 'surprise' fees coming through customs is around 30% higher than just allowing the item to make its way through customs normally and paying the regular VAT and handling fees. Normally 20% VAT plus £8 or £13 handling fee charged by ParcelForce. The new scheme is more like (20% VAT + handling) plus 30% of that combined subtotal.

eBay will not be facing a class action lawsuit from any country trying to claim that they are losing tax revenue. For one thing, eBay are not responsible for how things are packaged, documented or posted by sellers (unless they use the new 'official' route) so any case would be thrown out of court straight away. The defence would also be able to argue that it was the responsibility of the respective countries Customs agents to check and correctly charge all packages coming into the country. If some get through without being checked, that is not eBay's fault.

What would be the saving of card collecting in the UK would be if trading cards were officially classed as books or documents so that they could enter the UK VAT free

For the past couple of years I switched to buying from the Uk only. As the Continuum rare cards were only available from American dealers, I had to buy from them.
I saw a Lexa Doig card at a decent price so pressed the buy button rather too quickly and didnt notice this global shipping charge until I came to pay.

After checking the prices though I am pleased that I have payed a lot less than I would if forced to pay vat through the royal mail/parcel force.

The card was $103 paid to the seller.
Ebay then charged me $13.88 postage and $25.52 handling and vat charge.

If caught by customs I would have to pay around $33.79 handling and vat charge.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Neilsy,

One of the puzzles in this scheme is Ebay setting the postage fee. I made an offer for a card under this scheme (obviously under the asking price), and when accepted, the postage had gone down! Now, the way I see it, if a card is $100, it's the same weight if it was $1. How does the postage change?

I concur!!

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
One of the puzzles in this scheme is Ebay setting the postage fee. I made an offer for a card under this scheme (obviously under the asking price), and when accepted, the postage had gone down! Now, the way I see it, if a card is $100, it's the same weight if it was $1. How does the postage change?

Yes, it seems like eBay are charging some proportion of the price that is unrelated to actual shipping costs, except that cheap cards still have a high minimum charge. Presumably they have arrangements with various postal services and they simply overpay for some items and underpay for others. I recently purchased top loaders and dividers from a US dealer using the shipping service, because I couldn't find a local dealer that was even close to the price. These are bulky items so I would expect shipping to be high, but it's not.

as someone who has been the victim of shipping overseas and having the item lost, damaged, never received??? yeah right. And as a card worth $6 should not be bid on with a ship fee of $18 registered (the cheapest way to ship with tracking)this global shipping works for me - I no longer have to fear loss and if the international buyer is willing to bid then I am worry free and as EBAY is the worst in protecting the seller this is finally one thing that they have done right - and they do very little if NOTHING RIGHT

quote:

Originally posted by sherlock2:
as someone who has been the victim of shipping overseas and having the item lost, damaged, never received??? yeah right. And as a card worth $6 should not be bid on with a ship fee of $18 registered (the cheapest way to ship with tracking)this global shipping works for me - I no longer have to fear loss and if the international buyer is willing to bid then I am worry free and as EBAY is the worst in protecting the seller this is finally one thing that they have done right - and they do very little if NOTHING RIGHT

I have just recieved a package via the GSP. The Ebay seal had been torn and instead of a trading card, a wooden door knob & screw was there instead. I don't know if it was the USA handling company or the courrier in this country that removed the card. It's in the hands of Ebay and the seller. I'm not claiming against the seller as I have no reason to doubt that he sent the card.

For all of you that's reading this (Wolfie & Hammer), no knob or screw jokes please. I'm out of pocket by a fair bit

Not as foolproof as you might think, Sherlock2

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:

For all of you that's reading this (Wolfie & Hammer), no knob or screw jokes please. I'm out of pocket by a fair bit

A fine reputation you have gotten us Hammer.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:

quote:

Originally posted by sherlock2:
as someone who has been the victim of shipping overseas and having the item lost, damaged, never received??? yeah right. And as a card worth $6 should not be bid on with a ship fee of $18 registered (the cheapest way to ship with tracking)this global shipping works for me - I no longer have to fear loss and if the international buyer is willing to bid then I am worry free and as EBAY is the worst in protecting the seller this is finally one thing that they have done right - and they do very little if NOTHING RIGHT

I have just recieved a package via the GSP. The Ebay seal had been torn and instead of a trading card, a wooden door knob & screw was there instead. I don't know if it was the USA handling company or the courrier in this country that removed the card. It's in the hands of Ebay and the seller. I'm not claiming against the seller as I have no reason to doubt that he sent the card.

For all of you that's reading this (Wolfie & Hammer), no knob or screw jokes please. I'm out of pocket by a fair bit

Not as foolproof as you might think, Sherlock2

That is shocking - and something that has always worried me about the value of an item having to be put on the customs form. If a crook sees something valued at $100+ it is an invitation to take it. Hope you get the money back.

I've just contacted Ebay and all they seemed interested in was me opening a case to get my money back. I have no intention of doing this. There is obviously a problem with either the people who handle the Global Shipping Program or Citipost UK (delivered by Yodel). The person I spoke to said the seller will have to sort it out his end.

from EBAY "Your sales of GSP Items to Buyers on eBay.com are subject to the eBay Money Back Guarantee on eBay.com (formerly, eBay Buyer Protection). For eBay Money Back Guarantee cases in which eBay determines that a GSP Item sold by you was damaged or not received by your Buyer, eBay will review the case to determine whether you or Pitney Bowes should be responsible for the damage or non-delivery. In general, you will be responsible under the eBay Money Back Guarantee policy for the loss of, or damage to, a GSP Item until it is accepted at the U.S. Shipping Center or if the item has been returned to you from the U.S. Shipping Center" - there are a few exception however

When means, if I read that right, you are responsible until it gets to ebay's shipping center. Fine, I could accept that. Shouldn't ebay then b e responsible for it from that point until it is delivered to the customer? They should bear the same burden for their service as we do when we ship.

And by the way, this is weird. Yesterday, my daughter said a package she shipped was received by the customer with part of her order. The rest of the box was filled with OPENED bottles of hand sanitizer.
Not an item they carry in the house. The tracking number shows the package left the state...to go to it's delivery state...came BACK it our state, then went back to delivery state, finally arriving 9 days later, two states away.
What ARE they doing to our packages...!!!

Just an update, my card arrived fine but took 11 days to arrive! Twice as long as normal.
I expected it to take a little longer, but to charge you higher postage than normal and take an extra 6 days to deliver it isnt acceptable.

UPDATE:
The seller has advised me to open a case because he want's to know what the hell is going on as well.
It looks to me as though someone at Pitney Bowes is indulging in a five-finger discount. Either that, or it's incompetence.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
UPDATE:
The seller has advised me to open a case because he want's to know what the hell is going on as well.
It looks to me as though someone at Pitney Bowes is indulging in a five-finger discount. Either that, or it's incompetence.

Not incompetence if knobs, screws and hand sanitizers are being tossed in with the packages. Some wiseguy is adding insult to injury.

Wherever there's an angle, some jerk'll find it. Hate to hear stuff like this, but it's useful information, thank you for it.

Sorry to the victims to fraud here. You get karma points, at least, and my sympathy.