General question -buying from Overseas

B

buglerbilly

Joined
Jan 14, 2008
Messages
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A general question for the forum.

Whilst I can buy new Spyderco's to my Hearts Delight (and I do!) from the excellent New Graham Knives and others AND direct from Spyderco itself, it appears to be almost impossible to buy knives from anybody selling them privately as its almost 100% CONUS only.

Now I'm quite happy to transfer USD funds to anybodies Bank Account BUT there obvious risks when I don't know the individual concerned selling whatever.

Equally if you are the dude or dudette selling then you are obviously not going to sell to some stranger living in Australia like me (despite the fact I'm such a great bloke! :D )

I'm just wondering IF Sal Glesser or someone might be interested in setting up an "exchange" where people like myself can deposit funds to assist in procuring Spyderco knives from Private Individuals in the CONUS, and where the Private Individual can leave proof-of-identity & ownership for items offered for sale.

I might be talking out of my backside here, I do sometimes, but I'm interested in comments from anyone here, and from Overseas members in particular.

Being a relative newbie to collecting, there may even be something around at the moment that might suit my needs?

All comments welcome..............even if they say good idea, not practical to do................:foot:
 
Dear buglerbilly,

I feel that you are speaking out of my backside :) LOL !

I live in Australia and have had pretty much a flawless record when it comes to payment ASAP for knives that I want to buy from individuals as well as from dealers and websites in CONUS.

I have had a few rejections due solely to the fact that I live in the antipodes (compared to most members on BF). This irks me a LOT ! I feel that my money is just as valuable if not more so due to the exchange rates etc.... I have Paypal, and on many occasions when sellers ask for the PP fees to be added I have done so, and have paid good money for it.

I don't see why sellers can sell on eBay and have no problems posting out to the rest of the world and not CONUS only, yet on most sellers here they seem to only want to share their wares with CONUS only , and not to any buyer anywhere even if they are willing to foot the shipping cost.

I have many rare blades which I have bought from CONUS, and many from OZ. But when I sell them I do offer them to anyone anywhere in the world. Currently I have a few which I have decided to sell inclusive of postage. I feel that if I cannot use the blades which God/ Sal has created for me, then why not sell it to someone out there who will appreciate them probably more than I can.

Often I have thought of putting up some of my rarer blades for sale and list it as CONOZ pickup cash only ! I'm sure that wouldn't go down well :) But yes, it does frustrate me a lot when it comes to sellers only offering to sell to a certain market....... why limit your market ?

And before anyone slams me for my comments, I do have many mates in CONUS that would gladly purchase the knife on my behalf and then re-ship them to me. But sometimes I'm never offered that option, and the seller goes ahead and sells it to the most convenient person out there.

Interesting idea on the escrow type funds thing, but that is essentially what Paypal is striving to do. As with everything though, an additional cost is involved.

BTW: this Aussie dude isn't so bad...... I seem to get along quite fine with most people. I do understand that people worry about selling to some nobody in Oz, but then again, you could be selling to another nobody in CONUS as well..... the difference ???? not much.

Cheers
Dan
 
Hey mate! Don't use my whole handle, call me BUG (or my real name BRIAN).................some people say its an abbreviation of Big Ugly Git, but personally I'd never be so unkind! :D

I'm not fond of PayPal, I'd rather transfer funds direct but hey, different strokes, different folks.............I don't care if people want paying in USD's or any other currency AND I expect to pay the bank transfer fee's, that's a given.

Regards,

BRIAN
 
Hi there Brian and Dan, nice topic you two are scratching...
Have to say though that I personally have not had a great deal of rejections re my location being Oz.

Then again I am not really all that involved with the Spydie side of blades, more hanging out on the Busse exchange.
There it seems the attitude has changed dramatically over past 6 - 9 month very much to my liking and my regards to the folks there for that.

All my overseas payments have been sofar via PayPal with no problems what so ever. An issue of late to me was the question as to why my delivery address was not confirmed. That threw me a bit as I did not have an answer, checked the website and found this (in brief) >>>

PayPal is an US based company. At this point in time only 2 other countries participate in a particular verification program and even these two, Canada and the UK, only partially.

This means that verification and confirmation outside the US will show "unconfirmed" although you may have your account and address verified in your own country.

Also, a confirmed address is the one that relates to your bank/credit card address and you may have a different delivery address. Again this, for us outside the US, can not be confirmed via PP and again shows as unconfirmed.

Also, I believe, USPS with tracking, FedFX and alike do not accept a P.O. Box address.

Back to the above, yes there is still some hardcore Conus only happening on BF but as said prior I luckely have not been frustrated by that at all, always found a good Internationalist amongs the BF crew.

Hope this issue will change positive for you guys also in time to come.

Cheers Urs
 
I've had a little of it too.

Recently a guy would not sell me a leatherman Charge because he wasn't sure if it would get to Australia. Don't know what goes through peoples heads or where they think we are :confused:

I think they need to get out of what ever little town they are living in and work out that everything has moved on.

Luckily it does not happen too often. :)
 
I've bought a number of things from the US, both privately and from businesses without the slightest problem. In the the only time I had a problem, and it was only a very slight hiccup with the bank, was with another guy in Oz.

However, having said all that, the seller of any item, regardless of where he might be, has the absolute right to choose who he will, or won't, sell something to. It might be somewhat annoying if somebody has something you want but he won't ship it to you, but that's his right. Such is life.

OTOH, even if the guy says CONUS shipping only, there is nothing to say that you can't send a POLITE note telling him that you are interested if he decides to change his mind.
 
Politeness is always the case on these and other forums from everyone irrespective of where they were born or where they choose to live.

I do understand the right of sellers to choose where they will and will not ship to. However, my beef is why discriminate the buyer if they are willing to foot the bill for shipping, and the money is cleared monies into their bank account etc... It seems silly to me that if they want to buy it, then sell it to them.

We are currently living in a global economy. Advancements in technology and transport make it possible for things (and people) to get to the other side of the world within a matter of hours.

Anyway, rant over. I was just giving my viewpoint and answer to the OP's questions.

Seller has the right to choose whatever they want, but sadly for us that live in other countries the opportunities to mix it with our CONUS cousins is somewhat limited at times. As a few have mentioned this will hopefully change in time.

Cheers
Dan
 
i havent had and problems with getting item shipped outside of CONUS, i have just always contacted the person and offered to pay for the extra shipment costs.
 
You also have to figure in the 'hassle component'. Sending knives overseas can have problems at the other end, postal services, customs, all sorts of things. Unfortunately not all buyers are reasonable people like us and there are clowns that will blame the seller if their knife doesn't make it through customs or whatever, sad but true.

Your best bet, if you want to buy lots of things from America is to maybe do a deal with some friendly person in the US to receive knives and then forward them on to you. Maybe stick a few extra bucks on the deal as a sweetener for your forwarder. That way everyone wins.
 
gajinoz said:
You also have to figure in the 'hassle component'. Sending knives overseas can have problems at the other end, postal services, customs, all sorts of things. Unfortunately not all buyers are reasonable people like us and there are clowns that will blame the seller if their knife doesn't make it through customs or whatever, sad but true.

Your best bet, if you want to buy lots of things from America is to maybe do a deal with some friendly person in the US to receive knives and then forward them on to you. Maybe stick a few extra bucks on the deal as a sweetener for your forwarder. That way everyone wins.
Click to expand...

Quite BUT I have had a couple of people more or less tell me to get lost, can't I read and other assinine remarks. Not on this board it has to be said....yet (hopefully never).

Personally, I'm quite happy to pay for Insurance and whatever else for items I am interested in. The Customs aspect can be a problem BUT its NOT the sellers prob but we buyers based in Oz. So far, touch wood, Customs have NOT proven to be a problem.

Anyway still open to suggestions...............
 
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