General Forum

I was wondering what you guys think of the following. So I buy most of my cards on Ebay and most suppliers are from the US. The shipping costs however annoy me a bit. Some suppliers offer a flat rate of for example $5 so then I try to order multiple cards at one time or they offer shipping costs of $3 and an extra $0.50 for each extra card. Now I understand this and I think it's fair. However these suppliers do not always have the cards I want and sometimes there is a card I want for example for $2 but the shipping costs are $18 which makes it immediately an expensive card. I can't imagine the shipping costs to be that high and I think the supplier just wants to make money on the freight too. It's annoying because I'm not getting certain cards I want because of the shipping costs.

Are there more traders from Europe experiencing this? Any smart options to avoid this? Thanks!

I'm an American and I trade with various of my Canadien collectors, and just recently sent a large envelope to Canada for $5.83 (via PayPal) and it contained about 170 cards, which I believe to be more than 10 oz. I don't know where you live RicardinhoUFC, but I used an address in Rome for a large envelope (how I sent my friend in Canada his cards) and for 5 oz it was just over $6.00. From my estimate, that's about 70 cards. Maybe you need to look into trading (as do we) with others in the TCDB community.

Yes, I experience the same thing. I think it is related to the eBay shipping program that many sellers use for shipping abroad. It is really annoying because there are a lot of cards that I would have gone for at eBay if the shipping costs would have been more reasonable.

I'm here in the US, but purchase a lot from all over the world.  The eBay Global Shipping program is usually what drives the shipping cost outrageous.  It's very convenient for the sellers here to ship internationally, they charge their normal shipping rate, send it to an eBay depot in KY, then eBay manages all the customs forms and eBay compliant shipping with tracking to wherever.  They don't do this for free, however, so it adds about $15 to the cost.  The seller doesn't see this and doesn't get a cut, so most have no idea what the buyer is actually paying in shipping.  Going the other direction, I've reached out to sellers, let them know the shipping cost isn't worth it, and we've found mutually agreeeable and much cheaper ways to ship in many cases.

Point sellers to paypal.com/shipnow to check actual shipping rates to your location and many will be willing to go that route.

also you may want to try a test order with sportlots and comc to test their international shipping rates (if they have some of what you are looking for)

mark

COMC offers a mailbox service, which you can use to have cards shipped to, and then they take care of shipping it to you. I know several international collectors who use this including at least one member of the Database.

Yes sir, this is my second biggest frustration in card collecting. The first one being not able to sell anything back to the US via Ebay since Ebay.com doesn't actively show overseas sellers. I live in the Netherlands (Europe) and the shipping is outrageous due to the reasons that cl_klye mentioned.

Some US sellers don't even know that using the Shipping Program for overseas users is so costly. I ordered some cards from a seller in New York and when I told him I needed to pay like $27 on shipping for 9 cards he was totally surprised and he realised he made a smaller profit from the transaction. Ebay actually took money extra, too (so I was told). We both agreed to cancel the deal.

But the worst are the import charges. Just bought two jumbo boxes of NBA Hoops 14/15 from Dave&Adams and got charged $33 extra by 'the shipping program'. Buying from their online shop would've been just as costly though.

The problem you brought up is the reason I buy more and more cards from sellers in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Germany. Japan is pretty expensive too but they take very good care of your cards. Overall however I prefer US sellers that don't use Ebay's Global Shipping Program simply because the US is the best market to get cards from. I'm willing to trade on this site too by the way. Totally love it!

Hi guys, thank you all for the feedback, very helpful. I'm gonna try and answer you all below:

@sportzcommish: I haven't traded indeed with people here, I'm going to check that out, thanks
@maestro: the feedback here might be useful for you too then :)
cl_kyle: I'll contact them, thanks! the site you mentioned doesn't work though. I googled it quick and it seems to not work in certain countries
@mzentko: thanks, already found a cheaper price for some of the cards I'm after on comc!
@billy kingsley: yes seems to be a great site, thanks!
@aycee: Dutchie here too! I actually ordered once from Taiwan and that was waaay cheaper. The thing is, most cards seem to be in the US...

Am I missing something? Or these extra, look like hidden charges (tariffs?) Do they only apply to online sales, or would they also apply to personal packages sent like in a trade? 

Commish -

https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontenten/belastingdienst/individuals/abroad_and_customs/receiving_goods_from_abroad/from_organizations_and_companies/how_do_i_calculate_these_import_taxes

It is from the Belastingdienst (The Tax and Customs Administration is the tax collection and customs service of the government of the Netherlands. Part of the Ministry of Finance) web page. They (anyone buying FROM the US) usually pay a VAT (value added tax) as well as customs charges. How it differs from US to THEM rather than THEM to US I do not understand, but its all a govt thing. I have not personally had to pay any tax or customs charge on any items but they are small value (cds, dvds, or cards)...but the bigger the declared amount the more VAT/tax/charges overseas customers are required to pay.