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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Best payment method for overseas buyers?
- Thread starter olpappy
- Start date
Last year I sold some knives to a guy in the Netherlands and we used Paypal without a hitch.
Tips: Make the buyer in the foreign country do the homework on customs, duties, import taxes and whatever. My buyer had me list my stuff as "camping tools" with clear knowledge that they were labeled so at his own risk. He was worried about theft by official. I listed their customs value at the lowest I could with a straight face, including a letter as to how I was sorry for their "poor and obviously used" condition though they were all pretty much newish looking. There was no insurance for international shipping that was cost effective.
Settle on a mutually accepted exchange rate. Find out ahead of saying "done" what the shipping will be and add the premium to the price. I offered to pay the part of the shipping I would have normally paid and the buyer paid the rest.
Make the buyer pay for all Paypal fees. International transactions are extra.
Don't break any laws.
All that said and as easy as it was, I would still only do international transactions with Canadians, EU members who speak English, and those dudes Down Under. Language barriers are the easiest way to foul up what would otherwise be successful international commerce.
Tips: Make the buyer in the foreign country do the homework on customs, duties, import taxes and whatever. My buyer had me list my stuff as "camping tools" with clear knowledge that they were labeled so at his own risk. He was worried about theft by official. I listed their customs value at the lowest I could with a straight face, including a letter as to how I was sorry for their "poor and obviously used" condition though they were all pretty much newish looking. There was no insurance for international shipping that was cost effective.
Settle on a mutually accepted exchange rate. Find out ahead of saying "done" what the shipping will be and add the premium to the price. I offered to pay the part of the shipping I would have normally paid and the buyer paid the rest.
Make the buyer pay for all Paypal fees. International transactions are extra.
Don't break any laws.
All that said and as easy as it was, I would still only do international transactions with Canadians, EU members who speak English, and those dudes Down Under. Language barriers are the easiest way to foul up what would otherwise be successful international commerce.
Speaking as a 'foreign' (to the US anyway
)) knifebuyer, user and collector, I can say I use both PayPal and CC (Visa). I prefer PayPal, particularly on Ebay because there is insurance for both seller and buyer. In all the years I've been doing this I have had only one shipment gone missing, and the seller had it refunded by insurance, resent it and I got it.I also bought 3 Busse's from private sellers. This requires more trust, but so far, so good. PayPal will not compensate me if I send money and no knife arrives, for whatever reason. But USPS and FedEx have excellent track-and-trace, and I never really worry.
Some real good advice was given before about crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's. Make sure all angles are covered so no nasty surprises turn up later. In Holland for example, customs inspect packages randomly, which causes random increases in pricing for me
D), so just make sure the buyer is aware of this. Buyer also needs to be aware of local laws. Daggers are legal in the US, but not in Holland. Folders with a total length of more than 23cm (=9") are also illegal, as are assisted openers, balisongs, OTF and OTS springblades. If customs impounds such a knife, the buyer should be aware he cannot blame you for it.In the end, it comes down to trust. Treat each other with respect and courtesy, and there should be no problems.
I wish more US sellers would be willing to sell outside their country. There's lots of stuff not for sale here, and often US sellers won't ship it either. I never really understood why, but it sucks.
HTH.
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2005
- Messages
- 2,757
I will never mail another knife overseas as long as I live so help me God !! Another post for that Rant. The very best for the buyer is paypal especially if it is an ebay sale, because when the knives get seized by customs or just plain don't show up, paypal refunds the buyers money almost automatic. Doesn't matter if the seller has proof of shipment or not.
Dave
Dave
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2005
- Messages
- 2,757
Speaking as a 'foreign' (to the US anyway
I also bought 3 Busse's from private sellers. This requires more trust, but so far, so good. PayPal will not compensate me if I send money and no knife arrives, for whatever reason. But USPS and FedEx have excellent track-and-trace, and I never really worry.
Some real good advice was given before about crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's. Make sure all angles are covered so no nasty surprises turn up later. In Holland for example, customs inspect packages randomly, which causes random increases in pricing for me
In the end, it comes down to trust. Treat each other with respect and courtesy, and there should be no problems.
I wish more US sellers would be willing to sell outside their country. There's lots of stuff not for sale here, and often US sellers won't ship it either. I never really understood why, but it sucks.
HTH.
The only thing is , that if the seller doesn't go to the post office and mail it certain ways there is 0 insurance. For instance I had been using Priority International flat rate envelopes, because it printed the Customs docs. on the label and you didn't have to go and stand in line at post office. The problem is that there is no insurance on those packages ( i didn't know this at the time) and have had paypal take away over two hundred dollars so far from two shipments and I have 3 pending claims, consequently I have decided it isn't worth the hassle to sell International.
Now I know most people tend to be honest, but when people know that paypal will automatically take the side of the buyer , why not say they didn't get the package, there is no way to prove they did, at least with those shipments, an independent shipper , like UPS or Fedex might be better. My advice to sellers is, take the time to make darn sure you are covered before you ship or you will get burned.
Dave
This sucks, I agree. Every shipment worth a damn should be properly insured, buyer's expense. As you said, initially it was your unfamiliarity with this subject that caused you the loss. Simply require a proper insurance.
As for as not being able to prove a buyer did receive a shipment, someone always has to sign for it. So the the mailman, or FedEx, or whoever always has proof the package was delivered.
Apart from a bit of extra work I simply don't see why sellers don't ship outside the US. Just do the extra homework, and your butt is covered. And you get quite a nice bit of extra market. (Recently did a little poll on the Busse subforum, more than a third of all members is from outside N-America. These are all people who have a hard time buying what they want - like me.)